The following University of Victoria experts are available to media for comment about El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and its possible impacts on BC, Canada and beyond.
David Atkinson (Geography) is an expert on the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, especially storm surges and storm impacts on coastal regions. He can discuss the effects of El Niño on weather unfolding in the Pacific and BC’s coastal mainland. Email: [email protected]
Maycira Costa (Geography) directs the Spectral and Remote Sensing Lab. Her research includes ocean productivity and phytoplankton communities, coastal oceans, kelp resilience, and ocean dynamics and temperatures, in collaboration with First Nations and federal and provincial agencies. She is collecting data to inform scientists and local communities on environmental conditions, including ocean temperature, conducive to kelp health, persistence and resilience, and the presence of bryozoans, a colonial animal that grows on kelps. Email: [email protected]
Jay Cullen (Ocean Networks Canada) is interim president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada and an expert in chemical oceanography and trace metal biogeochemistry. His research examines how climate change and regional warming, including Arctic glacier melt, influence trace metal concentrations and ocean biogeochemical cycles. ONC operates more than 12,000 real-time sensors across the Pacific, Arctic, Atlantic and Antarctic oceans. The open data collected through this infrastructure supports research and understanding of changing ocean conditions. Email: [email protected]
Jody Klymak (Earth and Ocean Sciences, Physics and Astronomy) is an expert on ocean circulation and mixing, essential for understanding how the ocean evolves under a changing climate. He is the lead investigator on the Canadian-Pacific Robotic Ocean Observing Facility, which uses robotic underwater gliders to observe the essential ocean variables like heat, freshwater, oxygen and biological productivity. He can discuss how we can better prepare for a changing ocean with improved observation, understanding and prediction of ocean state including phenomena like El Niño and marine heatwaves. Email: [email protected]
Eva Kwoll (Geography) is an assistant professor in geomorphology and head of the Geomorphology of Coastal Systems Lab. Her research interests span from sediment transport in shallow coastal waters and near river mouths, to sediment transport around submerged vegetation, to submarine hazards associated with turbidity flows and tsunami in coastal fjords. Email: [email protected]
Adrian Marchetti (Earth and Ocean Sciences, Biology) is the BC Leadership Chair in Marine Ecosystems and Global Change. His research group combines physiological and molecular approaches in laboratory isolates and natural communities to investigate how phytoplankton are affected by their environment and, in turn, influence ocean biogeochemistry and ecosystem dynamics. Particular interests include studying trace metals, such as iron, and predicting the effects of future climate changes. Regions of study include the North Pacific Ocean, coastal upwelling regions, Southern Ocean and waters surrounding the Galapagos Islands. Email: [email protected]
Benjamin Neal (Biology) is a marine ecologist with expertise in how ecosystems respond to local and global anthropogenic disturbance, advanced sensing of benthic marine ecosystems and marine resource conservation and sustainable use. He can comment on the marine impacts of El Niño, especially to fisheries. Email: [email protected]
Jordan Watson (Ocean Networks Canada) is acting science director at Ocean Networks Canada and director of the Pacific Region for the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System. His expertise spans tropical to polar ecosystems, focusing on how climate variability, marine heatwaves and El Niño affect marine species and fisheries. He also specializes in ocean observing systems and instrumentation, helping develop public tools that improve access to and interpretation of ocean data, including the Ocean Surface Temperature Atlas, which visualizes past and emerging El Niño conditions. Email: [email protected]
Xuebin Zhang (Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium [PCIC]) is an expert in the fields of climate detection, attribution and the study of extremes in the Earth’s climate system. As director of PCIC, Zhang brings extensive knowledge of how the climate system is changing and the effects of climate change at the regional scale. Email: [email protected]
