The Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe) is a nationwide strategic initiative bringing together leading marine researchers to establish scientific guidelines for conserving and sustainably using marine biodiversity. With expertise spanning fields like oceanography, ecology, biology, and environmental engineering, CHONe mobilizes scientific knowledge to inform policy and management strategies.
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With a strong foundation of evidence, industries and communities can make informed decisions that foster sustainability and resilience. Next, we’ll delve into CHONe’s critical questions and the partnerships driving their impactful research across Canada.
CHONe’s Mission to Understand Ocean Resilience
Since its establishment in 2015, CHONe has pursued critical research on cumulative human impacts and the resilience of marine ecosystems. Their work centers around two interlinked questions:
- What ecosystem characteristics define the capacity of Canada’s oceans to recover from disturbances?
- How do stressors like pollution alter biodiversity and ecosystem functioning?
To address these questions, CHONe supports projects across Canada conducted in partnership with universities, government agencies, and local communities.
Research Focus and Timeline
From 2015-2020, CHONe conducted research at sites nationwide, including an intensive focus on the Sept-Îles Bay area to study cumulative impacts in Northern ecosystems. Partnerships with institutions like the Port Authority of Sept-Îles allowed assessments of environmental stressors from industrial, municipal and recreational activities.
The outcomes of this 5-year research effort will facilitate practical recommendations for spatial management, usage guidelines, and habitat restoration priorities.
Key Researchers and Contributions
CHONe unites over 30 researchers from 11 universities alongside government scientists. These experts lend their diverse specializations to the network’s projects.
Dr. Daniel Bourgault – His modelling of physical oceanographic processes like turbulence and internal waves provides insights into sediment transport and contamination risks from offshore development.
Dr. Philippe Archambault – By quantifying biodiversity shifts across marine environments in response to multiple stressors, his work enhances understanding of ecosystem resilience.
Dr. Simon Bélanger – Through advancing remote sensing techniques to monitor Arctic and sub-Arctic biogeochemistry, he traces the fate of organic contaminants from land to sea.
Dr. Julie Carriere – Her decades of expertise in analyzing industrial emissions and evaluating their broad impacts on water quality underpins sustainable ocean usage.
Dr. Isabelle Côté – Renowned for assessing cumulative change globally, her studies on invasive species and marine protected area effectiveness generate widely applicable conservation science.
Dr. Craig Brown – His pioneering use of underwater acoustic technologies and landscape ecology concepts to map seabed habitats facilitates spatially optimized monitoring and management.
Dr. Marie-Josée Fortin – Her interdisciplinary spatial modelling elucidates how distributions of marine species and ecosystems may shift under climate change, informing proactive adaptation strategies.
Student Involvement in CHONe
CHONe provides a vibrant platform for emerging researchers to actively advance marine conservation science across Canada. Students tackle focused questions tied to major network projects as well as conduct their own thesis work grounded in CHONe’s research themes.
Carlos Araujo
PhD Candidate, Université du Québec à Rimouski
Study Area: Carlos explores biodiversity shifts in coastal sediments in response to natural and human disturbances. His assessments of indicator species help determine the impacts of stressors like eutrophication. His work also aids monitoring and policy guidance for sediment quality guidelines.
Emma Cooke
MSc Candidate, Memorial University
Focus: Emma investigates age-related movement patterns of juvenile Atlantic Cod using acoustic telemetry to elucidate essential early-life habitats. Linked to population genomic analysis, her tracking of key nursery areas informs recovery efforts of this iconic, once-collapsed fishery.
Callum Mireault
MSc Candidate, Memorial University
Expertise: Deploying specialized underwater camera systems, Callum examines associations between physical oceanography and distributions of ecologically significant benthic invertebrates. His methodological comparisons help optimize cost-effective seafloor survey approaches for coastal regions targeted for enhanced monitoring and conservation.
Xavier Mouy
PhD Candidate, University of Victoria
Focus: Xavier studies underwater sounds made by fish and other marine animals and how noise from human activities affects them. He uses special underwater microphones called hydrophones and video cameras to record and identify fish sounds, linking them to specific species and behaviours. His research also looks at how noise might impact fish communication. By studying these sounds, Xavier’s work helps develop better tools to monitor fish populations and improve conservation efforts, as well as guide industrial and environmental planning.
Significance of Student Research
Research Themes and Projects
Ranging from ocean physics to community ecology, CHONe projects fall under two crosscutting themes:
- Defining ecosystem connectivity and recovery potential.
- Optimizing marine protected area placement using models of population connectivity.
- Relating coastal habitat quality to offshore fisheries production.
- Developing indicators to monitor marine conservation efficacy.
- Quantifying cumulative human impacts.
- Tracking contaminant loading and sediment toxicity near industrial and municipal discharge sites.
- Elucidating complex species community shifts in response to multiple stressors.
- Identifying threshold dynamics leading to abrupt ecosystem changes.
Impact and Significance
The policy-relevant science generated by CHONe researchers and students aids in balancing marine conservation priorities with sustainable development objectives. Their work provides frameworks for managing coastal and offshore marine spaces by quantifying the complex synergistic links between habitats and species as well as their sensitivities to resource exploitation activities.
Additionally, in actively cultivating young talent through an integrative research network, CHONe ensures the continuity of robust ocean science. The emerging generation of experts trained under veteran researchers will drive future efforts to sustain biodiverse, productive oceans. Thereby CHONe contributes both specific scientific insights for ocean management while building long-term capacity for marine environmental stewardship.