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  • Re-orienting towards sustainability, post-COVID (Kai’s story in The Conversation)

    With the IPBES Global Assessment, the world was poised to tackle the ecological and climate crises. We have already lost our way. NOW is the time to re-orient. Let's use #Covid_19 recovery funding for CHANGE, not to lock-in to old ways. Kai's story in The Conversation

  • Kai launches new blog series on interdisciplinary research design for sustainability

    It's called "How to Write a Winning Proposal—in 10 Hard Steps". The first post is "Understand How Others Go about Research. Step 0: Let Experts Reveal Their Messy Realities". It's based on RES 602 and 15 years mentoring grad students.

  • Science article gets media attention

    Gregr et al. in Science, about sea otters and the costs and benefits of ecosystem recovery, received considerable media attention (Altimetric score=448). As one of 48 articles, the Toronto Star published an article entitled, "From atomic peril to a $50M asset: The long, strange ride of Canada’s sea otters".

  • IPBES Global Assessment synthesized in Science

    As one of the Coordinating Lead Authors, Kai coauthored this article.

  • Kai named one of Canada’s Clean16

    Kai Chan was named a Clean16 Honouree for 2020, as one of the leaders of sustainability in Canada. www.clean50.com

CHANS Lab Mission and Research Overview:

Our mission is to conduct cutting-edge analysis and modelling of social-ecological systems, for both fundamental insight and application to real-world practice and transformation–to enable the just treatment of current and future people and the natural world. Our work in the natural sciences focuses on including humans and evolution in ecological research, including modeling and diverse empirical analysis. Our work in the social sciences explores the just treatment of current and future generations, developing novel approaches to management and governance, and informing the relevance of our natural science work. Our lab is addressing the above mission through a diverse set of integrative and overlapping research foci:

  • Ecosystem Services (mechanistic analysis, mapping and socio-cultural value elicitation)
  • Cumulative Effects (risk assessment, policy, modeling)
  • Social-Ecological Systems (characterization and modeling of dynamics, vulnerability and adaptive capacity)
  • Science Engagement (motivations, barriers, measurement)
  • Integrative Sustainability (impact mitigation, from ecosystems to producers and consumers)
  • News
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Kai and Terre reflect on a nine-year journey to critically evaluate ecosystem services research

Following their publication of a new paper in People and Nature, Kai Chan and Terre Satterfield reflect on the maturation of ecosystem services as a field, and how it has risen to some critiques but not others. In Relational Thinking, The People and Nature Blog.

Maayan Kreitzman defends her PhD

Maayan successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled “Perennial Agriculture: Agronomy and Environment in Long-Lived Food Systems“. Congratulations, Maayan!

John Driscoll defends his PhD

John successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled “Nutrient Yields from Northwest Atlantic Fisheries: Analysis, Indicators, and Optimization“. Congratulations, John!

IPBES Podcast: Choose Your Own Adventure

Kai Chan was featured on the new IPBES Podcast Nature Insight. Rob Spaull interviewed Kai about transformative change, the personal and the global.

Re-orienting towards sustainability, post-COVID (Kai’s story in The Conversation)

With the IPBES Global Assessment, the world was poised to tackle the ecological and climate crises.
We have already lost our way.
NOW is the time to re-orient. Let’s use #Covid_19 recovery funding for CHANGE, not to lock-in to old ways.
Kai’s story in The Conversation

Another blog post in the IPBES series: How to Cite the Global Assessment Fairly and Appropriately

In the series of blog posts about IPBES, the newest entry argues that citing just the Díaz et al. Science paper or the Summary for Policymakers is usually inappropriate, and that a fairer strategy is to also cite the report itself or its chapters. For convenience, the citation info is all provided here, including a BibTeX file.

Kai launches new blog series on interdisciplinary research design for sustainability

It’s called “How to Write a Winning Proposal—in 10 Hard Steps“. The first post is “Understand How Others Go about Research. Step 0: Let Experts Reveal Their Messy Realities“. It’s based on RES 602 and 15 years mentoring grad students.

Science article gets media attention

Gregr et al. in Science, about sea otters and the costs and benefits of ecosystem recovery, received considerable media attention (Altimetric score=448). As one of 48 articles, the Toronto Star published an article entitled, “From atomic peril to a $50M asset: The long, strange ride of Canada’s sea otters“.

Cam Bullen defends his Master’s

Cameron defended his Master’s thesis about Steller’s sea cows entitled, “A Marine Megafaunal Extinction and Its Consequences for Kelp Forests of the North Pacific“. Congratulations, Cam!

Jo Fitzgibbons selected for the Governor General’s Gold Medal by the University of Waterloo

Jo received this great honour for her Master’s research, which explored the process and politics of planning for urban resilience under the supervision of Dr. Carrie Mitchell.

More news...
  • Chan & Satterfield, The maturation of ecosystem services

    Chan, K.M.A. and T. Satterfield (2020). "The maturation of ecosystem services: Social and policy research expands, but whither biophysically-informed valuation?" People and Nature. Doi: 10.1002/pan3.10137


  • Klain et al., Octopus’s garden under the blade

    Klain, S., T. Satterfield, K.M.A. Chan and K. Lindberg (2020). "Octopus’s garden under the blade: Boosting biodiversity increases willingness to pay for offshore wind in the United States." Energy Research & Social Science 69: 101744. Doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2020.101744


  • Duarte et al., A user-inspired framework and tool for restoring multifunctional landscapes

    Duarte, G.T., M. Mitchell, F. Martello, E.J. Gregr, A.P. Paglia, K.M.A. Chan and M. C. Ribeiro (2020). "A user-inspired framework and tool for restoring multifunctional landscapes: putting into practice stakeholder and scientific knowledge of landscape services." Landscape Ecology. Doi: 10.1007/s10980-020-01093-7


  • Chan et al., Levers and leverage points for pathways to sustainability

    Chan, K.M.A., D.R. Boyd, R.K. Gould, J. Jetzkowitz, J. Liu, B. Muraca, R. Naidoo, P. Olmsted, T. Satterfield, O. Selomane, G.G. Singh, R. Sumaila, H.T. Ngo, A.K. Boedhihartono, J. Agard, A.P.D.d. Aguiar, D. Armenteras, L. Balint, C. Barrington-Leigh, W.W.L. Cheung, S. Díaz, J. Driscoll, K. Esler, H. Eyster, E.J. Gregr, S. Hashimoto, G.C.H. Pedraza, T. Hickler, M. Kok, T. Lazarova, A.A.A. Mohamed, M. Murray-Hudson, P. O'Farrell, I. Palomo, A.K. Saysel, R. Seppelt, J. Settele, B. Strassburg, D. Xue and E.S. Brondízio (2020). "Levers and Leverage Points for Pathways to Sustainability." People and Nature 2(3): 693-717. Doi: 10.1002/pan3.10124


  • Gregr et al., Cascading social-ecological costs and benefits

    Gregr, E.J., V. Christensen, L. Nichol, R.G. Martone, R.W. Markel, J.C. Watson, C.D.G. Harley, E.A. Pakhomov, J.B. Shurin and K.M.A. Chan (2020). "Cascading social-ecological costs and benefits triggered by a recovering keystone predator." Science 368(6496): 1243-1247. Doi: 10.1126/science.aay5342


  • Singh et al., Mapping cumulative impacts to coastal ecosystem services in BC

    Singh, G.G., I.M.S. Eddy, B.S. Halpern, R. Neslo, T. Satterfield and K.M.A. Chan (2020). "Mapping cumulative impacts to coastal ecosystem services in British Columbia." PLOS ONE 15(5): e0220092. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220092


  • Díaz et al., Investments’ role in ecosystem degradation—Response

    Díaz, S., J. Settele, E.S. Brondízio, H.T. Ngo, A. Pfaff, S. Polasky, J. Agard, A. Arneth, P. Balvanera, K.A. Brauman, S.H.M. Butchart, K.M.A. Chan, L.A. Garibaldi, K. Ichii, J. Liu, S.M. Subramanian, G.F. Midgley, P. Miloslavich, Z. Molnár, D. Obura, A. Purvis, J. Razzaque, B. Reyers, R.R. Chowdhury, Y.-J. Shin, I. Visseren-Hamakers, K.J. Willis and C.N. Zayas (2020). "Investments' role in ecosystem degradation—Response." Science 368(6489): 377-377. Doi: 10.1126/science.abb6019


  • Chapman et al., How value conflicts infected the science of riparian buffers

    Chapman, M., T. Satterfield and K.M.A. Chan (2020). "How value conflicts infected the science of riparian restoration for endangered salmon habitat in America's Pacific Northwest: Lessons for the application of conservation science to policy." Biological Conservation 244: 108508. url


More publications...
We envision a world where consideration of social and ecological risks and consequences is fundamental to decision-making.

Our mission is to provide rigorous cutting-edge applied and insight-driven research that informs real-world decision making, to enable the just treatment of current and future people and the natural world.
Chan's Lab
Aquatic Ecosystem Research Laboratories
4th Floor, 2202 Main Mall,
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z5, Canada
CHANS Lab
Vancouver Campus
Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL)
2202 Main Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia Canada V6T 1Z4
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