I worked as a research assistant in Kai’s lab from May – December 2010. In September 2011 I will begin my master’s at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia. I’ll be co-supervised by Robin Naidoo and Kai. I completed my undergraduate at UBC in the Environmental Sciences program.
During my time as a research assistant, I helped various lab members with their work, as well as performed my own investigation into the cumulative impacts of human activities on ecosystem services in coastal British Columbia (an extension of my undergraduate thesis). For this project, I chose to examine the impact of agriculture (livestock and crop) on the provision of shellfish, using ArcGIS to spatially map results.
For my master’s I will be performing a spatial analysis of the movement of 32 collared buffalo in the Caprivi strip, Namibia, whose movements have been measured since 2007. Buffalo are an important species in the region as they attract significant tourism (photographic safaris, trophy hunting) as well as provide cultural benefits to local communities (subsistence hunting, buffalo meat is used in traditional feasts).
