UBC has opened a $45 million expansion of the Beaty Biodiversity Centre, made possible by philanthropic support from the Ross and Trisha Beaty family and Gordon B. Shrum, matched by UBC.
The new pollinator garden helps promote local biodiversity. Credit: Paul Joseph/UBC.
The Centre houses the Biodiversity Research Centre and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The extension enhances UBC's ability to address biodiversity loss with new research and meeting spaces that foster interdisciplinary collaboration within the university and with external partners. It also adds a new fossil storage room for the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and a pollinator garden supporting local biodiversity.
"The loss of biodiversity due to human impact on nature is one of the world's most pressing problems today," said Ross Beaty, UBC alumnus and volunteer with UBC's FORWARD campaign. "UBC's expanded Biodiversity Research Centre will help address this. My family and I applaud the work done to date at the Centre by UBC's students and faculty and appreciate UBC's decision to expand this world-class facility. Good research here will help us find solutions to today's biodiversity crisis."
The philanthropic support for this expansion is part of UBC's FORWARD campaign to advance healthy lives, a healthy planet and healthy societies.
"UBC is recognized as one of the top biodiversity research centres in the world, and through this partnership the university is taking another major leap forward," said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, UBC President and Vice-Chancellor. "This state-of-the-art space will further strengthen UBC's expertise in advancing biodiversity knowledge to drive positive environmental change across British Columbia, Canada, and the world."
The Beaty Museum will have access to a new fossil storage room thanks to the new expansion. Credit: Paul Joseph/UBC.
Biodiversity in crisis
"We are losing more plant, animal, microbial and fungal diversity than we're recovering," said Dr. Mary O'Connor, UBC Biodiversity Research Centre (BRC) director and zoology professor. "Biodiversity loss affects our livelihoods, food security, neighbourhood climates, landscape health, even our own physical and mental health."
The extension adds about 48,000 square feet over six storeys and is "2050-ready" - designed for thermal comfort, adaptable to changing rainfall and optimized for indoor air quality in future climates. Other features include bird-friendly patterned windows and a pollinator-friendly garden planted primarily with native species.
"The BRC is a global powerhouse in the race to understand changes in our ecosystem arising from habitat loss, climate change, invasive species and pollution," said Dr. Mark MacLachlan, dean of the faculty of science at UBC. "The expansion to the Beaty Biodiversity Centre will attract top researchers and students from B.C., Canada and beyond to tackle important topics like extinction, ecology and food security."
Collaboration is key
More than 100 BRC research faculty span multiple UBC departments. The new meeting spaces and partner offices will promote collaboration between researchers, municipalities and community partners such as the Hakai Institute, the City of Vancouver, and more.
"The problems and solutions range in scale from microbes to cities, bigger than any one person can deal with. That's why collaboration is vital," says Dr. O'Connor. "The new space will expand teaching, research and public and partner engagement."
At today's open house, researchers showcased work spanning ecology, evolution and conservation research, from genes and ecosystems through to interactions with society.
BRC researchers have described thousands of new species, including plants, fungi, spiders, ocean life and microscopic organisms and viruses. "We can't save what we don't know," says Dr. Diane Srivastava, professor of zoology and BRC researcher. "And new technologies are accelerating these discoveries, from molecular methods to drone sampling to AI."
Hope for the future
The BRC will share evidence-based knowledge for sustainable societies, economies and biodiversity, co-develop solutions for biodiversity loss with partners, and train researchers and communities, said Dr. O'Connor.
"Canada is on track to meet its obligations under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity of protecting 30 per cent of its land and water by 2030. The next step is to align our biodiversity efforts nationally and provincially for coordinated action, something BRC is uniquely positioned to support."
