OTN Canada: Understanding Species Movements, Interactions, and Environmental Variability Across Canada’s Three Oceans
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OTN Canada Scientific Director: Dr. Sara Iverson
OTN Canada Network Manager: Dr. Daniela Turk

OTN Canada is the initiation of a $10 M 7-year integrative research program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada, which will make use of OTN Global technologies and infrastructure to understand changing marine ecosystems across Canada, to demonstrate how we can learn about continental shelf ecosystems through cutting-edge research, and to contribute to global observation of coastal and ocean ecosystems. A primary objective is to foster synergy among Canadian participants, as well as potential international partners.

Hence, OTN Canada represents the research hub for all of OTN. OTN Canada will use new and innovative technologies in the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Ocean “Arenas” to ask important questions concerning ocean physics and modeling, animal ecology, and the impacts of climate variability and change on ocean ecosystems.

Although OTN Canada will study three oceans, these oceans are interconnected with respect to water mass exchange, migrating animals, and climate forcing. The symbols in the map below indicate many of the locations of proposed receiver lines/buoys representing acoustic curtains deployed in the Atlantic (orange circles), Arctic (blue triangles), and Pacific (red squares) Arenas through support of the CFI infrastructure grant to OTN Global.

Hence, OTN Canada research will be the initiation of large, integrated ecosystem projects within the three ocean Arenas, but with a focus on shared research themes across all Arenas. Indeed the central and overarching component of OTN Canada will be the integration of research strategies, programs, and results across Arenas with the fundamental aim of addressing critical issues in fisheries and resource management and implications for ocean governance.

OTN Canada aims to address one broad question across its three oceans: What are the movements of continental shelf marine animals, how do these movements affect species interactions, and what are the consequences of environmental variability/change and human activities on these species’ distributions and abundance? Subquestions include:

• What are the physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic linkages that determine the population structure, dynamics, movement, and critical habitat of marine organisms?
• How will climate variability, change, and anthropogenic activities affect the distribution and abundance of marine organisms?
• What are the ocean governance implications, including social, economic, and legal dimensions, of OTN findings?

OTN Canada research projects are organized around five key research themes:

1. Ocean physics and modeling
2. Biology and behaviour of migratory living marine resources
3. Trophic interactions
4. Impact of climate variability on research Themes 2 and 3 as measured and predicted by research Theme 1
5. Implications for ocean governance

All these themes are interdisciplinary, interdependent, and complement one another, as can be viewed schematically below.

Although headquartered at Dalhousie University, the academic institutions involved directly in OTN Canada include:

• Acadia University, NS
• Cape Breton University, NS
• Carleton University, ON
• Dalhousie University, NS
• Memorial University, NL
• Mount Allison University, NB
• Université Laval, PQ
• University of British Columbia, BC
• University of Manitoba, MB
• University of Victoria, BC
• University of Windsor, ON

In each region, research is also partnered with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) institutions and researchers.

View a list of OTN Canada researchers and their respective affiliations