Erin Crockett
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Degrees Received
2014- MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management University of Oxford 2012- BSc (Honours) in Environmental Sciences University of British Columbia Research Interests Historical and Future Changes in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Nature. It captures our imaginations. It provides us with food, fiber, and fresh water. It connects us together. Recognizing that we’ve entered the Anthropocene (an era with large-scale human influence), asks us to re-examine and re-imagine our relationship with Nature. By putting people in the picture, the concept of ecosystem services – the benefits we derive from nature – provides a useful starting point to ignite a lively discussion about the diverse array of individual and social values about Nature and our environment. |
I am particularly interested in predicting how human actions may affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. More specifically, my research explores how the supply of ecosystem services has changed over the past 30 years, and develops models to estimate potential future changes to these services under an array of plausible scenarios. I am also working to improve our theoretical understanding of the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services, and to develop models that put these ideas into practice.
Other Interests
Backcountry skiing, trekking, travelling, tennis, and jammin’ on the piano.
Previous Work
During a BSc, I worked with Rebecca Martone and Kai Chan to develop a mechanism-based framework to quantify individual and cumulative effects of human activities on ecosystem services. As a case-study, we modelled the impacts of nitrogen runoff from agriculture, forestry, and coastal development on shellfish provisioning in Pacific Canada. This work shows potential synergistic effects from cumulative human activities, and renders explicit the hidden trade-offs between human activities and ecosystem services.
During an MSc, I worked with Rich Grenyer to explore the perils of poor data for spatial conservation planning. Conservation planners are constantly faced with the challenge of determining priorities from imperfect data. Our research examined one of the critical questions: how much do we need to know about which species exist, and where they live, in order to make smart conservation decisions? The short answer is – everything counts. But it matters most in regions with high beta diversity (i.e. it matters more in regions where most species are only found in a few locations, than in regions where most species are found almost everywhere).
Other Interests
Backcountry skiing, trekking, travelling, tennis, and jammin’ on the piano.
Previous Work
During a BSc, I worked with Rebecca Martone and Kai Chan to develop a mechanism-based framework to quantify individual and cumulative effects of human activities on ecosystem services. As a case-study, we modelled the impacts of nitrogen runoff from agriculture, forestry, and coastal development on shellfish provisioning in Pacific Canada. This work shows potential synergistic effects from cumulative human activities, and renders explicit the hidden trade-offs between human activities and ecosystem services.
During an MSc, I worked with Rich Grenyer to explore the perils of poor data for spatial conservation planning. Conservation planners are constantly faced with the challenge of determining priorities from imperfect data. Our research examined one of the critical questions: how much do we need to know about which species exist, and where they live, in order to make smart conservation decisions? The short answer is – everything counts. But it matters most in regions with high beta diversity (i.e. it matters more in regions where most species are only found in a few locations, than in regions where most species are found almost everywhere).
