Jane C. Watson, B.Sc., Ph.D.

Office: Environmental Science Building (#370): Room 224
Phone: (250) 753-3245 (2317) Email: watsonj@mala.bc.ca

MY BACKGROUND

My academic background and experience is in marine ecology and fisheries biology. My primary interest is how marine vertebrates affect coastal ecosystems on a short term and evolutionary scale. Over the past 15 years I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects which have included applied fisheries biology as well as academic studies of cetaceans, pinnipeds, sea otters, invertebrates, fish and marine algae. This background has given me a broad view of marine ecosystems, something that I feel is important in both research and teaching.

MY RESEARCH

My principal area of research is in sea otter community ecology. Specifically I am interested in the ecological effects that sea otters have on the structure of nearshore communities. For the past 10 years I have been working off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island studying the growing sea otter population.

Sea otters were hunted to extinction in Canada by the mid 1800s. Sea otters were reintroduced to British Columbia from 1969 - 1972. The introduction was successful, and from the 89 animals originally introduced the population has grown to over 1500 animals a rate of 17-20% per year. Sea otters feed on invertebrates. By feeding on sea urchins, sea otters play an important role in nearshore ecology. Sea urchins are grazers and eat seaweed. In many rocky areas sea urchins can regulate the abundance of algae, creating areas which are devoid of seaweed called "urchin barrens". In British Columbia sea otters regulate the abundance of sea urchins, thus areas with sea otters are characterized by abundant algae and few urchins, whereas areas without sea otters are characterized by little algae and lots of sea urchins. The resulting increase in seaweed leads to increased nearshore productivity, increased habitat for fish and affects the recruitment patterns of invertebrates. These are the interactions that I study.

Each summer I conduct two to three months field work out on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Students accompany me as field assistants and participate in monitoring of sea otter population growth and behaviour. (see photo below) In some cases they are able to conduct independent research projects in the area of marine ecology.

MY TEACHING

At Malaspina I teach a third year vertebrate zoology course. This course combines comparative vertebrate zoology and evolutionary vertebrate ecology. The first labs involve the reconstruction of a vertebrate skeleton, and the last half of the labs examine current topics and methods in vertebrate ecology.

I also teach Biology 121 with Tim Goater. Biology 121 is a survey of invertebrate and vertebrate zoology. Tim covers the invertebrates, and I focus upon the vertebrates. This course emphasizes evolutionary differences between the different phyla and groups within the kingdom Animalia.

I have also co-taught the biology of marine mammals at Bamfield Marine Station. This is upper-level course which provides an overview of marine mammal biology. It is field oriented, and designed to introduce students to current biological/ecological concepts and field techniques.

I hope to add courses to the biology program in the next few years. I feel that courses in behavioural ecology, population and community ecology as well as marine biology would be valuable additions to the curriculum.

AFFILIATIONS

I am currently an adjunct professor in the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia, and a research associate at the Vancouver Aquarium. In addition I work closely with a number of colleagues at Pacific Biological Station, located here in Nanaimo.

I contribute to long-term population studies of Killer Whales in cooperation
with colleagues at the above institutions.