Biography

Current Position
Research Scientist
Pacific Biological Station
Conservation Biology Section
Marine Ecosystems and Aquaculture Division
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
3190 Hammond Bay Road, Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N7

Area of Expertise/Interest

• Meta-population ecology
• Aquatic species at risk, critical habitat
• Population and habitat viability analysis (PVA)

Recent Research
Research centers on understanding how life history, inter-specific interactions, environment, and spatial processes influence population dynamics and the responses of species at risk to alternative management strategies.
Recent contributions include: (a) determining information needs for assessing critical habitat, (b) identifying rules of thumb for the amount and optimal spatial configuration of critical habitat, (c) developing novel software to facilitate species at risk recovery planning and habitat management, (d) using simulation modeling to evaluate CITES trade management options for threatened marine fish, and (e) supporting the development of a monitoring framework to allow the incorporation of ecosystem information into wild Pacific salmon fisheries management decisions.

Recent Collaborations
2008-2011:      Genomics Tools for Fisheries Management (FishManOmics), Genome BC. Collaborators: Kristi Miller (Project Lead, DFO), Scott Hinch (UBC), Tony Farrell (UBC), Paul Pavlidis (UBC), Paul Wood (UBC), Janelle Curtis (UBC)
2008-2009:      Smart decision-making for interacting species at risk, WWF Endangered Species Recovery Fund. Collaborators: Tara Martin (Project Lead, CSIRO, UBC); Iadine Chadès (INRA), Janelle Curtis (DFO)
2007-2008:      Decision-support tools for critical habitat assessment, Species at Risk Recovery, Education and Action Fund. Collaborators: Janelle Curtis (Project Lead, UBC), Ilona Naujokaitis-Lewis (UBC); Pippa Shepherd (Parks Canada). Peter Arcese (UBC), Jordan Rosenfeld (UBC, BC MoE).

Recent Publications
Naujokaitis-Lewis, I., Curtis, J.M.R., Arcese, P. and Rosenfeld. J. (In press) Sensitivity analyses of spatial population viability analysis models for species at risk and habitat conservation planning. Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01066.x

Naud, M.-J., Curtis, J.M.R., Woodall, L.C. and Gaspar, M.B. (In press) Mate choice, operational sex ratio and social promiscuity in a wild population of the long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus. Behavioural Ecology DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arn128

Nadeau, J.L., Curtis, J.M.R., and Lourie, S.A. (In press) Preservation causes shrinkage in seahorses: implications for biological studies and for managing sustainable trade with minimum size limits. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems DOI: 10.1002/aqc.1002

Curtis, J.M.R. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2008) Use of population viability analysis to evaluate CITES trade management options for threatened marine fish. Conservation Biology 22(5): 1225-1232

Curtis, J.M.R. and Naujokaitis-Lewis, I. (2008) Sensitivity of population viability to spatial and non-spatial parameters using GRIP. Ecological Applications 18:1002-1013

Curtis, J.M.R. and Naujokaitis-Lewis, I. (2008) Source code for GRIP 1.0. Ecological Archives A013-033-S1

Morgan, S.K. and Curtis, J.M.R. (2008) Axis of excellence: a role for students in community-based scholarship. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment 6(2): 105–106

Curtis, J.M.R. (2007) Validation of a method for estimating realized annual fecundity in a multiple spawner, the long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus), using underwater visual census. Fishery Bulletin 105:327-336

Curtis, J.M.R., Ribeiro, J., Erzini, K. and Vincent A.C.J. (2007) A conservation tradeoff? Interspecific differences in seahorse responses to experimental changes in fishing effort. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 17:468-484

Chadès, I., Martin, T.G., Curtis, J.M.R., and Barreto, C. (2007) Managing interacting threatened species: A reinforcement learning decision theoretic approach. Proceedings of MODSIM.

Curtis JMR (2006) Visible implant elastomer (VIE) tag colour determination, tag visibility and tag loss: potential sources of error for mark-recapture studies. NAJFM 26: 327-337.

Curtis JMR, Vincent ACJ (2006) Life history of an unusual marine fish: survival, growth and movement patterns of Hippocampus guttulatus. Journal of Fish Biology 68: 707-733.

Curtis, J.M.R. (2006) A case of mistaken identity: Skin filaments are unreliable for identifying Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus. Journal of Fish Biology 69(6):1855-1859

Curtis JMR, Vincent ACJ (2005) Distribution of sympatric species along a gradient of habitat complexity in a seagrass-dominated community. Marine Ecology Progress Series 291: 81-91.

Curtis JMR, Taylor EB (2004) The genetic structure of coastal giant salamanders (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) in a managed forest. Biological Conservation 115: 45-54.

Curtis JMR, Taylor EB (2000) Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in the Pacific giant salamander, Dicamptodon tenebrosus. Molecular Ecology 9: 116-118.

Cyr H, Curtis JMR (1999) Zooplankton community size structure and taxonomic composition affect size selective grazing in natural communities. Oecologia 118: 306-315.  

Software
Curtis, J.M.R. and I. Naujokaitis-Lewis. GRIP 1.0: A program to generate sets of random input parameters for sensitivity analysis of PVA models created with RAMAS Metapop 4.0. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. 

Also see Dr. Curtis' Fisheries Centre Faculty profile.