Contributor: Michael Pidwirny

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Research Interests

I have general research interests in the following areas of study:

• Species interactions in wetland plant communities.
• Spatial patterns and community structure in vegetation.
• Climate change and its influence on the distribution of species and communities.
• Land-use and environmental change in the Thompson-Okanagan region of British Columbia, Canada.
• Land-use change and biodiversity issues in the southern Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada.
• Computer applications, education technology, and modeling in physical geography.

Current Research Project

The Southern Okanagan Valley of British Columbia is home to 23 species of plants and animals that have been identified as being either: threatened, endangered, or vulnerable. Further, the Southern Okanagan Valley's desert grassland/shrub, Ponderosa Pine forest, and wetland/riparian habitat types are some of Canada's most endangered ecosystems. The main factor contributing to species and ecosystem diversity decline in this region of Canada is the conversion of the natural habitats to various types of human land-use. Over the past 100 years, the amount of natural landscape that has been modified into urban, agricultural, and recreation land-use types has progressively increased because of human population growth and economic progress. Future population and economic growth is predicted to degrade the biodiversity resources further in this region of British Columbia. My research project will document the nature of human-mediated land-use conversion in the Southern Okanagan Valley and will examine this modification of the environment in terms of biodiversity reduction.

This project will have three stages:

1. In stage one (spring 2006 to winter 2007), I will compare the state of the landscape prior to non-indigenous settlement (1860) to the year 2004. This documentation will be done using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze datasets derived from aerial photographs, topographic maps, and other forms of spatial data. This study will determine absolute measures of natural habitat loss, will calculate how much land is being used for each land-use type, and will provide a measure of habitat fragmentation. Results from this preliminary study will be used as a base to apply for a grant in December 2007 of approximately $25,000 from the Endangered Species Recovery Fund, which is jointly administered by the World Wildlife Fund and Environment Canada.
2. Stage two (Fall 2007 to winter 2008) of the project will use additional datasets to determine more accurately the temporal progression of land-use change between 1860 to 2004. Ideally, I would like to determine rates change in land-use at a temporal resolution of approximately 10 years. From this analysis a predictive GIS model will be constructed to identify important natural habitats in danger of land-use conversion in the near future.
3. The last stage of this project (spring 2008 to summer 2009) will examine the relationship of land-use change in the Southern Okanagan to the decline of species in this region.

Scholarship

I am working with the publishing company McGraw-Hill on creating an introductory textbook covering physical geography. At the moment, this project is taking up a good portion of my time outside the classroom.

My website www.physicalgeography.net has received about 12 million page visits in five years and is the foremost web portal on the Internet for educational information dealing with Physical Geography. I plan on enhancing the information found on this site over the next few years. The content of the online textbook Fundamentals of Physical Geography found at this website is used in many university courses for reference. It has been very positively reviewed by several educational agencies and the journals Science and New Scientist. This freely available information source has also been cited about 40 times as a general source of information for “enhanced” online articles in the journal Science. Searching my name on Google reveals that my online resources are linked to well over 2000 web pages on the Internet. Over the next few years I plan on developing a second web portal this time dealing with environmental science and related issues. This site will be very similar to www.physicalgeography.net providing freely available information for general public consumption and enhancing the educational experience of university students seeking knowledge in this area of study.

My two self published electronic books have been quite successful. The e-book Physical Geography Glossary of Terms has been downloaded about 15,000 times. The two editions of World Geography Factbook (2000 and 2001) have been downloaded about 35,000 times. Both of these works are free. I plan continuing work on these two items in the future.

Education

B.Sc., 1980 - University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
B.A. (Hon.), 1982 - University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
M.A., 1984 - University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Ph.D., 1994 - Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

Teaching Interests

• GEOG 108: Introduction to Physical Geography I - A first year course dealing with the study of the Earth's atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.
• GEOG 213: Introduction to Environmental Issues - A second year course introducing students to environmental issues and science.
• GEOG 271: Geographic Data Analysis - A second year course introducing students to statistical techniques involving geographic data.
• GEOG 310: Environment and Resources - A third year course analyzing and discussing the academic literature dealing with resource and environment issues.

Contact Information

Associate Professor, Physical Geography
Unit of Biology and Physical Geography
Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences
University of British Columbia Okanagan
3333 University Way
Kelowna, British Columbia
CANADA V1V 1V7

Email: Michael Pidwirny