University of Victoria | Oceans - Universities Canada

University of Victoria | Oceans

Key facilities

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is a University of Victoria initiative that develops and manages the world’s most advanced cabled ocean observatories. ONC’s observatories support scientific study on earthquakes and tsunamis early warning technology, climate change, coastal management, conservation and marine safety.

UVic hosts the Water and Climate Impacts Research Centre (W-CIRC), specializing in hydro-climatology and hydrologic and ecological impacts of atmospheric change and variability, particularly in the Canadian Arctic.

School of Earth and Ocean Sciences provides studies in the fields of global climate change, earthquake hazard, natural resource planning, greenhouse gas/ozone-level monitoring, marine pollution, and groundwater contamination.

Major collaborations

Canadian Pacific Robotic Ocean Observing Facility (C-PROOF): $9.5M including $1.4M from DFO (combination of cash and in-kind). In partnership with BC industry, C-PROOF will develop state-of-the-art autonomous ocean observing technologies to continuously monitor the Northeast Pacific and produce a step `change in our understandings of ocean circulation and mixing, carbon and nutrient transport, biological productivity and renewable energy supplies that manifest off the BC coastline. C-PROOF will inform BC ecosystem managers, climate and weather forecasters, and electric utilities to negotiate competing economic and ecological concerns in the ocean domain, guide planning for future conditions, and drive development of technological solutions.

Researchers

Verena Tunnicliffe – Marine ecology; oceanography; response of marine communities to perturbation and stressful conditions; hydrothermal vents.
Richard Dewey – Coastal oceanography and mixing processes; boundary layers; turbulence, tides, Lagrangian processes and fronts.
Natalie Ban – Conservation biology; conservation planning and implementation; ethnoecology; evaluation and mapping of cumulative impacts; marine and coastal systems; marine spatial planning.
Julia Baum – Ecology and conservation of marine populations and ecosystems; diversity, structure, function and resilience across natural environmental gradients; climate change, overexploitation, and pollution.

Special programs and work integrated learning initiatives

Traditional as well as work experience programs are available through the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, and several programs offered through the Faculty of Social Sciences (Environmental Studies, Restoration of Natural Systems, Geography)

University-industry research partnerships