I analyse the emergence of a co-management system for protected area governance at Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on the northwest coast of Canada. Of primary concern is the analysis of the co-management structure for properties that are essential for maintaining a sustainable trajectory and an exploration of the key mechanisms for its development. The underlying framework for the analysis in this thesis is panarchy which is based on four categories of factors for building resilience: 1) learning to live with change and uncertainty; 2) nurturing diversity for re-organization and renewal; 3) combining different kinds of knowledge; and 4) creating opportunity for self-organization. This framework emerges from the conclusions of a multi-year team study of the dynamics of socio-ecological systems and how to enhance the resilience of these complex systems to tackle complexity, uncertainty and global environmental change. As the Archipelago Management Board (AMB) is the institutional structure that is managing the future of Gwaii Haanas, therefore, I focus on how this structure facilitates resilience. 1 argue that it should be an arena for flexible collaboration with multi-level governance that facilitates adaptive management (learning and building ecological knowledge into the institutional structure) and nurturing elements of resilience (cultural and ecological memory). The Lyell Island blockade in 1986, was a collective action against a crisis (cultural and environmental degradation caused by industrial logging) where key stewards and several Haida elders provided leadership, vision and trust. Parks Canada helped end the conflict by offering a management approach that accommodates Haida rights to their traditional lands, the formation of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Here I argue that the power-sharing structure of the AMB provides political space for experimentation. As such, the AMB appears to be an adaptive co-management system that is flexible, community-based, tailored to specific situations and supported by and working in collaboration with a concerned government agency to ensure sustainable resource management. So far, this arrangement has been able to successfully move away from a less desired trajectory toward a more sustainable one with the capacity to nurture the ecological health of Gwaii Haanas and the Haida culture on which it depends. I discuss the key role of co-management in re-coupling society to ecological feedback, creating political space for experimentation, accommodating varied ways of knowing and learning, including traditional ecological knowledge to link management with ecological understanding, and extending management into the social domain. I conclude that management in the implementation of protected area policy in Canadian National Parks could benefit from a more explicit collaboration with local communities who have special interests and site-specific ecological knowledge to better understand and monitor complex systems for long-term sustainability of protected areas.

Tectonic processes and seismic hazard along the west coast of British Columbia result from oblique convergence between the continental North America plate and the oceanic Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates. This dissertation integrates seismic and geodetic techniques to examine the tectonic interaction along these plate boundaries. The Queen Charlotte Fault zone is the transpressive boundary between the North America and Pacific plates along the northwestern margin of British Columbia. Two models have been suggested for the accommodation of the -20 mm/yr of convergence along the fault boundary: (1) underthrusting; (2) internal crustal deformation. Strong evidence supporting an underthrusting model is provided in this dissertation by a teleseismic receiver function analysis that defines the underthrusting slab. Forward and inverse modelling techniques were applied to receiver function data calculated at two permanent and six temporary seismic stations within the Islands. The modelling reveals a --10 km thick low-velocity zone dipping eastward at 28° interpreted to be underthrusting oceanic crust. The oceanic crust. which may be anisotropic, is located beneath a thin (28 km) westward shallowing (10°) continental margin. The majority of seismicity along the Queen Charlotte Fault zone plots within the modelled underthrusting crust, suggesting that these earthquakes are occurring on faults that extend down into the slab or they might be intraslab events. None of the earthquakes within the Queen Charlotte Basin have occurred deep enough to be intraslab earthquakes. The Wadati-Benioff seismicity may be inhibited beneath the basin by the hot young oceanic crust or by the short distance of underthrusting. GPS measurements have been recorded within the Queen Charlotte Islands during 8 years of campaign surveys. The crustal velocity field derived from the GPS data indicates northward margin-oblique motion of 10-15 mm/yr. Comparisons of the observed velocities with elastic dislocation modelling showed that the majority of the transpressive Pacific/North America motion is accommodated along the locked Queen Charlotte Fault zone and thrust fault with the remaining plate motion taken up by north-northeast migration of the margin at rates of --6 mm/yr. The migration is also supported by the stress pattern derived from focal mechanisms. However. the GPS determined deformation rates are much greater than the rates estimated in the Queen Charlotte Basin from the seismicity catalogue. The extra shortening could be accommodated by large characteristic thrust earthquakes within the basin. The deformation rates estimated from the seismicity along the Queen Charlotte Fault zone are consistent with the relative Pacific/North America plate motion: however. the seismic moment released by thrust earthquakes along the fault is insufficient to account for the component of convergence. This suggests that large thrust earthquakes may occur along the plate boundary. An additional part of this dissertation involved constraining the rupture parameters of the Nisqually earthquake. a M 6.8 event which occurred on February 28. 2001 within the subducting Juan de Fuca slab at the Cascadia subduction zone. The fault parameters of the event were estimated from moment tensor solutions, and by comparing the surface displacements from GPS and InSAR data. with predictions from elastic deformation models. The results are in agreement with the earthquake mechanism from waveform analyses. but provide substantially stronger constraints.

The Queen Charlotte Islands are located east of the seismically active Queen Charlotte transform fault zone which separates the Pacific and North American plates. The fault zone is the locus of significant seismic activity and is distinguished bathymetrically by two steep scarps bounding a 15 to 25 km wide terrace. To better define regional seismicity characteristics, 16 portable seismographs and 6 ocean bottom seismographs were operated for 9 weeks and 5 days, respectively, during June to August 1983. Three hundred and seventeen events were detected; 130 events that were recorded on 3 or more stations have been located. Twenty' events were identified as possible blasts. Ninety-two of the located earthquakes lie along the Queen Charlotte transform fault zone, most within the 1949, Ms = 8.1, earthquake rupture zone along the inner scarp of the terrace. However, several earthquakes are located on the terrace and a few are aligned with the outer scarp where no activity has previously been observed. Most of the activity is well constrained to be less than 15 km in depth. Two areas of low seismicity were observed along the fault zone. Only two earthquakes occurred in the documented seismic gap bound on the north by the 1949 rupture zone and on the south by the 1970 M = 7.0 earthquake. They were both at -the southern tip of the gap. A similar region of low activity was observed for the fault along Graham Island. No major seismicity (M > 4.0) has been located in this region since the 1949 earthquake. Composite fault plane mechanism solutions were determined for five clusters of events along the fault zone. Events to the northwest of Graham Island are consistent with strike-slip motion along a fault in the direction of the Queen Charlotte transform fault. The four remaining clusters were located along Moresby Island. The mechanisms for these are dominated by thrust faulting with a component of compressional stress trending north-south. These events are interpreted as the result of oblique convergence between the Pacific and North American plate. Significant seismicity was located east of the main Queen Charlotte transform fault zone. Eighteen earthquakes, the largest ML = 3.8, were located in northeastern Graham Island and adjacent Hecate Strait - Dixon Entrance area. None could be associated with known faults. The focal depth of these events is well constrained within the crust so they could not be associated with a subducted plate. A composite fault plane mechanism solution determined for some of these earthquakes indicates a thrusting mechanism with north-south trending compressional stress. One event with a well constrained solution at a shallow focal depth occurred in southeastern Hecate Strait. This event could be associated with crustally pervasive faults identified in Hecate Strait. A magnitude scale based on the coda length of the earthquake signal was determined. Magnitudes were calculated for 265 of the events recorded during the study. For the complete data set a b-value of 0.55 ± 0.05 was determined. This value is significantly lower than values from other studies in the Canadian Cordillera, indicating that a greater percentage of the total number of earthquakes occurs at the higher magnitudes. However, the short period of recording and large magnitude seismic activity (4 earthquakes with ML > 3.8 in 9 weeks) might have biased the estimate toward a low value. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

The level of organic maturation, thermal history, and source rock potential of Mesozoic and Tertiary strata in the Queen Charlotte Islands have been investigated with vitrinite reflectance measurements (%Ro rand)> numerical modelling (modified Arrhenius and Lopatin models), and Rock-Eval pyrolysis (source rock potential). The level of organic maturation increases from north to south and is primarily controlled by high heat flow associated with plutonism on Moresby Island. Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic strata are overmature on Moresby Island with vitrinite reflectance values ranging from 2.40 to 5.80 %Ro rand Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary strata are immature to overmature on Graham Island with values ranging from 0.15 %Ro rand (Skonun Formation) to 2.43 % Ro rand (Haida Formation). Constant and variable geothermal gradient thermal regimes were numerically modelled with modified Arrhenius and Lopatin methods. Numerical modelling (assuming constant geothermal gradients) predicts high paleogeothermal gradients (45 to 90 °C/km) for up to 180 million years from the Late Triassic to the Tertiary. Variable paleogeothermal gradient modelling (utilizing a 30 °C/km background geothermal gradient) predicts peak geothermal gradients ranging up to 150 °C/km during Yakoun (183-178 Ma) and Masset (35-10 Ma) volcanism. The timing of hydrocarbon generation was estimated with numerical modelling. The levels of organic maturation for Mesozoic and Tertiary strata reflect the timing of plutonism and associated high heat flow. Triassic strata from west Graham Island and Cretaceous strata from north and south Graham Island entered the oil window during the Early Miocene and are still in the oil window. Jurassic strata in central Graham Island and north Moresby Island entered the oil window during the Bajocian and remain within the oil window. The Skonun Formation is generally immature except for strata at west Graham Island (Port Louis well) and at northeast Graham Island (basal strata in the Tow Hill well) which entered the oil window during the Late Miocene. Mean total organic carbon (TOC) contents are generally low (0.06 %) to moderately high (3.6 %) for Mesozoic and Tertiary strata. Some organic-rich horizons with TOC values up to 11.2 % occur in Upper Triassic (black limestone member of the Kunga Group) and Lower Jurassic (Sandilands and Ghost Creek Formations) source strata. Mesozoic and Tertiary strata generally contain gas prone Type III organic matter except for the Lower Jurassic Ghost Creek Formation and the Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic Kunga Group which contain oil and gas prone Type II organic matter and significant amounts of oil prone Type I organic matter. Lateral variations in TOC and the quality of organic matter (QOM) for Triassic and Jurassic strata are primarily related to the level of organic maturation. The strata have poor to good hydrocarbon source potential on Graham Island. High heat flow associated with plutonism on Moresby Island has overmatured the strata resulting in poor source potential on Moresby Island. Hydrocarbon source potential for Cretaceous and Tertiary strata is primarily controlled by the level of organic maturation and depositional patterns. The Cretaceous Haida and Honna Formation generally contain terrestrially derived Type III organic matter with poor to fair gas source potential. The Skidegate Formation contains a mixture of Types II and III organic matter with decreased (terrestrial) Type III organic matter input and increased Type II (marine) organic matter input relative to the Haida Formation. Cretaceous strata from Moresby Island are generally overmature and have poor source potential whereas equivalent strata from Graham Island are immature to overmature and have fair to moderate gas source potential. Generally immature coal and lignite from the Tertiary Skonun Formation have poor to fair gas source potential. Resinite horizons containing hydrogen-rich organic matter have good oil and gas source potential where mature. Siltstone and shale facies of the Skonun Formation contain moderate amounts of Type II organic matter and have good hydrocarbon source potential. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Natural resource management models simplify reality for the purpose of planning or management. In much the same way, an uncertainty model simplifies the many uncertainties that pervade the natural resource management model. However, though a number of uncertainty models have been developed, there has been little work on verifying such models against the uncertainty they purport to represent. The central research question addressed by this work is 'can a natural resource management uncertainty model be verified in order to evaluate its utility in real-world management?' Methods to verity uncertainty models are developed in two areas: uncertainty data models, and uncertainty propagation through process models. General methods are developed, and then applied to a specific case study: slope stability uncertainty in the southern Queen Charlotte Islands. Verification of two typical uncertainty data models (of classified soils and continuous slope) demonstrates that (in this case) both expert opinion inputs and published error statistics underestimate the level of uncertainty that exists in reality. Methods are developed to recalibrate the data models, and the recalibrated data are used as input to an uncertainty propagation model. Exploratory analysis methods are then used to verify the output of this model, comparing it with a high-resolution mass wastage database—itself developed using a new set of tools incorporating uncertainty visualisation. Exploratory data analysis and statistical analysis of the verification shows that, given the nature of slope stability modelling, it is not possible to directly verify variability in the model outputs due to the existing distribution of slope variability (based on the nature of slope modelling). However, the verification work indicates that the information retained in uncertaintybased process models allows increased predictive accuracy—in this case of slope failure. It is noted that these verified models and their data increase real-world management and planning options at all levels of resource management. Operational utility is demonstrated throughout this work. Increased strategic planning utility is discussed, and a call is made for integrative studies of uncertainty model verification at this level. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation is a fragment of a larger -project that explores the works of five major oral mythtellers from Haida Gwaii, whose myths were transcribed in 1900 and 1901 by John Swanton: Haayas of the Hliiyalang Qiighawaay (Isaac Haias), Kingagwaaw of the Ghaw Sttlan Llanagaay (Walter Kingagwo), Gumsiiwa of the Xhiida Xhaaydaghaay (Job Moody), Ghandl of the Qayahl Llaanas (Walter McGregor) and Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay (John Sky). While this larger frame constitutes the overall context, the thesis itself focuses on several myths that in their turn form only a small part of a larger whole, a part that is representative and unique at the same time: Skaay's Qquuna Cycle. The focus of the dissertation thus mirrors the structure of Skaay's work, which consists - to use one of Skaay's central images - of a series of boxes within boxes. The method of investigation is polyphonic, that is, a variety of different voices and discourses - including academic monologues, fictional dialogues, narratives, poems, autobiographical accounts, and various quotations - combine in order to do justice not only to the complexity of the myths but also to their inherent openness that allows a myriad of different readings, each of which depends on the concrete situation in which the myth is read or told (including social, historical and political conditions), the cultural background of the listener / reader and his or her familiarity with Haida culture, the individuality and predispositions of the listener/reader, and much more. What is in the innermost box of the myths, the dissertation concludes, will be something different for each listener/reader. Since the most important voice in the polyphonic choir is that of the mythteller, Skaay in this case, the analyzed myths are quoted in full length in Haida. Most of them are accompanied, for copyright reasons, not by Robert Bringhurst's poetic translations (which are easily accessible in Skaay's Being in Being) but by a modified version of Swanton's translations from 1905.

This thesis describes the geomorphology and morphodynamics of two embayed, sandy, macrotidal beach-dune systems in the Cape St. James region of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Gilbert Bay beach is a small embayment with a southwest aspect that exhibits prograding dune ridges. Woodruff Bay beach, a larger system with a SE aspect, is characterized by large erosional scarps on the established foredune. Aspect to erosive conditions and embayment size control the distinct morphologic responses of these beach-dune systems. The morphodynamic regime at Cape St. James consists of high onshore sediment transport potential combined with an increasingly erosive water level regime that is forced by PDO and ENSO climatic variability events. Conceptual models of potential future responses of these beaches to sea level rise show a possible landward migration of up to 3.5 m at Gilbert Bay beach and up to 4 m at Woodruff Bay beach.

Hearth features are often central to hunter-gatherer campsite organization and activities and have long been a focus of study for archaeologists. Among these studies, few have undertaken analysis of calcined faunal remains contained within these features. This thesis investigates human subsistence and occupation at the Richardson Island site, Haida Gwaii, B.C., through examination of the hearth-derived fauna. This is one of very few faunal assemblages from the early Holocene on the northern Northwest Coast and dates to between 9300 and 9100 BP. Description of the taxa in the assemblages is followed by discussion of human technological adaptations for procurement. Hearth replications and a controlled burning experiment demonstrate the complex taphonomic trajectory of burnt fish bone assemblages. Cluster analysis showed weak hearth groupings based largely on taxonomic richness. Chi-squared tests showed that some Kinggi Complex artifact types vary in frequency when in close proximity to hearths. Overall, hearths and surrounding deposits show maritime capacities in the early Holocene.

This thesis presents a methodology for modelling underwater sound propagation from seismic airgun surveys. Subsequently, the method is applied to the case of predicting noise levels from offshore oil and gas exploration in the Queen Charlotte Basin region of the British Columbia offshore. Underwater noise levels are predicted using an integrated mod¬elling approach that incorporates (i) an airgun array source model. (ii) a broadband 3-D transmission loss model, and (iii) environmental databases of high resolution bathymetry. historical CTD casts and geoacoustic properties of the seabed. As part of this thesis, an airgun array source signature model is developed and then used for predicting the acoustic source level of a seismic airgun array. The airgun model, based on the physics of the oscillation and radiation of airgun bubbles, is validated against real airgun data. Under-water sound propagation is modelled in three dimensions using a parabolic-equation (PE) based, "Nx2-D" transmission loss model. Broadband sound propagation is approximated by modelling acoustic transmission loss at third-octave band centre frequencies; noise levels are computed by subtracting transmission loss from the respective third-octave band airgun array source levels. High resolution bathymetry and geoacoustic data for Queen Charlotte Basin are extracted along centrolineal radial transects for input to the propagation model. Additionally, principal component analysis is applied to a large collection of historical CTD data to extract seasonal sound speed profile variations. Transmission loss is modelled using both winter and summer sound speed profiles to bracket seasonal variations in acoustic propagation conditions. Noise level estimates from the acoustic modelling may be used to determine impact zones around the survey vessel where marine mammals are expected to exhibit disturbance reactions to airgun noise. Results from this study will aid in evaluating the potential environmental impacts of seismic exploration activity on marine ecosystems in British Columbia's offshore region.

This thesis describes the geomorphology and morphodynamics of two embayed, sandy, macrotidal beach-dune systems in the Cape St. James region of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Gilbert Bay beach is a small embayment with a southwest aspect that exhibits prograding dune ridges. Woodruff Bay beach, a larger system with a SE aspect, is characterized by large erosional scarps on the established foredune. Aspect to erosive conditions and embayment size control the distinct morphologic responses of these beach-dune systems. The morphodynamic regime at Cape St. James consists of high onshore sediment transport potential combined with an increasingly erosive water level regime that is forced by PDO and ENSO climatic variability events. Conceptual models of potential future responses of these beaches to sea level rise show a possible landward migration of up to 3.5 m at Gilbert Bay beach and up to 4 m at Woodruff Bay beach.