
Community & Human Health
This is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — to achieve improved human health and well-being. Our approach identifies the inhabitants who are most vulnerable due to a lack of material wealth, water and food insecurity, and gender-related issues. We recognize that the health and well-being of local inhabitants is key to the conservation and sustainability of the Galapagos, like many other ecologically sensitive places.
Our projects include topics in: Epidemiology, Public Health & Policy, Gender Studies, Tourism, and Food Security & Nutrition and Pollution.
Let’s meet the researchers and their impactful projects:
ANDREI DANIEL MIHALCA
Dirofilaria immitis: yet another threat for the endangered Galapagos sea lion?
LAIA MUÑOZ
Assessment of mercury and lead in coastal food webs in Galápagos and public health implications. Using genomic tools in marine commercial fishes.
NATALIA VILLEGAS RODRÍGUEZ
- Understanding young adults’ (18-24 years of age) risk and protective factors related to youth pregnancy and violence in the Galapagos.
JILL STEWART
- Lessons from the Environmental Resistome in Galápagos: A One Health Perspective.
- The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galápagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island.
- Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
- Water Quality Assessments on San Cristobal Island, Ecuador.
AMANDA THOMPSON
- Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
- Food Environments in the Galápagos: Geographic and Behavioral Determinants of Diet and Health.
- The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galápagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island.
- Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galápagos Islands.
- Feasibility of Educational Support Measures for Parenting Skills and Mental Health Symptoms in Mothers of Young Children in the Galapagos.
VALERIA OCHOA
- Lessons from the Environmental Resistome in Galápagos: A One Health Perspective.
Long-term water quality monitoring program in San Cristóbal, Galapagos.
KHRISTOPHER M. NICHOLAS
Social and environmental determinants of metabolic dysregulation in the Galapagos.
PAUL CÁRDENAS
Effect of a Lupinus mutabilis sweet snack nutritional complement on the gut microbiome from schoolchildren in Galapagos 2022-2023. A pilot study.
RENATO LEÓN
- The use of the Gravid-Aedes Trap (GAT) for a better monitoring and control of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, main vector of dengue chikungunya and Zika in the Galapagos islands.
SONIA ZAPATA
- Circulation of Toxoplasma gondii in the Galapagos archipelago.
JOHN BUSE
- Diabetes Prevention & Management – Tailoring Global Models to Galapagos.
ENRIQUE TERÁN
- Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
- Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galápagos Islands.
MARGARET BENTLEY
- Water, Food, and Health in San Cristóbal: The Healthy Family Study.
- Food Environments in the Galápagos: Geographic and Behavioral Determinants of Diet and Health.
- The Dual Burden of Disease in the Galápagos, Ecuador: An Interdisciplinary Study of Food and Water on Isabela Island.
- Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: The intergenerational effects of maternal stress in the Galápagos Islands.
CINDY FRAGA
- Youth Perceptions of Living in the Galapagos: Relationships, Health, and the Future.
SUSANA CÁRDENAS
- Evaluating and measuring impacts at Tourist Visitor Sites of the Galapagos National Park with an integrated and adaptive approach.