My research revolves around themes of understanding how stressors, such as climate change and fishing, are shifting the abundance and distribution of marine species across the global seascape, how these changes will affect the health and development of coastal communities, and ways in which this knowledge can be incorporated into marine spatial planning and fisheries management.

To address these broad questions, I work closely with researchers at Dalhousie University, with managers and scientists within the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and with non-governmental organizations. On a day-to-day basis, 50% of my time is spent working with the Ocean Frontier Institute (module G: ‘Future-proofing Marine Protected Areas’) evaluating (1) How the abundance and distribution marine life, from phytoplankton to top predators, will change over the coming century and how these changes will impact the sustainable development of coastal communities, and (2) The capacity of spatial protection to imbue marine ecosystems with increased stability and resilience to the deleterious effects of climate change. The remaining 50% of my time is spent as a contract researcher with Oceans North, a national non-governmental organization, evaluating progress and making recommendations for best practices for how to incorporate climate change considerations into the management of ocean resources in the Canadian Maritimes and Arctic regions.