Population ecology with applications to fisheries, aquaculture, epidemiology, and conservation

认为物种与环境保持稳定平衡的观点很少是正确的。相反，科学家们长期以来一直对自然界中发生的种群波动感到困惑。这不仅仅是一个智力上的注脚。它适用于对人类重要的情况，包括疾病爆发、渔业崩溃或标志性物种的丧失。我的研究计划侧重于了解导致人口波动的因素，特别是如何影响疾病爆发、粮食安全、渔业可持续性和生物多样性保护。 一个特别的重点是沿海海洋以及实现可持续的生态系统和经济。在许多沿海生态系统中，水产养殖的驯养种群正在增长。这意味着疾病现在可以在沿海海域持续存在并更容易传播。在不列颠哥伦比亚省，这是一个有争议的问题，因为一些野生三文鱼已经减少，这些有时与疾病或三文鱼水产养殖有关。我的研究计划试图了解这些动态，并为疾病管理提供解决方案，这可能有助于找到实现可持续水产养殖、渔业和生态系统的解决方案。 我的团队还致力于了解生态系统如何影响个体物种的波动。来自受干扰较少的生态系统的种群是否更稳定？生态系统的一个关键特征是，人口可以以突然和意想不到的方式做出反应--例如疾病爆发或渔业崩溃。我的小组试图了解是否有可能在这些重大变化发生之前预测到它们。这种突然变化的“预警信号”引起了人们的极大兴趣，不仅对生态系统和渔业，而且对经济、气候和生理都是如此。

The view that species exist in stable balance with their environment is rarely true. Instead, scientists have long been mystified by the fluctuations of populations that occur throughout nature. This is more than just an intellectual footnote. It applies to situations important to people, including disease outbreaks, fisheries collapse, or the loss of iconic species. My research program focuses on understanding the factors that cause fluctuations in populations, and in particular how that affects outbreaks of disease, food security, fisheries sustainability, and biodiversity conservation. A particular focus is on coastal seas, and achieving sustainable ecosystems and economies. In many coastal ecosystems, domesticated populations in aquaculture are growing. This implies that diseases can now persist and spread more easily in coastal seas. In British Columbia, this is a controversial issue, because some wild salmon have declined and these are sometimes linked to disease or salmon aquaculture. My research program seeks to understand these dynamics and offer solutions for disease management that may help find solutions to achieving sustainable aquaculture, fisheries, and ecoystems. My group also works on understanding how ecosystems affect the fluctuations of individual species. Are populations from less disturbed ecosystems more stable? A key feature of ecosystems is that populations can respond in sudden and in unanticipated ways - such as the outbreak of disease or the collapse of a fishery. My group seeks to understand whether it possible to anticipate these major changes, before they occur. Such "early warning signals" of sudden changes have become of great interest, not just for ecosystems and fisheries, but also for the economy, climate, and physiology.