100 Islands: Elucidating connections between land and ocean ecosystems

Informed decisions on resource management and development require an understanding of how projects will impact the resource, other resources, and the ecosystem. Because the ocean and land are intricately connected along coastal areas, development projects in either will invariably affect the other. However, Ecological Risk Assessments do not consider the two in tandem because the connections between the land and ocean are not well defined and an analytical tool does not currently exist to predict those connections for areas where they have not yet been measured. This project aims to incorporate land-sea interactions into the well established theory of island biogeography to provide such a framework for regions with large coastlines and many islands, like BC. Additionally, this project will result in biodiversity baseline data collection for 100 unstudied islands along the Central Coast. These data will be available for the broader research community to inform decisions on resource development along BCs coasts.

Faculty Supervisor:

Brian Starzomski

Student:

Crystal Ernest

Partner:

Tula Foundation

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Forestry

University:

University of Victoria