Talk by William Cheung of UBC's Fisheries Centre

Title: Interdisciplinary modelling approach to assess impacts of global change on marine ecosystems and fisheries

Speaker: Dr. William Cheung, Assistant Professor, UBC Fisheries Centre

Time and Date: 2pm, Monday December 19 Location: ICICS/CS X836
Host:  Anne Condon

Abstract: Effects of increased greenhouse gas concentrations have been incorporated into models of the physical and biogeochemical conditions of the ocean, the biology and ecology of marine organisms, and marine fisheries. To evaluate future scenarios of these impacts, we developed simulation models that link physical, biological and socio-economic databases and models and assess the effects of predicted ocean-atmospheric changes on marine fishes and invertebrates, and their fisheries. Our approach uses physical and biogeochemical outputs from earth system models to simulate changes in ecophysiology, dispersal, distribution, population dynamics and fisheries potential of fishes and invertebrates under scenarios of global change. We apply this model to project the effects of predicted ocean-atmospheric changes on a large number of marine fishes and invertebrates. Besides showing an expected poleward/deeper-water shift in distribution under predicted physical changes such as temperature, the model outputs suggest that these biological responses are sensitive to ocean acidification and de-oxygenation; notably it predicts a widespread reduction in body-size of marine resource species. The projected changes in catch potential from our model are then linked to economic databases and analyses evaluating the socio-economic impacts of climate change on fisheries. These analyses pose various challenges in developing algorithms to synthesize diverse range of data, integrate system dynamics and compute model outputs that are in multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Bio: William Cheung is an Assistant Professor at the Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia since 2011. William obtained a BSc. (Biology) in 1998, and subsequently a M.Phil. in 2001 from the University of Hong Kong. After working in WWF Hong Kong for two years, he moved to Vancouver and completed his PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies in the UBC Fisheries Centre in 2007. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Sea Around Us project in UBC for two years. From 2009 to 2011, he was Lecturer in Marine Ecosystem Services in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia in the UK. Currently, his main research area is on understanding the impacts and vulnerabilities of global changes on marine ecosystems, biodiversity and fisheries, and identifies mitigation and adaptation options. Specifically, he applies interdisciplinary approaches and develops empirical and numerical simulation models to examine the impacts of climate change on marine biodiversity and fisheries, globally and in various regional seas. He works on various interdisciplinary research projects with global collaboration networks in the U.K., China, Australia, Africa, USA and Canada. He is currently a Lead Author of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has been a member of the IUCN Groupers and Wrasses Species Specialist Group since 2005. He serves on the editorial board of Fish and Fisheries and International Journal of Sustainable Development.