Biodiversity Research Seminar Series (BRS)
BRS Andy Stock: Modeling cumulative human impacts on marine ecosystems: State of the art and future directions
October 26, 2022, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Zoom webinar recording link for BRC and UBC community only:
Passcode: contact Katie Beall for passcode
Title: Modeling cumulative human impacts on marine ecosystems: State of the art and future directions
Abstract: People use the coasts and oceans in many ways. The cumulative impacts of multiple human activities and stressors are an important threat to biodiversity, causing death by a thousand cuts to many species. Understanding cumulative impacts is hence a prerequisite for effective biodiversity conservation, but remains an unresolved challenge in marine ecosystem ecology. Because experimental manipulation of whole ecosystems is not feasible, modeling is a crucial component of addressing this challenge. To illustrate the potential and limitations of different kinds of modeling, I will present three example studies that use very different approaches to modeling: geographical information systems, machine learning, and ecosystem modeling. These examples serve to highlight the potential and limitations of each approach. For example, while machine learning can in principle extract complicated relationships between combinations of stressors and biodiversity measures, applying it to typical ecological data is prone to misleading biases. Finally, I will suggest future research directions to combine the strengths of all three modeling approaches.