CVN’s Brandt Memorial Committee has awarded its first grant for Honours or Graduate-level environmental research in the North Island region. The grant program honours the legacy of Charles Brandt (1923–2020), a noted Comox Valley naturalist and conservationist who left a generous bequest to CVN.
Our first recipient is Sophie Johnston who receives a $5,000 grant to support her field research on coastal areas of north Vancouver Island. Sophie is currently a PhD Student at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Chris Harley. She has a BSc (Honours) in Biology and Mathematics from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Sophie currently has a publication in the journal Marine Ecology Progress and has other manuscripts in preparation on the effects of a warming ocean and ocean acidification on marine invertebrate species and coastal ecosystems.
Sophie’s research is documenting the effects of ocean acidification on intertidal marine communities in the Johnstone Strait. The goal of her research is to investigate how a dominant ecosystem engineer, a limpet in this case, shapes marine community structure along a gradient of ocean acidification.
Watch for a more detailed description of Sophie’s research in our June newsletter.
