Résumé
Aquatic animals are integral to ocean and freshwater ecosystems and their resilience, are depended upon globally for food sustainability, and support coastal communities and Indigenous peoples. However, global aquatic environments are changing profoundly due to anthropogenic actions and environmental change. These changes are altering distributions, movements, and survival of aquatic animals in ways that are not well understood. The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) is a global partnership that is filling this knowledge gap. OTN Canada, a pan-Canadian (and beyond) research network, was launched in 2010 with visionary funding by the Canadian government. In our introduction to this special issue, we briefly overview how this interdisciplinary network has used state-of-the-art technologies, infrastructure, electronic tags and sensors, and associated cutting-edge research and training programs to better understand changing marine and freshwater dynamics and their impact on ecosystems, resources, and animal ecology. These studies have provided unprecedented insights into animal ecology and resource management at a range of spatial and temporal scales and by interfacing animal movements with novel measures of environment, physiology, disease, genetics–genomics, and anthropogenic stressors.
| Langue d'origine | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (de-à) | 1041-1051 |
| Nombre de pages | 11 |
| Journal | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
| Volume | 76 |
| Numéro de publication | 7 |
| DOI | |
| Statut de publication | Published - 2019 |
Note bibliographique
Funding Information:In 2007, the Canadian government launched OTN, headquartered it at Dalhousie University, and tasked it with the challenge of uniting world aquatic telemetry through a visionary and explicitly coordinated funding structure: $35 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) International Joint Venture Fund (IJVF) to support global monitoring infrastructure, governance and operations; $10 million in network science funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to support research and training across Canada using the OTN infrastructure; and $327 000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to help support social science activities and knowledge mobilization. This coordinated funding model also leveraged extensive external funding (~$130 million) from international partnerships. (All funds are in Canadian dollars.) The NSERC funding was uniquely and explicitly coupled to the CFI investment in infrastructure, which combined created a Canadian national research network. This one-time funding model (pairing research funding with infrastructure funding) also allowed this pan-Canadian network program (henceforth referred to as OTN Canada) to become a training hub for OTN worldwide. Research plans were developed in 2008–2009 (Iverson et al. 2009) and launched in January 2010 after successful peer-review. The integrative network aimed to use state-of-the-art technologies and infrastructure and associated cutting-edge research and training programs to better understand changing marine and freshwater dynamics across Canada and their impact on ecosystems, resources, and animal ecology. Critical issues in resource management and their implications for ocean governance were at the forefront. By fitting animals with a broad array of electronic tags and sensors (e.g., acoustic, radio, passive integrated transponder (PIT), data loggers, satellite tags), these studies provided unique opportunities to investigate animal ecology at a range of spatial and temporal scales as well as to interface animal movements with novel measures of environmental conditions, physiology, disease, genetics–genomics, and anthropogenic stressors (both established or potential).
Funding Information:
The 8-year OTN Canada research network was funded by NSERC, partnered with funding from CFI and SSHRC. We thank our host institution, Dalhousie University, and our many other institutional and research partners and collaborators for their support and participation with OTN over the years. We especially acknowledge OTN Canada’s Scientific Advisory Committee and Alison Jan-idlo, our NSERC Program Officer, who worked closely with us over the years to assist OTN in ensuring that the science undertaken in Canada remained consistent with national priorities and OTN’s global strategic direction.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Canadian Science Publishing. All rights reserved.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Aquatic Science
ODD de l’ONU
Cette action contribue à la réalisation des objectifs de développement durable suivants
