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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Sublethal Effects Of The Sea Lice Pesticides Ivermectin And Slice® On Starry Flounder Behaviour And Physiology When Exposed To Contaminated Sediments, Daniel King Apr 2020

Sublethal Effects Of The Sea Lice Pesticides Ivermectin And Slice® On Starry Flounder Behaviour And Physiology When Exposed To Contaminated Sediments, Daniel King

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Aquaculture is an important part of Canada’s economy, and open net-pen Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) aquaculture is a key facet of this industry. Chemotherapeutants, including anthelminthics, are often used in salmon aquaculture to prevent the loss of stock due to various pathogens. The formulation SLICE® (active ingredient: emamectin benzoate) and ivermectin (IVM) are two chemicals used in salmon aquaculture in Canada to treat and prevent sea lice infestations. SLICE® and IVM have low water solubilities and long half-lives in sediment (225 d and >100 d, respectively). Due to the persistence of these pesticides and their tendency to accumulate in marine …

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Sediment Sourcing In Cascade Watersheds And Nearshore Dispersal Of Terrestrial Sediment And Contaminants Using Multivariate Geochemical Analysis, Renee Takesue Apr 2020

Sediment Sourcing In Cascade Watersheds And Nearshore Dispersal Of Terrestrial Sediment And Contaminants Using Multivariate Geochemical Analysis, Renee Takesue

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Coastal ecosystems require sediment inputs of sufficient quantity and quality to maintain ecological integrity. Identification of sources and processes affecting quality and nearshore dispersal of terrestrial sediment are important considerations for successful habitat restoration and resource management. Sourcing of sediment via geochemical fingerprinting is one way to explore such processes, and appears to be a promising approach in Cascade watersheds where volcanic uplands confer distinct geochemical signatures relative to glacial and marine sediment. A sediment geochemical source-to-sink study using compositional data of the fine fraction was undertaken from the Nooksack River watershed to Bellingham and Samish Bays in March 2019 …

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Mapping Waves And Storm Surge For Coastal Resilience In The Salish Sea, Zhaoqing Yang Apr 2020

Mapping Waves And Storm Surge For Coastal Resilience In The Salish Sea, Zhaoqing Yang

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Pacific Northwest coasts are exposed to coastal inundation as a result of storm surge and large waves induced by extreme weather events. Accurate coastal risk projections depend on detailed and accurate information on sea level rise, including waves and storm surge under extreme weather events. This paper presents a modeling study simulating the wave climate and storm surge distribution in the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea wave model is configured with the SWAN model, driven by spectral open boundary conditions from the nested regional WaveWatch3 models and sea surface winds from a 6-km resolution Weather Research and Forecasting simulation. A …

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Mapping The Cysts Of Alexandrium Catenella In The Surface Sediments Of Puget Sound: A Comparison Of Microscopy And Molecular Methods For Enumeration, Cheryl Greengrove Apr 2020

Mapping The Cysts Of Alexandrium Catenella In The Surface Sediments Of Puget Sound: A Comparison Of Microscopy And Molecular Methods For Enumeration, Cheryl Greengrove

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Preliminary results from a newly funded NOAA NCCOS MERHAB project developing new molecular methods for detecting Alexandrium catenella cyst concentrations in marine sediments will be presented. A. catenella is a dinoflagellate that produces saxitoxin, a powerful neurotoxin, that can be concentrated in filter feeding shellfish which, if ingested by humans, can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning and potentially death. A. catenella overwinters as a cyst in the sediment and when environmental conditions are right, in the spring and summer, germinates into the water column as a vegetative cell. Previous studies have mapped the winter distribution of A. catenella cysts in …

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A Comparison Of The Vulnerability Of Marine Ecosystems To Anthropogenic Stressors, Jocelyn Nelson Apr 2020

A Comparison Of The Vulnerability Of Marine Ecosystems To Anthropogenic Stressors, Jocelyn Nelson

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Cumulative effects assessments are increasingly required for resource management, marine spatial planning, and ecosystem-based management. A key step in a cumulative effects assessment is to determine the vulnerability of ecosystem components to stressors, which can be achieved through a vulnerability assessment. However, not all studies define vulnerability in the same way, which can lead to variable and incompatible results. For example, while many cumulative impact mapping studies use expert-derived scoring based on the variables of spatial scale, frequency, trophic impact, percentage change, and recovery time (e.g., Teck et al 2010), others, such as DFO’s Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (O et …

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Effects Of Shoreline Armoring On Physical Beach Characteristics In The Salish Sea, Wa, Hannah Drummond Apr 2020

Effects Of Shoreline Armoring On Physical Beach Characteristics In The Salish Sea, Wa, Hannah Drummond

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Increasing coastal development makes it vitally important to understand the shoreline’s response to anthropogenic modifications. We compared physical beach characteristics from adjacent sections of armored and unarmored shoreline at a variety of locations in the Salish Sea in order to assess the effects of armoring on beach morphology. Ten reaches, each a minimum of 500 meters in length, were selected from locations sampled with boat-based LiDAR collected by the Washington Department of Ecology Coastal Monitoring & Analysis Program. Cross-shore profiles were generated for each reach at 10-meter intervals alongshore. On each profile, estimates of beach slope, width, and toe elevation …

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Engaging High School Juniors And Seniors At The Ocean Research College Academy As Researchers In A Two Year Study Of An Estuary In The Salish Sea, Ardi Kveven Apr 2020

Engaging High School Juniors And Seniors At The Ocean Research College Academy As Researchers In A Two Year Study Of An Estuary In The Salish Sea, Ardi Kveven

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Ocean Research College Academy, an interdisciplinary, two year program at Everett Community College, has been utilizing the Salish Sea as a classroom for the past 16 years. Through embedded localized research in an estuary, enrolled 11th and 12th grade students conduct original research on the State of Possession Sound (SOPS) Project. This project is the backbone of the first year curriculum, where 60 students work collaboratively asking questions and gathering water quality data about the local estuary. Students analyze and interpret complex datasets that include temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, chlorophyll concentrations, and turbidity coupled with tidal influence. As …

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Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus Californicus) Culture And Enhancement Opportunities., Andy Suhrbier Apr 2020

Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus Californicus) Culture And Enhancement Opportunities., Andy Suhrbier

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Demand for giant red sea cucumbers (Apostichopus californicus) continues in Asian markets while wild harvest has declined on the west coast of North America. Multiple trials are in place in Washington state to culture this species on upland and floating structures that support other species. Co-culture of sea cucumbers has proved to be effective with mussels, black cod, sea weed and oysters. In addition, there are food resources from aquaculture that the wild population currently exploits but conceivably could utilize more efficiently. Efforts to further this utilization are in progress.

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Large Woody Debris Protects Woody Plants From Browsing In Restoration Following Elwha Dam Removal., Caelan Johnson Apr 2020

Large Woody Debris Protects Woody Plants From Browsing In Restoration Following Elwha Dam Removal., Caelan Johnson

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The increasing number of dams approaching the end of their useful lives compels a need for knowledge about how to conduct riparian restoration associated with dam removal. One of the most difficult challenges following dam removal is restoring native vegetation to drained reservoir beds, which can be impeded by ungulate browsing. Woody plant growth can be slow in dry nutrient-poor reservoir sediment, and browsing can impede forest establishment further. We evaluated the potential for large woody debris (LWD) to limit ungulate browsing on riparian trees and shrubs following dam removal in the Elwha ecosystem. We studied LWD mitigation of browsing …

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Harmful Algal Species In The Central Basin Of Puget Sound: Seasonal Bloom Patterns Analyzed Via Flowcam Technology, Lyndsey Swanson Apr 2020

Harmful Algal Species In The Central Basin Of Puget Sound: Seasonal Bloom Patterns Analyzed Via Flowcam Technology, Lyndsey Swanson

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Central Basin of Washington State’s Puget Sound is part of the larger estuarine system known as the Salish Sea. Long-term monitoring of this basin by King County has produced a robust dataset through the year-round collection of a suite of physical, chemical, and biological parameters. A phytoplankton monitoring program was established in 2008 using traditional microscopy methods and in 2014 a particle imaging system was added to the program. Complex interplay among a number of environmental factors contribute to the distribution and magnitude of annual phytoplankton blooms within the estuary, which regularly include several species considered potentially harmful because …

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Hydrodynamics And Suspended-Sediment Transport Within An Urbanized Pacific Northwest Estuarine Embayment, Daniel J. Nowacki Apr 2020

Hydrodynamics And Suspended-Sediment Transport Within An Urbanized Pacific Northwest Estuarine Embayment, Daniel J. Nowacki

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Coastal sediment dynamics are crucial to understanding the transport and dispersal of contaminants in urbanized environments, predicting coastal resilience in the face of rising sea levels, and synthesizing integrated ecosystem responses. Here we present six months of observations collected by four bottom-mounted moorings in Bellingham Bay, Washington, USA, covering both quiescent summer periods and more energetic fall and winter conditions. Moorings that continuously sampled currents, waves, water quality, and turbidity tracked the dispersal and transport of sediment both from modern input via the Nooksack River basin and from legacy seabed sediment sources along the urbanized Bellingham waterfront. Discrete measurements of …

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Microplastics Analysis And Quantification Of Benthic Sediments Of The Salish Sea, Margaret Baer Apr 2020

Microplastics Analysis And Quantification Of Benthic Sediments Of The Salish Sea, Margaret Baer

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Plastic marine debris presence in marine ecosystems is becoming a growing issue. Microplastics are any polymer with long axes between 0.33 to 5 mm. This material is an emerging concern because they are persistent in the environment and can build up in bed sediments, potentially creating sinks in important ecosystems such as the Salish Sea. This study will focus on determining the location, abundance, and types of microplastics in Salish Sea sediments by analyzing sediment samples provided by the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program. This research team processed and analyzed samples from 22 stations from …

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Squishy But Not Useless For Energy Balance: Energetic Value Of Gelatinous Zooplankton From The Salish Sea And Adjacent Waters, Florian Lüskow Apr 2020

Squishy But Not Useless For Energy Balance: Energetic Value Of Gelatinous Zooplankton From The Salish Sea And Adjacent Waters, Florian Lüskow

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Despite the low energy content, the contribution of gelatinous zooplankton (GZ; medusae, siphonophores, ctenophores, pelagic tunicates, pelagic gastropods) to predator energy budgets might be much greater than traditionally assumed (trophic dead end hypothesis). Feeding on GZ does, in fact, hold several advantages for the predator, including fast digestion, low capture and handling costs, easy access during blooms. Selective feeding on the more energy-rich tissues and organs can enhance prey attractivity for predators. Results of new analytical approaches have revealed that GZ around the world’s oceans are frequently consumed by a diverse set of marine predators. Nevertheless, GZ are infrequently included …

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Toxicity Of Gasoline, Diesel And Weathered Diesel Related Petroleum Hydrocarbons To Freshwater And Marine Organisms, Curtis Eickhoff Apr 2020

Toxicity Of Gasoline, Diesel And Weathered Diesel Related Petroleum Hydrocarbons To Freshwater And Marine Organisms, Curtis Eickhoff

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The purpose of this study was to determine environmental effects-based concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons for assessing the impacts of fresh gasoline and fresh or weathered diesel in the freshwater and marine environments. The study was conducted by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Nautilus Environmental to determine the NOEC and LOEC of gasoline, diesel and weathered diesel, in addition to IC25 and IC50 endpoints, using aquatic toxicity bioassays. In separate experiments, hydrocarbons within either the diesel or gasoline range were spiked into toxicity test solutions and weathered diesel in contaminated groundwater was obtained from a well-characterised site …

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Watersheds And Salmon, Student-Driven Habitat Restoration Projects; Increasing Engagement And Place-Based Learning Through Community Partnerships, Rachel Vasak Apr 2020

Watersheds And Salmon, Student-Driven Habitat Restoration Projects; Increasing Engagement And Place-Based Learning Through Community Partnerships, Rachel Vasak

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) Students for Salmon (SFS) Program is an established 4th grade education program that has served public and private schools, including tribal and homeschool cooperatives in Whatcom County for 20 years at no cost. This multi-stage program includes both in-classroom and outdoor activities over a course of 5-6 weeks. The SFS Program builds a powerful continuum of awareness to action, building on traditional, science-oriented, environmental education. After conducting extensive scientific habitat assessments on local creeks, students then take direct action to restore critical salmon habitat to improve riparian conditions. Students additionally learn how community partnerships …

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A Coastal Health Report Mobilized Community Members To Improve A Marine Environment, Amber Dearden Apr 2020

A Coastal Health Report Mobilized Community Members To Improve A Marine Environment, Amber Dearden

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Howe Sound/Atl’ḵa7tsem is a fjord located close to Vancouver BC, dotted with islands, and home to several communities and many unique marine species. Due to multiple factors including historical industries throughout the fjord and a growing human population with subsequent development, the marine environment became degraded, leading in some cases to population level species impacts. In 2017, an Ocean Watch report was released to summarize the state of Howe Sound/Atl’ḵa7tsem’s coastal ocean environment. The articles contained in the report included recommended actions to improve the marine environment throughout the fjord. These actions were consolidated into an Action Plan containing seven …

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Can Larval Dispersal Explain Differences In Population Structure Of Esa-Listed Rockfish In Puget Sound?, Kelly S. Andrews Apr 2020

Can Larval Dispersal Explain Differences In Population Structure Of Esa-Listed Rockfish In Puget Sound?, Kelly S. Andrews

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

In 2010, three species of rockfish in the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin (PSGB) region were listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Subsequent genetic analyses revealed that yelloweye rockfish in PSGB were genetically differentiated from individuals on the outer coast; while canary rockfish showed no population structure among these geographic regions. These results confirmed the listing status of yelloweye rockfish in PSGB as a “distinct population segment” (DPS), but suggested that canary rockfish in PSGB were not a DPS, which led to their removal from the endangered species list. Here, we test whether larval dispersal could be a mechanism for the …

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A Coastal Restoration Online Toolkit - Helping Non-Professionals Go From Idea To Restoration Project, Elsa Schwartz Apr 2020

A Coastal Restoration Online Toolkit - Helping Non-Professionals Go From Idea To Restoration Project, Elsa Schwartz

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Staff at public agencies and non-profit organizations often receive phone calls or applications from individuals outside the professional restoration community (e.g. NGOs, municipalities, or individuals) who have a sincere desire to restore local habitats, but have difficulties figuring out where to begin. Restore America’s Estuaries has developed an online “Toolkit” to support coastal residents and citizen scientists who identify problems with their local coastal environment and have an interest in transforming the idea into a project. The Toolkit enables community members who aspire to improve their local ecosystem, but who need the information and guidance to go from project idea, …

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Building A Habitat Suitability Index For Olympia Oyster Restoration, Charlotte Dohrn Apr 2020

Building A Habitat Suitability Index For Olympia Oyster Restoration, Charlotte Dohrn

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) are the only oyster species native to the west coast of North America. Historical overharvest and environmental stressors have reduced the current population to less than 5% of historic numbers throughout Puget Sound. Restoring native oysters is a priority in Puget Sound and coastwide; oysters provide ecosystem services and may provide critical elements of resilience in coastal ecosystems under changing ocean conditions. The Puget Sound Restoration Fund and partners have been restoring Olympia oysters in Puget Sound for two decades. To support restoration planning, we developed a habitat suitability index model to identify optimal locations for …

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Effect Of Diluted Bitumen On The Survival, Physiology, And Behavior Of The Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia Guttata) And Relevance To Birds Of The Salish Sea, Elizabeth Ruberg Apr 2020

Effect Of Diluted Bitumen On The Survival, Physiology, And Behavior Of The Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia Guttata) And Relevance To Birds Of The Salish Sea, Elizabeth Ruberg

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Given the ongoing and potential increases in shipment of diluted bitumen (dilbit) out of the port of Vancouver, there is a need for toxicity data to assess the impact of catastrophic dilbit spillage on wildlife, particularly in the Salish Sea. Peer reviewed literature on dilbit toxicity is limited to teleost fish, despite the importance of coastal waters as habitat for a diverse bird fauna, including listed species. In this study we used the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) as a tractable, avian model system for preliminary studies on Cold Lake blend dilbit. Objectives were to 1) determine appropriate methods of establishing …

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Identifying Cumulative Impact Thresholds: Implications For Marine Spatial Planning, Selina Agbayani Apr 2020

Identifying Cumulative Impact Thresholds: Implications For Marine Spatial Planning, Selina Agbayani

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Cumulative impact mapping can be a useful tool for marine spatial planning because the results can identify discrete areas in which ecosystems, habitats, or species are most affected by stressors associated with human activities. This information can help planners and managers prioritize areas for management, identify pristine areas for protection and degraded areas for restoration, and can be included as a cost layer in tradeoff analyses. A key challenge in using cumulative impact mapping in marine spatial planning is the issue of identifying appropriate thresholds for distinguishing the status of areas. To date, the interpretation of cumulative impact mapping model …

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Investigating The Presence And Trophic Transfer Of Microplastics In Ex- And In-Situ North American Otters Through Scat And Diet Analysis, Jennifer Brocklin Van Apr 2020

Investigating The Presence And Trophic Transfer Of Microplastics In Ex- And In-Situ North American Otters Through Scat And Diet Analysis, Jennifer Brocklin Van

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

While an increasing number of studies have examined the presence and effects of microplastics in aquatic organisms like invertebrates and fish, there is still a dearth of knowledge about their impact on mammals in higher trophic levels. Both sea and river otters act as valuable indicators of ecosystem health and consume prey items that have been shown to contain microplastics. As such, we are investigating the ingestion of microplastics by sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) in the North Pacific using scat. Our study includes samples from ex-situ and in-situ individuals and also analyzes otter …

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Temporal Variability Of Phytoplankton Communities In Padilla Bay, Washington, Holly Young Apr 2020

Temporal Variability Of Phytoplankton Communities In Padilla Bay, Washington, Holly Young

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Phytoplankton are a critical component of estuarine food webs and changes in their community composition may indicate shifts in ecosystem-scale processes, such as grazing pressure or nutrient availability. However, seasonal variability of phytoplankton communities and potential links to ecosystem processes are not well understood in Padilla Bay. To meet this research need, we have established a monitoring program to investigate how phytoplankton communities change over time. These monitoring efforts are part of a reserve wide program that investigates water quality, zooplankton, and phytoplankton across four sites in Padilla Bay. The present study focuses on phytoplankton collected at an open water …

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Utility Of The Strait Of Georgia Data Centre As A Marine Spatial Planning Tool, Benjamin Skinner Apr 2020

Utility Of The Strait Of Georgia Data Centre As A Marine Spatial Planning Tool, Benjamin Skinner

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Strait of Georgia Data Centre (SGDC) has been developed to serve as a secure repository and archive for marine ecosystem data specific to the Strait of Georgia (www.sogdatacentre.ca) and is a collaborative effort between the Pacific Salmon Foundation and the University of British Columbia. From the website the public can access literature specific to the Strait of Georgia, general information about the ecosystems of the Strait of Georgia, as well as search for and download available data and metadata. One focus of the SGDC has been to provide a centralized hub from which users can search, view and download …

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A Baseline Of Seasonal Changes In The At Sea Distribution And Abundance Of Marine Birds Near Shipping Lanes Around Southern Vancouver Island., Douglas Bertram Apr 2020

A Baseline Of Seasonal Changes In The At Sea Distribution And Abundance Of Marine Birds Near Shipping Lanes Around Southern Vancouver Island., Douglas Bertram

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Baseline information on marine distribution and abundance of marine birds and their prey populations is needed to evaluate current status in relation to threats from potential increases in tanker traffic near Southern Vancouver Island. We conducted year round (bi-trimonthly) boat-based, at-sea surveys between Sidney BC and Victoria BC from November 2015 - November 2019 to examine seasonal variation during the year and between years. Our study area includes parts of the Sidney Channel Important Bird Area, the Shoal Harbour and Victoria Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuaries and the Chain Islets Ecological Reserve, which are all close to major shipping lanes. With …

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Monitoring Coccolithophore Blooms In Hood Canal, Seth Book Apr 2020

Monitoring Coccolithophore Blooms In Hood Canal, Seth Book

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The re-occurrence of bloom observations of coccolithophores, Emiliania huxleyi, that were seen in the Hood Canal from 2006-2008 and resurfaced in 2016-2019 have raised concerns about adverse effects on marine shellfish resources. Crab and shrimp test fishery and catch data, together with observations of intertidal clam and oyster populations have raised the alarm with the tribal community and resource managers that the blooms adversely impacts these resources. The Skokomish Tribe has been collecting oceanographic, environmental and biological data to understand the possible causes and effects of the recurring events of the coccolithophore blooms in Hood Canal. Canal-specific oceanographic data compiled …

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Between Two Worlds Indigenous High School Science Program, Todd Mitchell Apr 2020

Between Two Worlds Indigenous High School Science Program, Todd Mitchell

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Traditional Swinomish culture relies on water dependent livelihoods in the Salish Sea, centered on the Swinomish Reservation near La Conner, Washington. A common saying at Swinomish is “when the tide is out, the table is set”; Subsistence shellfish harvests are common and Swinomish people call themselves the “People of the Salmon.” Without a clear understanding of the interconnectedness of nature, and a sense of stewardship over the land, our natural resources and traditional lifeways may be threatened. Between Two Worlds is a youth education program to give Swinomish high school students a greater appreciation of the land and environment and …

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Using Seasonality And Particle Tracking To Trace Intermediate Water In The Strait Of Georgia, Samuel Stevens Apr 2020

Using Seasonality And Particle Tracking To Trace Intermediate Water In The Strait Of Georgia, Samuel Stevens

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Strait of Georgia is a complex system of basins and waterways within the Salish Sea that receives the majority of Greater Vancouver’s wastewater via riverine input and effluent outfalls. It can be nominally divided into three constituent water masses: (1) a riverine surface layer; (2) a deep oceanic layer; and (3) an intermediate layer, composed of a mixture of the surface and deep waters. The intermediate water (IW) layer is the largest layer volumetrically and a primary component of the region’s subsurface estuarine circulation, yet a comprehensive understanding of the system has proved challenging. Here, we use two methods …

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Coastal Stream And Embayment Restoration Priorities Along The Bnsf Railroad: Results And Future Action, Phil Bloch Apr 2020

Coastal Stream And Embayment Restoration Priorities Along The Bnsf Railroad: Results And Future Action, Phil Bloch

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The railroad right-of-way is a prominent modification along the eastern shore of the Washington portion of the Salish Sea. It runs along 52 miles of the shoreline, while another 73 miles of railroad is within 200 feet of the shoreline. In many places, the railroad forms a barrier between the coastal watershed and the shoreline, preventing the delivery of water, sediment, wood, and organic matter to the nearshore. This results in ongoing degradation of the habitat quality of the nearshore environment, which is important habitat for juvenile Chinook salmon and other salmonids. Because nearshore restoration along the railroad is expensive …

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Potential Climate Change Impacts And Actions To Adapt In Nearshore And Estuarine Areas Of Howe Sound/Atl’Ḵa7tsem, Jennifer Chapman Apr 2020

Potential Climate Change Impacts And Actions To Adapt In Nearshore And Estuarine Areas Of Howe Sound/Atl’Ḵa7tsem, Jennifer Chapman

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Howe Sound/Atl’ḵa7tsem is a fjord located near Vancouver, BC with both nearshore and estuarine habitats and communities. The coastal and estuarine habitats in the fjord are highly vulnerable to impacts from climate change (e.g., sea level rise, increased storm frequency). In order to better inform local citizens and decision-makers about possible actions for climate change adaptation in these estuarine and nearshore zones, a new report on the area’s coastal health (Ocean Watch: Howe Sound/Atl’ḵa7tsem report update) will be released in 2020. This report updates the current state of coastal ocean health in Howe Sound/Atl’ḵa7tsem since an initial report was released …

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