Beyond their potential to serve as nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation, Canada’s coastal BCEs have value due to their rich biological diversity and broader suite of ecosystem services. One 3-year (September 2025 – August 2028) PDF will be recruited to conduct a national scale assessment of the biodiversity co-benefits of Canada’s blue carbon ecosystems, to quantify their ecosystem services and economic valuation, and to co-lead the national analyses identifying areas of highest priority for nature-based solutions within these ecosystems (detailed below in PDF#3). This PDF will play a coordinating and lead role on the project.

Mentorship Team: Profs. J.K. Baum, M. O’Connor, T. G. Martin, with support from WWF-Canada, DFO and other project partners.

One 2-year (September 2025 – August 2027) PDF will be recruited to map the extent and value of Canada’s protected blue carbon ecosystems and to assess the current and future threats that constrain Canada’s BCE nature-based solutions. Analyses for this PDF project will include assessing current protected areas and those proposed out to 2030 to identify gaps in protection of Canada’s BCEs, quantifying the value of Canada’s protected blue carbon assets, assessing current and future threats anthropogenic threats to Canada’s BCEs, and finally, drawing upon our projections of BCE distributions and related threats out to 2050 (from other project components), evaluate how these BCE assets might change by 2050 without targeted management interventions.

Mentorship Team: Profs. J.K. Baum, M. O’Connor, with support from WWF-Canada, DFO and other project partners.

One 2 ½ year (January 2026 – June 2028) PDF will be recruited to first collate and synthesize new and updated data on carbon drawdown capacity of Canada’s blue carbon ecosystems and to then co-lead the national analyses for identifying areas of highest priority for nature-based solutions within Canada’s BCEs. The latter analyses will involve using spatial prioritization tools to identify suites of sites for new spatial protections and restoration efforts that would optimize NBS benefits under different scenarios to maximize different desired benefits, such as economic value, ecosystem services, and/or carbon storage. Scenarios will be co-developed with project partners.

Mentorship Team: Profs. S. Knox, J.K. Baum, M. O’Connor, T.G. Martin, with support from WWF-Canada, DFO and other project partners.

• Use multiple data types (e.g. carbon storage and sequestration, biodiversity, ecosystem services, economic value, protected areas, coastal land use etc.), methods and models to conduct national level analyses specific to the PDFs component of the overall project, with work completed in a timely manner so that it can be shared with and inform other project components;

• Collaborate with the Blue Carbon Canada team of scientists, postdocs, and partners, and provide guidance to PhD students on related components of their research for their priority regions;

• Employ excellent communication skills with colleagues, collaborators and mentors about all aspects of the projects (design, interpretation, challenges, solutions, timelines and progress);

• Be curious and engaged with the project and the work, willing to learn and grow;

• Actively support and contribute to our inclusive research environment;

• Publish results in peer-reviewed scientific journals and communicate them to project partners and at scientific conferences, in a timely fashion.

• A PhD in ecology, geography, biological oceanography, statistics, or other relevant discipline;

• Established publication record and record of completing projects in a timely manner;

• Demonstrated proficiency with statistical programming languages (R, Python or Matlab);

• Data synthesis experience, including collating, processing, modelling large and/or complex non-uniform data sets;

• Interpersonal and communication skills, the ability to work effectively and efficiently, both independently and collaboratively.

• PDF #1: Experience with ecosystem service evaluation tools and/or economic valuation of ecosystem services an asset;

• PDF #2: Experience with ArcGIS or other geospatial data analytics. Technical spatial skills to manage and integrate data sets and models into statistical analyses and maps;

• PDF #3: Experience with blue carbon science (carbon sequestration and storage), including biogeochemical processes and related literature an asset;

• PDFs #1 and 3: Experience with conservation decision-science including spatial prioritization tools (eg. PrioritzR, Marxan); 

• Expertise in the biology or ecology of at least one of the three blue carbon ecosystems an asset;

• Knowledge of, including in-depth understanding of the literature, on blue carbon and/or cumulative impacts (also known as multiple stressors).

Supervisors: Profs. Graham Clark (St. FX) and Sara Knox. (McGill University).

Like other BCEs, most salt marshes are characterized by low to negligible rates of CH4 and N2O emissions. Some marshes, however, emit CH4 and N2O, but the factors controlling these emissions, particularly the role of salinity, remain unclear. This not only creates uncertainty about the carbon drawdown capacity of Canada’s salt marshes but also about the effects of potential nature-based solutions, such as marsh restoration, remediation, and protection, on GHG budgets. Using existing chamber measurement records, supplemented with targeted new chamber CH4 and N2O measurements, and a new coastal eddy covariance tower network in B.C. and Atlantic Canada, the PhD student will compare GHG fluxes and drivers of C uptake across marshes on Canada’s east and west coasts. They will also leverage a widely used biogeochemical model (PEPRMT-Tidal) to model current and future GHG balance of these marshes. This research will refine salt marsh GHG budget estimates and advance understanding of the drivers of salt marsh C uptake and GHG dynamics, knowledge that is required to accurately quantify salt marsh ecosystem services and to identify salt marsh areas best suited to nature-based solutions.

Relevant Skills:  
§   Ability to work well in a team, both in the field and in the lab;
§   Attention to detail, and meticulous work style, as evidenced by previous work;
§   Experience with programming and/or processed-based modeling, or desire to learn how;
§   Experience with statistical analysis, or a desire to learn;
§   Prior experience working with Eddy Covariance data is not necessary but will be considered an asset.

Nature-based solutions in B.C.’s Northern Bioregion’s (Great Bear Sea) blue carbon ecosystems: valuations and prioritizations.

Supervisors: Profs. Tara Martin (UBC) and Julia Baum (UVic).

Nature-based solutions in the Salish Sea’s blue carbon ecosystems: valuations and prioritizations.

Supervisors: Profs. Tara Martin (UBC), Mary O’Connor (UBC), Julia Baum (UVic).

Nature-based solutions in James Bay’s blue carbon ecosystems: valuations and prioritizations.

Supervisors: Profs. Mary O’Connor (UBC) and Zou Zou Kuzyk (U. Manitoba).

Nature-based solutions in the blue carbon ecosystems of the Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy: valuations and prioritizations.

Supervisors: Prof. Julia Baum (UVic), Dr. Kristina Boerder, Dr. Susanna Fuller, Dr. Kira Krumhansl.

§ Ability to work well in a team, both in the lab, with project partners and in workshops with  rightsholders and stakeholders;
§   Attention to detail, and meticulous work style, as evidenced by previous work;
§   Experience with programming, such as processed-based modeling, spatial analyses and conservation decision prioritization tools, or a commitment to learn how;
§   Experience with statistical analysis, or a commitment to learn how;
§   Experience with data synthesis (ideally across different types of data);
§   Experience or familiarity with biodiversity science and/or ecosystem services tools and literature;
§   Ability and skillset to meet deadlines, manage timelines and produce agreed upon research products.