UPEI takes part in recently created Canadian Healthy Oceans Network
As a marine ecologist, Dr. Pedro Quijon, of the UPEI Biology Department, is keenly aware of the importance of conserving the world's oceans especially now at a time when they are under more stress than ever.
He represents UPEI on the recently established Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe). The network brings together 65 researchers from 15 Canadian universities, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and several federal laboratories to develop science-based guidelines for the conservation and sustainability of Canada's three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic.
CHONe's strategic focus is on three research themes: marine biodiversity, ecosystem function and population connectivity. Researchers working on the marine biodiversity theme will explore functional and species biodiversity in relation to a variety of habitats. Projects under the ecosystem function theme will look at how function and health are linked to biodiversity and several agents of disturbance. Finally, scientists studying population connectivity will examine how the dispersal of early life stages (eggs, larvae, juveniles) influences patterns of biodiversity and resilience, and how different geographic areas may naturally become 'sources' and 'sinks' for new recruits.
Dr. Quijon highlights the broad collaboration that is already taking place because of CHONe, and the relevance of having UPEI playing a role in an initiative of this magnitude. His participation in CHONe falls under the population connectivity theme. In late April he and UPEI graduate student Kevin Sorochan, joined Dr. John Dower, of the University of Victoria, to conduct their first survey of the Strait of Georgia, BC. Working from the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Vector, they collected samples of crab and fish larvae from about 48 stations along the Strait. With information gleaned from those samples and the characteristics of the water column, they will be able to accurately map the distribution of those larvae in this large coastal system and identify the areas where most larvae are produced and retained.
The data will be useful for identifying those areas of the Strait that should be given priority for protection, he says, with the ultimate goal of ensuring sustainability for the fish and crab fishing industries. This project is taking place on the west coast over two years, but its approach and results should be applicable to other areas--and fisheries--on the east coast and elsewhere. The knowledge gained should be useful to approach similar research problems in areas with well-known fishery concerns, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
