University Chair in Marine Ecosystem Research Cape Breton University Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
Background/Question/Methods
Well-bounded ecosystems of a human size with remembered cultural histories are particularly amenable to ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation, which can enhance their resilience to anthropogenic and climatic change. The Bras d’Or Lake ecosystem (a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve) of Cape Breton Island is a 3,700km2 watershed surrounding a 1,300km2estuary that is 280m deep, and only 6,000 years old. It’s biodiversity spans 33o of North Latitude in terms of marine species’ ranges, although the “Lake” extends < 1o of Latitude. The primary and secondary productivity of this ecosystem has supported humans since the last deglaciation with seaweed & oysters, marshgrass & muskrat, eelgrass & eels, alder & moose, kelp & herring, hare & lynx, spruce & salmon. During the 1900s, more than 80,000 people of indigenous and European descent lived and worked in the Biosphere, farming, fishing, lumbering, mining, trading and recreating. Coal, marble, gypsum, sand and aggregate were extracted, vast forests of pulp and hard woods were clear-cut, vegetables and fruit were grown, more than a million lbs. of oysters were harvested annually for a century. Since then the Change has come: how have the people adapted?
Results/Conclusions
By 2016, the population has dropped to barely 33,000 residents with a median age of 45.5y old. The mining and commercial fisheries are completely gone, the area of land under cultivation has declined by 85%, a single company harvests the forested crown land for pulp and biomass; unemployment rates approach 35%. Tourism is the only other “industry” besides subsistence, retail commerce. Yet, from this trough has emerged a remarkable assemblage of leaders, entrepreneurs, NGOs and government agencies that have converged under a First Nations-led Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative for the Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere. Traditional ecological knowledge, modern ecosystem science, community action research and citizen science have emerged to monitor the health of the Biosphere, undertake biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration measures, and develop strategies and protocols for adaptive planning and management that encourages economic development. It seems that extreme duress, diverse human cultures, remembered histories and a strong sense of place may be sufficient for the humans of this compact, lucky ecosystem to adapt to the massive changes coming to it in the 21st century. There may be some lessons for ecosystem-based adaptation from this unfolding history…
