Grant: Alliance Grants

Sentinels of Change aims to bring together Hakai Institute scientists, University scientists and local communities to monitor Salish Sea biodiversity at an unprecedented scale and resolution to resolve our understanding of ecosystem processes to support the sustainable development and management the Salish Sea, which provides essential services to a host of Nations, Tribes, and communities. The Salish Sea is changing in a multitude of ways, and tackling biodiversity change can help us achieve a more predictable, sustainable, and productive ocean, all key outcomes of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. To this aim, the Sentinels of Changes project will train postdoctoral researchers to implement a series of globally recognized biodiversity monitoring programs which will provide important information about the regional and temporal patterns of invertebrate biodiversity, while also contributing data to global initiatives. The development and implementation of this research program will be shared between researchers at UBC and Hakai. Hakai Scientists and staff will implement and maintain the community partner network and training, providing a consistent collaborative framework. Sentinel Postdoctoral researchers will be co-advised by UBC professors and Hakai scientists to develop projects that synthesize the information coming in from the monitoring program, as well as provide complementary theory development, mechanistic experiments and monitoring. The Sentinels of Change project will create a collaborative and communicative network, and data from this project will be publicly available and accessible, curated to address community interests and policy needs.