Research topics

The following are broad topics that cover most (though not all) research streams from the group, as well as a select set of recent articles representing some of the work in these areas. For a full list of peer reviewed publications for Gerald, you can see his Google Scholar:

Google Scholar

Risks, Inequities, and Decision-making

Environmental decision-making cannot be reduced to “science-based”. Decisions are based on specific considerations around the values and risks associated with any action, and decision-making in a sustainable development context must consider whose risks are considered, and how they are characterized. This research stream is focused on methodological advancement to aid decision-making towards more equitable and sustainable interventions.

Recent papers (* indicates student or postdoc):

  • Singh, G.G., Keefer, J.*, Ota, Y. 2023. An inequity assessment framework for planning coastal and marine conservation and development development interventions. Frontiers in Marine Science 10: 1256500.
  • Singh, G.G., Sajid, Z.*, Khan, F., Mather, C., Bernhardt, J.R. Frohlicher, T.L. 2023. Rethinking disaster risk for ecological risk assessment. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11: 1249567.

Food Security and Adaptation

Coastal and Northern communities face a range of global stressors that often impact the food systems they rely on. From climate impacts to global economic shocks and market price pressures, coastal and Northern communities must actively adapt to dynamic changes. Work in this theme both documents the kinds of emerging pressures communities face as well as well as intervention evaluations that are intended to help with adaptation.

Sajid, Z.*, Gamperl, A.K., Parrish, C.C., Colombo, S., Santander, J., Mather, C., Neis, B., Holmen, I.M., Filguera, R., McKenzie, C.H., Cavalli, L.S. Jeebhay, M., Gao, W., Gómez, M.A.L., Ochs, C., Lehnert, S., Couturier, C., Knott, C., Romero, J.F., Caballero-Solares, A., Cembella, A., Murray, H.M., Fleming, I., Finnis, J., Fast, M.D., Wells, M. Singh, G.G. 2024. An aquaculture risk model to understand the causes and consequences of Atlantic Salmon mass mortality events (MMEs): a review. Reviews in Aquaculture: 1-22

  • Singh, G.G., Sajid, Z.*, Mather, C. 2024. Quantitative analysis of mass mortality events in salmon aquaculture shows increasing scale of fish loss events around the world. Scientific Reports 14: 3763
  • Meehan, M.C.*, Singh, G.G., Ban, N.C., Deviller, R., Claudet, J. 2023. Striking a balance between ecological, economic, governance, and social dimensions in marine protected area network evaluations. Conservation Science and Practice 5: e12989.

Science-Policy and Partnerships to Progress Sustainable Development

How research is done is just as important (or more important) than what research topics are undertaken. Poorly planned research is routinely underutilized or even discredited (and rendered non-credible) because of a lack of legitimacy in the process and a misdirection of research effort away from what is important for decision-making. This research direction is focused on critical review and methodological development of research frameworks to promote sustainable development.

  • Knott, C., Fusco, L.*, Daly, J.*, Andrews, E., Singh, G.G. 2024. Equity zombies in Canada’s Blue Economy: a critical feminist analysis for equitable policy implementation. Frontiers in Marine Science 11: 1277581
  • González-Espinosa, P. Bossier, S., Singh, G.G., Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M. 2023. Integrating equity-focused planning into coral bleaching management. npj Ocean Sustainability 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-023-00034-6
  • Singh, G.G., Harden-Davies, H., Swartz, W., Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M., Ota, Y. 2023. An international panel for ocean sustainability needs to proactively address challenges facing existing science-policy platforms. npj Ocean Sustainability 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-023-00024-8.
  • Singh, G.G. 2022. Prestige risks homogenizing and hampering academia. Nature 610: 630.