Agency Principle Investigators
David Patterson
Adjunct Professor, School of Resource and Environmental Management
Program Head, Fraser River Environmental Watch Program, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Mr. Patterson research focusses on environmental factors that influence juvenile or adult salmon survival in fresh water, with a focus on stress physiology, migration behaviour, and thermal ecology.
Science advice is provided to managers to assist in the prediction of migration mortality associated with adverse river conditions and on the impact of anthropogenic stressors on salmon survival in fresh water.
Fraser River environmental watch | Pacific Region | Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Daniel Selbie
Adjunct Professor, School of Resource and Environmental Management
Head, Lakes Research Program, Ecosystem Sciences Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Dr. Selbie is a limnologist and environmental scientist, whose research and monitoring principally targets the freshwater life histories of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), and the structure, functioning, and productive capacity of their natal lake ecosystems. Aligned research foci include understanding cumulative and interactive environmental forcings on salmon (i.e. climate variability and change, anthropogenic stressors) in both freshwater and marine habitats, climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation in ecosystems and society, and identification of limiting factors and mitigative actions to promote salmon and aquatic species at risk conservation. Dr. Selbie’s research group, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows integrate ecological, paleolimnological, fisheries, and environmental sciences, through field surveys, targeted experiments, and modeling to achieve research goals.
Dr. Selbie is currently a Director of the BC Lakes Stewardship Society, and works closely with Indigenous nations, the Province of British Columbia, municipal governments, academia, and ENGO’s, providing critical interfaces with opportunities to directly engage interjurisdictionally and with citizen science. Dr. Selbie is an Associate Editor with the Canadian Science Publishing journal Environmental Reviews.
Doug Braun
Adjunct Professor, School of Resource and Environmental Management
Research Scientist, Freshwater Ecosystems Section, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Dr. Braun’s research program aims to understand how environmental variation, from both natural and anthropogenic sources, shapes salmon populations and their habitat. Specifically, his research focuses on: 1) how habitat variation within and among systems drives the dynamics and life-history of salmon populations; 2) how forestry activities impact stream ecosystems; and 3) developing tools that inform cost-effective monitoring of habitats and populations. He primarily works at the stream/population level and conducts large-scale field studies. His program delivers science advice to habitat managers to assist in monitoring and assessing impacts to freshwater habitat.
Sean Naman
Adjunct Professor, School of Resource and Environmental Management
Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Dr. Naman is a research scientist in the Freshwater Ecosystems Section with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. His work focuses on better understanding linkages between physical habitat structure and ecological processes in watersheds, often combining elements from community and ecosystem ecology, behavioural ecology and bioenergetics, as well as geomorphology and hydrology. Dr. Naman and his research group aim to advance science that informs applied issues such as habitat restoration, instream flow management, and impact assessment. Current projects include: (1) using food webs to characterize salmon habitat quality across watersheds; (2) ecosystem responses to post-wildfire recovery and restoration; and (3) developing flow-ecology relationships for drought planning and response. Much of this work is field based, with a sprinkling of simulation modelling and data synthesis.
Jeffrey Lemieux
Area Manager, North Coast, Ecosystems Management Branch, DFO
Dr. Lemieux has a science leadership role with Pacific Region Science Branch for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. In that role, he leads Freshwater Science strategies and manages the Cultus Lake Salmon Research Laboratory, as well as staff stationed at SFU.
Jeffrey's principal interests are improving the role of science in aquatic resource management, especially the consideration of landscape and regional contexts. He obtained his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in the fields of forestry and entomology, and gained his first experience working with salmon by analyzing insect components of salmonid diets in the nearshore juveniles of Barkley Sound.
Trevor Davies (WLRS)
Adjunct Professor, School of Resource and Environmental Management
Fisheries Stock Assessment Scientist, Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship, BC
Dr. Davies is a freshwater fisheries ecologist / statistician whose interest is the conservation and sustainable use of freshwater fisheries resources. He is the principle investigator of the Keogh River Steelhead population dynamics project. His research interestes include studying movement, survival and dispersal of White Sturgeon, using eDNA to estimate salmonid smolt out-migrating abundance and using close-kin Mark-recapture to estimate salmonid spanwer abundance. Current research projects include identifying dispersal, range and mortality mechanisms of steelhead trout in the North East Pacific and the Keogh River Ecosystem Monitoring Project.