LANDSCAPE OVERVIEW

Canada's Dykeland can be classified as a salt marsh converted to agricultural land through dyking and draining with aboiteaux. A particular problem area is the Dykeland located in hypertidal Bay of Fundy.

CHALLENGES

• Acadian dykelands have provided high-quality agricultural land around the Bay of Fundy for four centuries--as well as culture, recreation, and coastal protection--but the dykes and aboiteaux (one way drains) that create them cannot withstand expected future sea level rises and storm surges.
• Coastal squeeze is underway.
• Government is looking to divest some dykes and the multifunctionality of salt marshes provides a restoration opportunity.
• Dykeland maintenance is expensive, particularly surrounding the Cornwallis River in Annapolis Valley, the Grand Pre in Minas Basin and Truro in the Salmon River.
• The area is also experiencing sea level rise challenges, as in the Chignecto Isthmus, through which $50m of trade passes daily.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• Balance the competing needs for:
  • High quality agricultural land (Nova Scotia has no class 1)
  • Salt marsh ecosystems, which feed Bay of Fundy ecosystems
  • Coastal climate adaptation (when locals prefer hard solutions)
  • Colonial cultural identities
  • First Nations traditional uses
  • Tourism and economic development
  • Recreational opportunities and local lifestyles
• Define multifunctionality and which functions go where

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RESEARCH

PRELIMINARY ECOSYSTEM SERVICE TRADEOFFS

PAST WORK WE CAN BUILD ON

• Foundational dykeland datasets (e.g. Lidar for risk mapping) acquired 2009-2012 as part of NRCan’s Regional Adaptation Collaborative (RAC) program.
• Nova Scotia ‘Dykeland Decision Support Tool (DDST)’ developed 2014 by van Proosdij lab (SMU) on contract for Nova Scotia Dept of Agriculture, as well as preliminary guidelines on realignment prioritization to maximize ES and adaptation.
• Social science survey about dykeland vs. salt marsh tradeoffs by Sherren (2016); also interviews about dyke realignment for OECD (2018).
• AgriRisk project (2016-2018) Risk-proofing Nova Scotia Agriculture modelled aspects of dykeland overtopping with Bayes Nets, with same partners.
• Over a decade of experience with salt marsh restoration and dyke realignment in Nova Scotia …

e.g. North Onslow Dyke Realignment and Salt Marsh Restoration currently underway, but cost/benefit work only included direct costs; what if ES were included?

SAMPLE OF RELATED CURRENT/ONGOING PROJECTS

• DFO Coastal Restoration Fund (van Proosdij, PI), Making Space for Wetlands, doing salt marsh restoration through managed realignment and building a community of practice around it [$1.84M, 2017-2022]
• NRCan Climate Change Adaptation Fund (van Proosdij, PI, Sherren CI), Making Space for Movement, exploring social and planning implications of nature-based coastal adaptation [$460K, 2018-2020]
• Mitacs/DUC-funded PhD (Mallory, PI) on waterfowl use of coastal marshes seasonally and local landowner/hunter perspectives of change in human/animal use and future land uses [120K, 2018-2022]
• Intern working on understanding/mapping CES from Instagram from all 17,500 ha of NS dykelands (Sherren supervised)
• Arthur Irving Academy for the Environment (Walker, PI), Beneficial fungi in coastal wetland plants, MSc on salt marsh tidal mesocosm experiments to assess roles of beneficial Spartina root fungi for restoration [$80k 2016-2018]
• + related team member NSERC Discovery Grants

OVERLAPS WITH OTHER LANDSCAPE CASES

• Prairies – agricultural drainage impacts on ES
• North – food production v. carbon sequestration
• Quebec – residential development in agricultural areas
• Pacific – fish nursery habitat
• BC/Alberta – hydrological interventions

Cheverie salt marsh restoration ca. 2004