Coupled human-natural systems
Anthropogenic impacts and reliance on ecosystems
Blue carbon
Humans benefit from healthy ecological systems in many ways. One way is through the capacity of healthy coastal systems to capture and store carbon, helping Canada to mitigate climate change. Our blue carbon work contributes to a Canada-wide inventory of potential carbon sinks to help offset CO2 emissions. We work with Fisheries and Ocean’s Canada (DFO) - Economics, DFO Science and other partners and several non-governmental partners to ensure that our research addresses the conservation needs of eelgrass ecosystems.
Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world yet it has few measurements of carbon storage in eelgrass beds, and the spatial extent of eelgrass in Canada remains unknown. We aim to fill this knowledge gap by assessing carbon sequestration in eelgrass beds along Canada’s three coasts, using mapping techniques, available data, and additional field measurements. Project outcomes will include maps of blue carbon habitats overlaid with estimated carbon stocks, and a conceptual model illustrating how carbon stocks may change with environmental conditions. This work will be used by the Canadian government for the development of Ocean Accounts and Ecosystem Accounts as well as Marine Spatial Planning and Marine Conservation Targets. |
Community-eelgrass connections in Surrey, British Columbia
Drastic declines and degradation of seagrass beds has been documented globally from a suite of human pressures including storm-water discharge and agricultural runoff. These pressures are predicted to increase as result of climate change in many coastal areas around the world. It is expected that seagrass habitats and productivity will shift in response to climate change related patterns of precipitation. Understanding how precipitation driven runoff may alter ocean temperature, salinity, turbidity, and how inputs of terrestrially-derived nutrients washed into the ocean may impact seagrass productivity can help coastal resource managers and decision makers plan and adapt to climate change and sea level rise.
Boundary Bay in Surrey, BC is home to expansive eelgrass beds and extensive climate change adaptation planning and research. In partnership with SeaChange Marine Conservation Society, Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society and the City of Surrey this project aims to test nutrient loading impacts on eelgrass through field research trials. Understanding nutrient loading impacts to eelgrass productivity will inform local land use planning and adaptation strategies. Check out this article in Canadian Geographic. |
Community-eelgrass connections in James Bay, Quebec
|
Connectivity and management of eelgrass meadows in British Columbia
We believe that sustainable management of our coastal ecosystems requires that we protect the ecological processes that allow biodiversity to adapt in a changing world. To facilitate this for eelgrass ecosystems, we are working with oceanographers and scientists in Fisheries and Ocean’s Canada (DFO) to model animal movement among regions, and to explore scenarios for management, protection, and coastal development. We are on track to identify priorities for habitat protection to allow sustainable and biodiversity smart development and activities on our coasts.
|
Fucus and char food webs around Baffin Island, Nunavut
The Arctic is warming three times the global average, with consequences for the diversity and distribution of marine life living in this region. With support from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Government of Nunavut, we are exploring the trophic structure of coastal food webs in Iqaluit, Pond Inlet, and Arctic Bay through biodiversity sampling in Fucus sp. Beds, and gut content and fatty acid analysis of a culturally and economically important fish species, Arctic char. This will lay the groundwork for understanding how marine biodiversity in coastal Arctic regions is responding to warming seas.
|
Spatial models for mapping and informing bushmeat harvests
With humanity’s growing demand for natural resources, tropical forests and their fauna are experiencing massive and widespread declines in biodiversity. For many large, ecologically vital species, the primary driver of these declines is hunting for human consumption. Yet compared to other global threats to biodiversity like overfishing and land conversion, wild meat hunting and its impacts are poorly understood on large spatial scales. We use resistance-based movement models and simulation-informed decision analysis to predict where hunting occurs and assess solutions for sustainable management (Deith and Brodie 2020).
|