ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE

Ecosystem science supports the integrated management of diverse human activities that are undertaken in the same areas — such as fishing, aquaculture, transportation, and oil and gas exploration.

Ecosystem-based research and scientific advice assists decision-makers who manage fisheries, aquaculture, fish habitat, ocean resources, and the recovery of species-at-risk, providing scientific evidence and tools to better manage and understand how these activities interact with one another and affect aquatic ecosystems.

Like other nations, for many years Canada attempted to manage activities in its fisheries and oceans on an activity-by-activity basis and the science undertaken focused mostly on the intended targets of human activities (e.g., a specific commercial fishery). In keeping with international advancements in integrated aquatic management, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is moving towards an ecosystem approach to management. The Science Framework for the Future outlines the Department’s approach to aquatic science with an ecosystem framework.

To provide input to decision-making, staff engage in environmental science work to understand how marine and freshwater ecosystems function and how they are affected by human activities. Multidisciplinary Centres of Expertise (COEs) were also created to address a number of priority areas of ecosystem and regulatory science.

The Department’s objectives for science required for an ecosystem approach to management are as follows:

Research should improve our knowledge of key ecosystem relationships and linkages to human activities and be broadly applicable to all departmental responsibilities.
Monitoring and data and information management should produce ecosystem-focused products and services of value to all parts of the department.
Scientific advice should be provided from an ecosystem perspective and be integrated across client sectors.

Strategic Program for Ecosystem-Based Research and Advice (SPERA)

The Strategic Program for Ecosystem-Based Research and Advice (SPERA) supports those objectives with research projects and scientific tool development which support national priorities for managing ecosystems in our domestic waters. Projects address key issues, such as scientific guidance on the avoidance of benthic impacts; science support for mitigating by-catch and tools to help manage biological diversity in Canadian waters.

Tables:

Assessing Ecosystem Impacts of Human Activities;
Assessing and Reporting on Ecosystems;
Tools for Implementing the Ecosystem Approach.

PROJECT TITLE	PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR	LOCATION
1. IDENTIFY THREATS TO AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
Shipping effects on walrus in the Foxe Basin / Hudson Strait complex.	Jason Hamilton	Foxe Basin, Hudson Strait
Impact of shipping noise on marine animals.	Yvan Simard	Gulf of St. Lawrence
Evaluation of the potential for seismic surveys to impact lobster resources.	M. Robin Anderson	Newfoundland and Labrador
Lessons learned from prediction and monitoring of environmental effects of oil and gas exploitation on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.	Jerry F. Payne	Grand Banks of Newfoundland
Effects of hydroelectric development on coastal primary productivity and phytoplankton community composition.	Michael Scarratt	Quebec
Demographic models as tools to assess vulnerability and resilience of marine stocks to environmental and fishing pressures.	Yvan Lambert	Quebec
Future hypoxia in British Columbia.	Bill Crawford	British Columbia Coast
Assessing ecosystem-based impacts of port developments on Roberts Bank.	Terri F. Sutherland	Roberts Bank, British Columbia
HEAT (Habitat/Ecosystem Assessment Tool): Transforming and improving an existing tool for use in evaluating multiple stressors.	Susan Doka	Central Canada
Predicting and forecasting the effects of multiple stressors on the fish assemblages of the large lakes of Canada.	Nick Mandrak	Great Lakes
Cumulative impacts of regulating freshwater flows on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Scotian Shelf marine ecosystems.	Diane Lavoie	Gulf of St. Lawrence, Scotian Shelf
Exploration of approaches to assess cumulative impacts of activities in the coastal zone within an Ecosystem Approach to Management Framework.	Fred Page	Maritimes
Application of an Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (ERAF) for Oceans Management of LOMAs and MPAs: Case study for the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area and Oceans Act MPA of British Columbia.	Miriam O	Pacific North Coast
Rapid screening tool for marine fish.	Greg Workman	Pacific Ocean

2. ASSESSING AND REPORTING ON ECOSYSTEMS
Utility of multi-scale analyses of spatial association between demersal fish species ecosystem-based assessment.	Danny Ings, Pierre Pepin	Newfoundland and Labrador
Development of a protocol to validate fish habitat models and test their transferability.	Eva Enders	Central Canada
Development of eco-region benchmarks of fish productivity in freshwaters: incorporating habitat, water temperature, nutrients, and flow as primary drivers of productivity of fishes that support commercial, Aboriginal, and recreational fisheries.	Robert Randall	Great Lakes
Indicators of pelagic habitat status in the Northwest Atlantic.	Catherine Johnson	Northwest Atlantic
Biodiversity measures for use in the Ecosystem Approach to Oceans management.	Ellen Kenchington	Maritimes
Evaluation of ecosystem indicators for assessing impacts of habitat disruptions on fish productivity.	Scott Higgins	Central Canada
Ecosystem indicators for ecosystem monitoring at different scales.	Alida Bundy	Maritimes
Can community size-based indicator management protect both forage species and large predators in the system.	Daniel Duplisea	Quebec
Identifying Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA) and Ecologically Significant Species (ESS) in the coastal areas of the Great Lakes: adapting the criteria for determining 'significance' from DFO Oceans Action Plan.	Robert Randall	C&A
Mapping species distribution and identifying important habitats in the coastal zone of the Saint Lawrence Estuary and Gulf.	Jean-Sébastien Lauzon-Guay	St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf
Identification of benthic EBSAs on the Scotian Shelf.	Ellen Kenchington	Maritimes
An integrated approach for the identification of biologically important regions and the production of ecosystem indicators in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. (GSL).	Stéphane Plourde	Gulf of St. Lawrence
Estimation of demersal fish food consumption and trophic level for key fish species in the NL marine ecosystem: a proof of concept for developing food web baselines in an ecosystem-based management context.	Mariano Koen-Alonso	Newfoundland and Labrador
Evaluating ecosystem services and functions in coastal habitats for use in habitat restoration.	Melissa C. Wong	Maritimes
The functional role of forage fish species and implications for EAM in Canada.	Alida Bundy, Gary Melvin	Maritimes
Estimating prey consumption by northwest Atlantic Harp seals.	Garry Stenson	Newfoundland and Labrador
Understanding the impact of a changing climate on interactions between Pacific sardine and Pacific herring populations in British Columbia.	Jennifer Boldt	British Columbia Coast
Zooplankton monitoring in the Strait of Georgia for present and future ecosystem-based assessment and management, and for understanding growth, survival and recruitment for species such as coho salmon, sablefish and rockfish.	Dave Mackas	Strait of Georgia, British Columbia

3. TOOLS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE ECOSYSTEM APPROACH
Evaluation of geospatial tools for delineating concentrations of deep-sea corals and sponges.	Ellen Kenchington	Maritimes
GIS-enabled habitat classification tool based on environmental data layers.	Charles Hannah	Maritimes
Evaluation of historical multivariate datasets to identify changes in biodiversity, species distribution, behaviour, abundance, and interaction in response to environmental forcing in a marine ecosystem.	Stéphane Gauthier	Pacific
Habitat characterisation in critical zones or marine protected areas using a combination of direct (benthic imagery, acoustics) and numerical (habitat modelling) approaches in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.	Claude Savenkoff	Gulf of St. Lawrence
Evaluating the feasibility of developing biodiversity-based fishery management objectives for Pacific herring.	Jaclyn Cleary	British Columbia Coast
Establishment of a standardised format, and trial of concept, for marine mammal sightings and abundance database and virtual data centre	Jack Lawson	Newfoundland and Labrador
Integrating telemetry research for better ecosystem management.	Corey Morris	Newfoundland and Labrador
Geomatics in support of ecosystem-based management	Léa Olsen	National Capital Region