kaichan
Kai Chan is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair (tier 2, in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). His training spans conservation biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, policy, and ethics, and his skill sets include quantitative analysis and modeling. Kai combines these perspectives in a sustainability science research program on social-ecological interactions (including human impacts on ecosystem components and processes, and ecosystem services to benefit people) and applied environmental ethics to inform ecosystem-based management and sustainability solutions. Kai leads CHAN’S lab; he is a director on the board of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s BC chapter (CPAWS-BC), a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program, and a member of the Global Young Academy.
To see Kai’s page at CHAN’S lab click here.
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
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
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“.
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
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.
Ashli Akins featured in National Geographic
Ashli Akins was interviewed by National Geographic about the challenges of running an NGO during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ashli runs Mosqoy in Peru, protecting intangible cultural heritage associated with weaving.
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