CURRENT RESEARCH
The
need to manage and conserve marine living resources more effectively in
Canada is underscored by the collapse of many commercial fisheries and the
increasing number of species listed as threatened or endangered. Managers
have been hindered by a lack of knowledge on whether populations of a
given species should be treated as a single unit or whether some
subpopulations of that species may be more important because they produce
more successful offspring or seed adjacent populations. Recent advances in
the study of the genetic similarity of populations and the microchemistry
of fish otoliths (bone structures in the ear) offer two new tools that
have the potential to identify the past history of individual fish, and
the sorts of environments in which they lived as larvae, juvenile and
adults. By pairing these novel techniques with physical oceanographic
circulation modeling and measurements of larval and juvenile fish
movements, we will determine how populations of different species of
fishes with contrasting reproductive strategies are structured, which
habitats are of greatest importance to different life stages, which
subpopulations are interlinked, and the mechanism by which they are
linked. This information will greatly enhance our capacity to conserve
threatened species and manage commercial species sustainability.
Understanding Marine Biodiversity (Canada Research Chair in Boreal and
Cold Ocean Systems): P. Snelgrove
As a signatory to the International Convention on Biological Diversity,
Canada is committed to developing an inventory of its biodiversity
resources and to preserving these resources. Within the marine
environment, our understanding of the processes that regulate and maintain
biodiversity is very limited, and even less is known about cold ocean
ecosystems. My research focuses on early life history stages and the
processes that influence success, failure and the subsequent pattern of
biodiversity. This research is centred primarily in coastal Newfoundland,
in a variety of habitats that include a diverse mix of temperate and
arctic species. There are three research objectives. The first is to
determine what larval transport and survival can tell us about patterns of
recruitment and distribution in cold ocean environments. Second, how does
larval settlement contribute to patterns of biodiversity in cold ocean
environments, and what aspects of temporal and spatial variation in the
natural environment influence these patterns? Finally, do we need to be
concerned about biodiversity loss when we consider the health and
functioning of the ecosystem, or are species largely interchangeable in
terms of the roles they play? This project is funded by the Canada
Research Chairs Program and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation from
2003-2008.
Bentho-pelagic coupling in regulating benthic sedimentary communities:
P. Snelgrove
A central question in ecology is why recruitment and species composition
vary in time and space. This question has intrigued fisheries biologists
and ecologists for the last century, and recently has become central in
biodiversity conservation efforts. The Newfoundland environment, like
other boreal environments in Canada and elsewhere, is one in which
seasonal signals in temperature and production likely play major
regulatory roles, in that they contribute to spatial and temporal
patchiness of key variables at multiple scales. The goal of the research
is to examine the response of benthic organisms to these environmental
variables, particularly as they pertain to transport and survival of
larval stages, cues that regulate patterns of settlement and benthic
diversity, and the ecological importance of the subsequent patterns of
diversity. This project is funded by an NSERC Discovery Grant from
2002-2005.
Fishery population assessment through planktonic sampling: B. deYoung
(Physics), P. Pepin (DFO), J. Helbig (DFO) and P.Snelgrove
The primary objective of this program is to develop an effective method
for conducting plankton surveys in physically dynamic coastal
environments. This goal is critical if we are to develop egg and larval
production models in pelagic spawning, cold ocean species. As a management
tool, egg production methods have been used successfully in other areas of
the world, but to date are not used in Atlantic Canada. We seek to design
a statistical optimization approach for guiding on-going surveys that will
enable effective and accurate sampling in a coastal upwelling environment.
One component of the program will be the implementation of data
assimilation methods to a circulation model to enhance simulation
modelling of the coastal circulation. In particular, we will apply these
models to a series of ichthyoplankton surveys to verify the accuracy of
the model. This dynamic oceanographic approach will be used in the
assessment of inshore spawning stock abundance using Egg Production
Methods. This research will enhance the design of plankton surveys and
ensure statistically sound coverage while allowing for corrections
resulting from losses and transport during the survey. This project is
funded by NSERC Strategic Grants Programs from 2001-2004.
Oceanographic Time Series from Cabled Observatories: B. deYoung
(Physics), D. Deibel (OSC), R. Hooper (Biology), C. Parrish, R. Rivkin, P.
Snelgrove (OSC), L. Zedel (Physics).
Oceanographic data in the past has been collected by ships in limited
oceanographic cruises that typically span a few days or weeks, or by fixed
instrument moorings that are typically constrained by battery power and
data availability in a hindcast format. These approaches have given us
useful snapshots of ocean dynamics but we miss many important events in
space and time that likely play a very important role in natural systems.
We are involved in two newly funded projects which will enable us to
contribute toward overcoming these limitations of conventional
oceanography. One is a cabled observatory in Bonne Bay, Newfoundland (www.bonnebay.mun.ca),
where we will study biological, chemical, and physical variation in a cold
ocean system that is ice covered for part of the year and subject to
strong seasonality in nutrients, production, temperature, and physics. A
related project (www.venus.uvic.ca)
is a series of three cabled observatories around Vancouver Island (project
VENUS, led by University of Victoria). Both of these projects have been
funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. ). A third project (www.neptunecanada.com)
will place a fiber optic cable into the deep sea on the Juan de Fuca plate
in the Pacific Ocean (project NEPTUNE).
