UVic Ideafest: Hotter, Drier Summers? Implications and Adaptations for B.C.

The University of Victoria's sixth Ideafest will be held between March 7^th and 12^th, showcasing the work of some of Canada's best researchers. As a part of this event, the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC) and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) are presenting a panel discussion on hydro-climatic change in BC. Titled, Hotter, Drier Summers? Implications and Adaptations for BC, the discussion will feature topical presentations followed by a conversation between researchers and experts in agriculture, fisheries, water supply and forestry in which they will discuss the climate impacts in their sectors. Finally, there will be a general discussion on how our knowledge informs adaptation and solutions strategies for B.C.

The panel will be moderated by PICS’s Executive Director, Dr. Sybil Seitzinger.

Climate Scientists:

Faron Anslow

Faron has been the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium's Lead of Climate Analysis and Monitoring since April of 2011. He comes to Victoria by way of Master's research in glaciology at the University of Calgary and PhD research in paleoclimatology at Oregon State University. His postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia investigated the projected effects of climate change on all glaciers in British Columbia. Faron's work now centres on improving our understanding of BC's climate over the period since instrumental weather observations began to be recorded in the late 1800s. This work includes assembling and disseminating the observational data within the province and developing spatial climate data products over BC for the use of scientists and individuals worldwide.

Trevor Murdock

Trevor is a climate scientist and Lead of PCIC's Regional Climate Impacts Theme. For the past 17 years, he has worked on applications of climate research to assist decision-making and planning, with a focus on the BC-Yukon region, helping both public and private sector stakeholders. Trevor’s work has focused on climate scenarios and online mapping tools, downscaling to high resolution, indices of extremes, analysis of historical climate data and the improvement of seasonal climate predictions.

Panelists:

Emily MacNair, Coordinator, British Columbia Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative

Since it's inception in 2008, Emily has been the coordinator of the BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative. This has included developing the BC Agriculture & Climate Change Action Plan, leading a project to evaluate the agriculture sector’s risks and opportunities in relation to climate change and the managing, development and delivery of current adaptation programming for the sector in B.C. From 2004 to 2008, Emily was a Program Manager with the Investment Agriculture Foundation. Prior to this Emily led projects for various non-government organizations.

Kim Hyatt, Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Kim holds a PhD in Aquatic Ecology from the University of British Columbia and has worked as a teacher, an environmental consultant and is currently a fisheries research scientist with DFO. He has held adjunct faculty positions at SFU, UBC, RRU and UNB. He served as the National Fisheries Sector representative to the Canadian Climate Impact and Adaptation Research Network and is DFO’s Pacific fisheries lead for its’ Aquatic Climate Change and Adaptation Services Program. Dr. Hyatt heads the Salmon in Regional Ecosystems Program at DFO’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo where his research focus includes: (1) the status of salmon populations in the Pacific Region, (2) climate effects on the life history and population dynamics of salmon, and (3) the development of new “tools” to support fisheries management.

Robbie Hember, PICS post-doctoral fellow

Robbie is a research scientist with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions’ Forest Carbon Management project focusing on the impacts of environmental change on forest productivity in British Columbia. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia and is stationed at the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria BC. There he works closely with Natural Resources Canada’s Carbon Accounting Team. Robbie is a graduate of Trent University and the University of British Columbia where he studied physical geography and plant biology and went on to study areas of climatology and the carbon cycle of forest ecosystems.

Anna Warwick Sears, Executive Director, Okanagan Basin Water Board

Anna is the Executive Director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, a collaborative local government water agency. Raised in B.C., she received a PhD in population biology at the University of California - Davis. Before returning to Canada in 2006, Dr. Sears was Research Director of a watershed NGO in California. Dr. Sears is passionate about using science to solve real-world problems and building bridges with community stakeholders. She serves on the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Foundation of BC, and in 2015 was appointed by the International Joint Commission to the Osoyoos Lake Board of Control.

Johanna Wolf, Policy Adviser, Climate Action Secretariat, Ministry of Environment

Following the completion of her PhD from the University of East Anglia in the UK, Wolf held a post-doctoral fellow at the Labrador Institute of Memorial University. She has also worked as the senior science coordinator of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project (University of Oslo), and as a senior research associate at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (University of East Anglia, UK). Johanna’s interest in global environmental change began as an intern and later consultant with the UNFCCC secretariat (Bonn, Germany). She has since consulted for the science communication NGO SciDev.Net (London, UK), and Action Aid International. Wolf has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Memorial and Royal Roads on global environmental change, sustainability, and environmental management.