Assessing and modelling climate – pollutant interactions in marine food webs in the Pacific and coastal British Columbia, Canada

Healthy ocean food webs are key to the socio-economic viability of coastal communities in British Columbia. The Vancouver Aquarium’s Coastal Ocean Research Institute (CORI) was established in 2014 to provide an ongoing assessment of the health of Canada’s oceans. This project supports this strategic priority of the CORI initiative and advances the organization’s mission to conserve aquatic resources though display, interpretation, education, research and activities. This study will develop new sustainable Environmental Quality (EQ) objectives that will allow managers to explore the implications of different pollution abatement options on the value of ‘downstream’ coastal resources such as fisheries. Climate change and ocean pollution present a risk to the economies of coastal communities in British Columbia. New EQ Objectives that incorporate economic impacts associated with different management actions will improve the resilience of coastal communities into the future and advance the overall aim of enabling sustainable economic development on Canada’s west coast.

Faculty Supervisor:

William Cheung

Student:

Partner:

Ocean Wise

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: