Jennifer (she/her) is the lead postdoc for Blue Carbon Canada phases 1 and 2. During phase one, she led national efforts to assess the current and future carbon drawdown potential of Canada's blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs). This included leading the first national-scale assessment of the carbon sequestration potential of kelp forests, evaluating the climate benefits of expanded marine protections for blue carbon, and guiding the development of regional forecasts for these ecosystems under climate change. Her current research explores the synergies and trade-offs between blue carbon and biodiversity conservation, including co-benefits for species at risk, migratory birds, charismatic megafauna, cultural keystone species, and other species of conservation and cultural importance. Her work will inform the first national prioritization analysis for blue carbon ecosystems, identifying "win-win" areas for maximizing blue carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and economic value from conservation and restoration scenarios. Across the program, she supports and mentors graduate students and postdoctoral researchers leading their own projects.

She earned her PhD in Geography from Florida State University (2022) and a dual MSc in Marine Biology and Marine Policy from the University of Maine. Her broader research centers on understanding how climate change is reshaping coastal ecosystems, such as kelp forests and seagrass meadows, and how climate-smart management interventions can be designed to deliver sustainable and equitable futures for nature and people.

Xiucheng joined the lab in 2025 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. As part of the Blue Carbon Canada project, he conducts remote sensing analyses to characterize Canada’s tidal marsh ecosystems. He also synthesizes spatial datasets on the distributions and threats to Canada’s coastal ecosystems, including land use changes and sea level rise, to develop, analyze, and visualize future ecosystem scenarios, with a particular focus on carbon storage. Xiucheng is co-supervised by Profs. M. O’Connor and S. Knox. Prior to this role, Xiucheng was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the GERS Lab at the University of Connecticut, where he developed novel remote sensing algorithms for enhanced monitoring of natural resources and the environment, with a special emphasis on coastal wetland ecosystems. Xiucheng holds a Master of Science in Remote Sensing from Peking University, China, and a PhD in Geoinformation from the University of Strasbourg, France. His research interests center on using remote sensing to observe the Earth’s surface, particularly through dense time series analysis and artificial intelligence techniques. He is deeply interested in understanding how direct human activities and risking climate change have altered the Earth's surface over time, significantly impacting the sustainability, biodiversity, and ecosystems of the planet.

Matt completed his Bachelor of Engineering and Biosciences in Chemical and Bioengineering at McMaster University in 2020, during which he developed strong quantitative, statistical, and programming/modeling skills. Matt started in the lab as a NSERC-supported masters student and September 2022 rolled up to a doctoral program supported by a Mitacs Accelerate Internship. His research focuses on the distribution of kelp species and ecosystems, how this is influenced by different abiotic and biotic factors at multiple scales, and how these distributions may change as climate change progresses. During summer 2022, Matt led a Vancouver Island wide field project funded through the BC Parks Living Labs Program collecting benthic video transects within the “kelp zone” using an underwater remote operated vehicle. Data from this field season will be instrumental in developing his kelp species distribution models for BC. Through his thesis Matt will be contributing to the larger Baum lab project focussed on assessing blue carbon ecosystems in Canada.

Marcel is originally from Margarita Island, Venezuela, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from Universidad de Oriente in 2012. He also holds an MSc degree in Comparative Biology from Universidade de Sao Paulo and another MSc degree in Biology from Université Laval. Currently, he is a PhD student in Oceanography at Université Laval. Since 2012, he has been actively working on different research projects at different institutions around the world, gaining skills across traditional taxonomy, marine ecology, developmental biology, ecophysiology, and landscape genomics, all of these focused on marine invertebrates. He is also a scientific diver with experience in tropical and polar waters. Currently, as PhD student, his interest is focused on understanding the driving factors (biotic and abiotic) which influence the carbon sequestration potential of Arctic kelps using big data and species distribution modeling algorithms.