Talk description

From local infrastructure projects to global climate change, human activities and the resulting stressors affect marine ecosystems in many ways. The combined effects of multiple human activities and stressors (henceforth, cumulative impacts) are one of the most challenging threats to the oceans. However, cumulative impacts are the result of complicated interactions and non-linear relationships. In this presentation, Andy asks: How can we explore the effects of human activities and stressors other than fishing with EwE? In a systematic literature review, he has found many studies that use EwE to explore important aspects of climate change, habitat loss, species introductions, eutrophication, and various land and sea uses. However, Andy also found four research gaps. For example, no studies harnessed the statistical possibilities that arise when simulations can be repeated many times with complete control over all inputs. Andy will argue that these gaps can be filled by integrating EwE with other computational methods and with advances in other sub-disciplines of environmental research

Bio

Dr. Andy Stock is a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia. His research program focuses on computational methods to understand how people change marine ecosystems. Before coming to Canada, he completed a post-doc at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York City and a PhD in Environment & Resources at Stanford University in California.  Andy’s environmental research builds on a technical foundation in geoinformatics and computer science