Landscapes - People - Global change

Tag: HQP

New ResNet paper feat. Bay of Fundy

A quick note today to celebrate a new paper out in People and Nature, led by ResNet McGill PhD student Yiyi Zhang. The paper, Servicesheds connect people to the landscapes upon which they depend, uses two landscape case studies to demonstrate a new framework (see below) for delineating servicesheds. In the Bay of Fundy she explored “fisheries benefitting fishers, and flood protection benefitting flood-prone communities”. The Monteregie of Quebec is the other case study, with a focus on agriculture. Her study explicitly explores the impacts of tidal wetlands on coastal protection compared with the dykes that substitute that service. An ambitious study, conceptually and practically. Congratulations Yiyi and her team at McGill, including Brian Robinson and Hugo Thierry.

Zhang et al. figure 2 outlining the serviceshed framework

Fall 2024 omnibus

From left to right, Brooke, Patricia, Karen, Sam and I at Samantha’s MES defense

First, belated congratulations are due to Samantha Howard, who defended her MES thesis earlier in the fall term. Thanks to Brooke (her co-supervisor), Karen Akerlof of George Mason University in Washington, DC (her committee member), and Patricia Manuel from Dalhousie’s School of Planning for the great discussion of Sam’s work. Her thesis is now available on Dalspace:  Understanding Psychological Drivers of Attitudes Towards Coastal Climate Adaptations in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia.

Brooke discussing the Advanced Grazing Systems program she is studying at the CFGA 2023 conference.

Second, great to see Brooke engaging with livestock producers, commodity group organizations and NGOs at this year’s Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) conference in Harrison Hot Springs, BC. Her presentation was called Rotational grazing: Examining perspectives for sustainable Canadian landscapes, and draws upon her mixed methods research around the national grazing mentorship program Advanced Grazing Systems that is a partnership between CFGA and Farmers for Climate Solutions. Can’t deny that it is also a great time of year to be visiting somewhere with hot springs!

Last, today, Patrick James presented his MREM project to complete his program at Dalhousie. Over the summer, Patrick worked for the ResNet project on system dynamic modelling of specific ecosystem services, supervised by Lara. Over the fall term he has been supervised by Brooke, working on the SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant she led to understand how farmers are experiencing the New Brunswick Living Lab program. Congratulations, Patrick, and thanks for all the contributions you made to the lab!

Coastal reports and coverage

Two things are out from the lab this week on topics coastal.

Keahna Margeson, IDPhD student and 2023 OpenThink cohort member, had a commentary published in the Conversation called Let coastlines be coastlines: how nature-based approaches can protect Canada’s coasts. It is a great read!

The release of the report on last year’s scenario planning workshop for the Bay of Fundy coast was covered in DalNews. The report, Envisioning Environmental Futures for the Tidal Wetlands and Dykelands of the Bay of Fundy, is led by Elson Galang, the PhD student at McGill who led the workshop, but with lots of lab folks in the mix, including Keahna, Lara Cornejo, and Polly Nguyen.

Two reports have also been uploaded to Borealis based on ResNet work by team members. These works set strong groundwork for others to build on.

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