Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

A just and green transition away from carbon-intensive economy will require large amount of critical earth mineral to support new technologies such as lithium battery and solar panels. Canada is uniquely positioned to support this green transition because of the vast number of mineral resources that are currently untapped. However, for these resources to be extracted sustainably, there is a need to consider the interdisciplinary, and cumulative impacts of natural resources development on socio-environmental system. Ecosystem services (ES) provide a pertinent approach to these considerations, as ES science provide tools and conceptual frameworks to investigate the provision of goods and services from nature to communities. Regional assessments, as described in the new 2019 Impact Assessment Act, provide a new, timely policy tool to ensure that interdisciplinary cumulative impacts are considered in impact assessments. Yet, based on the current states of ES science, there is a gap in the scientific literature for readily available scientific information to support regional assessments, especially regarding large-scale assessments of highly valued ES and associated baseline data. Understanding the gaps in ES provisioning in the context of cumulative impacts is crucial to support the sustainable development of natural resources in Canada. Drawing from my experience as a senior impact assessment officer and as a large-scale freshwater sustainability researcher, I want to initiate my research program at Memorial University by investigating how cumulative impacts related to natural resources developments affect the capacity of, demand for, and pressures on ES of Canadian watersheds at various scales. My work will focus on riverine services such as water provision for communities, recreational and subsistence fishing, recreational boating, flood protection, cultural and spiritual significance, and nutrient cycling. I will undertake research at the Canadian, regional (Atlantic Canada and Quebec), and local (Western Coast of Newfoundland) scales. The next five years of my research program will focus on the integration of interdisciplinarity by modelling identified highly valued riverine ES and on interscalability by comparing local and national scales ES modelling approaches and results. More specifically, I want to investigate current gaps in understanding in ES science by identifying tradeoffs (an increase in one service linked to declines in others), by assessing the cumulative impacts of natural resources development projects on ES provisioning, and by better understanding the influence of the scale of assessment on resulting ES interactions. Overall, combining ES and cumulative impacts modelling at regional and Canadian scales is a promising and novel avenue to ensure the sustainable management of socio-environmental systems at large scales.