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Posts

Intro

Published: November 09, 2020

art

Pelagic Ecosystem Model ‘Subway’ Diagram (2021)

Inspiration: can a visually appealling ecosystem model also be informative??
Illustration

A hanging, electronically controlled installation with lights sequentially lit using a real, ecological food web model associated with Atlantic Cod.
Stainless steel, quartz, fibre optics, electronics.
Part of the CFAT New Media Arts Scholarship and displayed at Halifax’s Nocturne Art-at-Night Festival.

Recent Experiments (2020-)

Some recent motifs and concepts I’ve been playing with.
Spray paint on wood panels

portfolio

Marine Ecosystem Modelling of the Salish Sea (2018 - present)

Marine ecosystem models to investigate changes in salmon survival and to support marine spatial planning

Pre-European Contact Shoreline Reconstruction via Participatory Mapping with Indigenous Knowledge Holders - in Collaboration with the Tsleil Waututh First Nation (2020-21)

We are collaboratively developing a pre-European contact shoreline to assist the Tsleil Waututh First Nation with reconstructing the location of the shoreline, analysis of intertidal habitat changes, and ecosystem modeling.

Marine Spatial Planning in Burrard Inlet: Overview of Decision Support and Technical Aspects (2020)

Marine Spatial Planning has many moving parts. As part of a team of grad students I helped produce an online ‘story map’ giving an interactive overview of technical aspects for the Tsleil Waututh First Nation.

Network Analysis Tools for Ecological Connectivity Assessments of Rivers - FIPEX & the DCI (2008 - present)

Leading the development of the FIPEX tool with the DCI

A Network of Marine Protected Areas in the Northern Shelf Bioregion (2013-2018)

Working collaboratively to establish a network of Marine Protected Areas in British Columbia, Canada

publications

Spatial Optimisation of River Restoration Planning in Nova Scotia: Masters Thesis.

Oldford G (2013). "Spatial Optimisation of River Restoration Planning in Nova Scotia, Canada [Thesis]" School for Resource & Environmental Studies. (https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/36309/Oldford-Greig-MES-SRES-August-2013.pdf?sequence=1)

River restoration is believed to have the greatest chance of success when action is considered in the broader context of the riverscape. However, methods are lacking to fully integrate systemic connectivity into decision-making.

Published in Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2013

Informing Watershed Connectivity Barrier Prioritization Decisions: A Synthesis.

McKay SK, Cooper AR, Diebel MW, Elkins D, Oldford G, Roghair C, Wieferich D. (2016). "Informing Watershed Connectivity Barrier Prioritization Decisions: A Synthesis.." River Research and Applications. 33(6). (http://goldford.github.io/files/oldford_001.pdf)

This paper synthesizes 46 watershed-scale barrier planning studies and presents a procedure to guide barrier prioritization associated with connectivity for aquatic organisms.

Published in River Research and Applications, 2016

Assessing the contribution of established protected areas towards meeting MPA network objectives in the Northern Shelf Bioregion

Martone R.G., G. Oldford , C. McDougall, J. Cristiani, A. Chow, C. Robb, E. Rubidge, K.S.P. Gale, L. Chaves, E. Damjkar, P. Mahaux, S. Ban. (2018). "Assessing Contribution of Established Protected Areas Towards Meeting MPA Network Objectives in the Northern Shelf Bioregion[in Chandler, P.C., S.A. King, J. Boldt (2018). State of the Physical, Biological and Selected Fishery Resources of Pacific Canadian Marine Ecosystems in 2017. Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. No. 3266]" Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 3266 https://goldford.github.io/files/2017_SOPO.pdf

We present an approach for determining how effectively the existing MPAs meet the ecological conservation priority targets in Canada’s Northern Shelf Bioregion, taking potential cumulative impacts from human activities into consideration

Published in Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 2018

Dams, culverts, and cumulative effects: quantifying cumulative effects of barriers to longitudinal connectivity on three rivers in Nova Scotia, Canada. (accepted; in revision)

Oldford GL, Duinker P.N., Gunn E.A., Kehler D.G. (TBD). "Dams, Culverts, and Cumulative Effects: Quantifying Cumulative Effects of Barriers to Longitudinal Connectivity on Three Rivers in Nova Scotia, Canada." River Research & Applications. (in revision) TBD

(underway - accepted with minor revisions)
We present a suite of approaches that can be used to quantify and characterize the cumulative effects of different types of riverine barriers. We demonstrate these methods on three river systems in Nova Scotia, Canada, each heavily fragmented by road culverts and dams associated with hydroelectric and other development.

Published in River Research and Applications, 2018

Technical aspects of Marine Spatial Planning in Burrard Inlet (tech report)

Brownlee G, Lang C, Oldford G, Virgen-Urceley, A (2020). "Technical aspects of Marine Spatial Planning in Burrard Inlet" Tech Report. Tsleil Waututh First Nation

we prepared this report for the TWN by reviewing and synthesizing academic and other available literature from around the world. We focused on three critical aspects of MSP: (1) Data Needs and Management, (2) DSTs and Models, and (3) Outreach and Communication.

Published in TWN, 2020

Opinion: It’s time to call out denialism.

Oldford, G. (2020). "It’s time to call out denialism — on racism and on climate change." The National Observer. June 4, 2020. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/06/04/opinion/its-time-call-out-denialism-racism-and-climate-change

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But newspapers — especially mass media outlets — should be held accountable when they propagandize dangerous denialism instead of presenting facts

Published in The National Observer, 2020

Depensatory predation may cause catastrophic changes in herring populations (submitted)

Christensen V, Oldford G, Licandeo R, Walters CW (2020). "Depensatory mortality in British Columbia herring populations due to predation by Steller sea lions" PNAS. (submitted)

We showed that including depensatory predation rates caused a fundamental change in the fish population dynamics compared with the traditional approach of ignoring predation scenarios in stock assessments. Increases in pinniped abundance following a history of heavy exploitation make it progressively more difficult to avoid fish stock collapses, and there is evidence of similar impacts for a variety of small pelagic and demersal stocks around the world.

Published in TBD, 2020

End-to-End Spatial Ecosystem Modeling in Support of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Program (dissertation - in prep)

Oldford G, Christensen VC, Buszowski J, Steenbeek J, Hunt B, Pearsall I, Walters CW (in prep). "End-to-End Spatial Ecosystem Modeling in Support of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Program " dissertation. (in prep)

My PhD dissertation involves (1) acquiring and prepping a large amount of ecological and human activities data, (2) co-developing a hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model, (3) development of a spatial-temporal ecosystem model, (4) and application of the model complex to investigate declining trends in marine survival of coho and Chinook salmon in the Salish Sea.

Published in PhD Research, 2021

Making spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling better

Steenbeek J, Buszowski J, Chagaris D, Christensen V, Coll M, Fulton EA, Katsanevakis S, Lewis KA, Mazaris AD, Macias D, de Mutsert K, Oldford G, Pennino MG, Piroddi C, Romagnoni G, Serpetti N, Shin YJ, Spence MA, Stelzenmuller V. "Making spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling better - a perspective " Environmental Modelling and Software. Vol 145, November 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105209

Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) are rarely systematically validated and calibrated. This can potentially undermine the credibility and uptake of model output in the policy arenas where it is so direly needed. We identify the main technical hurdles that prevent the MEM community from moving forward, and specify a resolving framewo

Published in Environmental Modelling and Software, 2021

Reconstructing the Pre-European Contact Shoreline of Burrard Inlet (Vancouver, BC, Canada) (2021)

Taft, S., Oldford, G. , M.I., Lilley, P.L., Oetterich, S.B., Morin, J., George, M., George, M., and Christensen, V. . "Reconstructing the Pre-European Contact Shoreline of Burrard Inlet (Vancouver, BC, Canada) using participatory mapping and a two-eyed seeing approach " Institute for Oceans & Fisheries (Fisheries Centre) Research Reports. Vol XX, November 2021 https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/facultyresearchandpublications/52383/items/1.0407075

Throughout Canada’s history, colonial settlement and development has greatly altered landscapes and impacted ecosystems through resource extraction, infrastructure development, urbanization, and industrial activity. In many locations, these impacts have occurred and accumulated over decades and centuries, with severe, long-term effects on Indigenous communities, and the ecosystems and physical environments that are intimately tied to traditional cultural practices and lifestyles. Yet despite the significant impacts on Indigenous peoples and ecosystems, there are often limited Western or Euro-Canadian records or documentation focused on these cumulative effects. Together, different types of information from early Euro-Canadian settlers and Indigenous Knowledge can establish a strong understanding of historical environmental conditions, and the pace and magnitude of total regional change since European contact. This method of using both Western and Indigenous ways of knowing is referred to as Two-Eyed Seeing (Bartlett et al. 2012) and has wide applications, including for fisheries management and historical research across Canada (Giles et al. 2016, Mantyka-Pringle et al. 2017, Abu et al. 2019). Importantly, Two-Eyed Seeing can focus on specific places and impacts to more accurately assess long-term change in a region. In this paper, we use this approach to quantify shoreline change within Burrard Inlet, the centre of Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s territory, and the main harbour of metropolitan Vancouver and Canada’s largest port.

Published in UBC Institute for Oceans and Fisheries (Fisheries Centre) Research Reports, 2021

talks

Preying on the weak? Possible non-additive effects of seal predation and stress-related mortality in juvenile coho and Chinook in the Salish Sea

Ecosystem models that account for trophic interaction effects on prey mortality rates typically represent mortality rates as a sum of independent or additive component rates. This may not be valid.

Published: April 09, 2019

Seals may not increase exploitable biomass in the Salish Sea (Steps towards a new E2E ecosystem model for the Strait of Georgia and Salish Sea)

Seals may be reducing harvestable biomass in the Strait of Georgia, a conclusion contrary to previous studies.

Published: May 31, 2019

Spatial-Temporal Fitting for Ecosystem Models - Experiences and Observations from Canada.

Although ML approaches often are designed to work with huge input datasets, the ‘fitting’ techniques include potentially useful probabilistic and optimization methods. Various techniques have been developed for in the ML world might assist especially in cases where we are fitting ‘heuristically’

Published: June 03, 2019

Ecosystem Models: Supporting Marine Planning and Ecosystem Based Management

EM can be applied to MSP in a similar way as in marine conservation except MSP is more complex and models can be more complex. Involve people early on in: data collection, shaping and scoping the modeling framework.

Published: June 24, 2019

Seals may not increase exploitable biomass in the Salish Sea (Steps towards a new E2E ecosystem model for the Strait of Georgia and Salish Sea)

In a complex and open ecosystem such as the Salish Sea, studying a species without consideration of its broader environment will naturally limit the inferences and understanding that can result

Published: October 10, 2019

Whodunnit? The Case of the Dying Salmon in the Salish Sea (An Investigation Using an End-to-End Ecosystem Model)

Summary of ongoing ecosystem modelling work in the Salish Sea investigating survival declines of juvenile salmon.

Published: December 03, 2019

Evaluating Marine Survival Hypotheses using a Spatially Resolved End-to-End Model for the Strait of Georgia

Our effort is first to use the spatial-temporal abilities of Ecospace to model the Strait of Georgia ecosystem. Model can read spatial-temporal data from files to drive the model using the ‘spatial temporal framework’.

Published: February 04, 2020

Modeling long term ecosystem and productivity changes of the Georgia Strait pelagic zone

Background and overview of quantitative modelling work undertaken as part of my PhD research.

Published: November 17, 2020

IYS Salmonscape Workshop: Approaches to Salmon Life History Modeling - an Overview of Ecopath-Ecosim-Ecospace

An overview of Ecopath-Ecosim-Ecospace (www.ecopath.org), a flexible and widely used ecosystem modeling framework with static, dynamic, and spatial-temporal modules.

Published: January 28, 2021

Evaluating Chinook and Coho Marine Survival Hypotheses using a Spatially Resolved End-to-End Model for the Central and Northern Salish Sea

An overview of our Salish Sea / Central and Northern Strait of Georgia Model to assist with NOAA’s scoping of Columbia River salmon modeling work.

Published: March 08, 2021

Pacific salmon from freshwater to the ocean: integrating knowledge on the early marine life history

Summary of early marine life history of Pacific salmon and ongoing work integrating ecological knowledge to investigate survival changes.

Published: December 01, 2021

teaching

Introduction to Environmental and Resource Management (ENVS 1100)

I was a teaching assistant for this undergraduate course.

Undergraduate course, Dalhousie University, 2009

Environment & Human Health (ENVS 3400)

I was a teaching assistant for this undergraduate course in 2010 and 2011. I led teaching GIS labs where I prepared tutorials (5-7 per semester), lectured to a lab of 15-30 undergraduate students, assisted students in the computer lab, marked assignments, uploaded grades, and marked the final exams.

Undergraduate course, Dalhousie University, 2010

Greig Oldford