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ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

Many of our projects focus on environmental change as the key factor for understanding how we help manage and conserve our precious global environment worldwide. Environmental changes stemming from natural disasters, human activity or ecological processes can shape the availability of natural resources, the abundance and distribution of the islands’ flora and fauna, and the interaction between humans and their environment. The Galapagos provides an ideal laboratory for understanding these issues in other settings around the world.

Our projects include topics in: Natural Hazards, One Health, Hydrology & Water Management and Earth Systems Modeling, Climate Change, Adaptation & Mitigation.

Let’s meet the researchers and their impactful projects:

MARIA DEL CARMEN CAZORLA

  • Ozone and water vapor in the Equatorial Americas: Data Collection and Analysis of Ticosondes and SHADOZ Observations from Costa Rica and Ecuador.

DIEGO RIVEROS-IREGUI

  • Evaluation of the hydrological cycle and its effects on vegetation and soil formation in San Cristóbal, Galapagos.
  • Water Cycling and Critical Zone Processes in the Tropics: The Galápagos as a Natural Laboratory.
  • Evaluating lithium (Li) isotopes to understand critical zone development in tropical islands: a systematic assessment on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos.

HARVEY SEIM

  • Impacts of Ocean Change on the Galapagos Marine Ecosystem.

SCOTT GIFFORD

  • Impacts of Ocean Change on the Galapagos Marine Ecosystem.

ADRIAN MARCHETTI

  • Impacts of Ocean Change on the Galapagos Marine Ecosystem.

PHIL PAGE

  • High Resolution, Commercial Satellite Imagery for Island Studies.

CERI LEWIS & CARLOS MENA

  • Investigation of exposure to plastic in the Galapagos marine food web with emphasis on plankton, invertebrates, algae and mangroves.

SARA RHEA

  • Livestock welfare management; antimicrobial knowledge, attitudes and practices among producers; and presence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli in the One Health sectors, La Floreana Island, Galapagos.

PABLO DÁVILA

  • Analysis of stable isotopes of water (delta18O y delta2H) in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as baseline for hydrologic scientific studies of high impact.

NOAH KITTNER

  • Techno-ecological synergies for sustainable energy management in the Galapagos Islands.

STEVE WALSH

  • High Resolution, Commercial Satellite Imagery for Island Studies.
  • Synthesis of Drivers, Patterns, and Trajectories of LCLUC in Island Ecosystems, Nat.

XIAOMING LIU

  • Water Cycling and Critical Zone Processes in the Tropics: The Galápagos as a Natural Laboratory.
  • Evaluating lithium (Li) isotopes to understand critical zone development in tropical islands: a systematic assessment on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos.

KHRISTOPHER M. NICHOLAS

  • Social and environmental determinants of metabolic dysregulation in the Galapagos.

VALERIA OCHOA

  • Water Quality Assessments on San Cristobal Island, Ecuador.

STEVEN SCHULTZE

  • High Resolution Study on the Microcliamtes of Various Plant Zones on San Cristóbal Island, Galapagos, Ecuador.

ANDREW R. BABBIN

  • Measurement of marine nitrous oxide emissions from the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

SUSANA CÁRDENAS

  • Spatial foraging behavior and energy expenditure landscapes of the Galapagos penguin and cormorant, and its relationship with climate change.

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USFQ

UNC Center for Galapagos Studies

USFQ Galápagos

Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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In 2022, the Galapagos Science Center (GSC) and the broader UNC & USFQ Galapagos Initiative will celebrate its 10th Anniversary. We are proud to announce the World Summit on Island Sustainability scheduled to be held on June 26–30, 2022 at the Galapagos Science Center and the Community Convention Center on San Cristobal Island.

The content of the World Summit will be distributed globally through social media and results documented through papers published in a book written as part of the Galapagos Book Series by Springer Nature and edited by Steve Walsh (UNC) & Carlos Mena (USFQ) as well as Jill Stewart (UNC) and Juan Pablo Muñoz (GSC/USC). The book will be inclusive and accessible by the broader island community including scientists, managers, residents, tourists, and government and non-government organizations.

While the most obvious goal of organizing the World Summit on Island Sustainability is to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the GSC and the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, other goals will be addressed through special opportunities created as part of our operational planning of the World Summit.

For instance, we seek to elevate and highlight the Galapagos in the island conservation discourse, seeking to interact with other island networks in more obvious and conspicuous ways to benefit the Galapagos Islands, the UNC-USFQ Galapagos Initiative, and the world. We will seize the opportunity to further develop the I2N2 – International Islands Network-of-Networks. Further, we wish to highlight and emphasize multiple visions of a sustainable future for the Galapagos Islands and we cannot do this alone. Therefore, engaging the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Tourism, the Government Council of Galapagos, the Galapagos National Park, and local Galapagos authorities, including government and non-government organizations and local citizen groups, is imperative.

The Galapagos Science Center on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

Borrowing from Hawaii’s and Guam’s Green Growth Program and the Global Island Partnership, we wish to examine existing global programs that emphasize island sustainability and their incorporation into life, policies, and circumstances in the Galapagos Islands. We will also seek to enhance our connections with the institutional members of our International Galapagos Science Consortium and expand the Consortium through the recruitment of other member institutions. We will also work to benefit islands and their local communities by working with citizen groups as well as important NGOs who seek to improve the natural conditions in the Galapagos and diminish the impact of the human dimension on the future of Galapagos’ ecosystems.

Lastly, we will use the World Summit to benefit UNC & USFQ and our constituencies through a strong and vibrant communication plan about the World Summit, creating corporate relationships as sponsors, identifying funding goals through donors, and benefiting our study abroad program for student engagement in the Galapagos Islands. We plan to develop and issue a Galapagos Sustainability Communique after the World Summit that includes the vision and insights of all its participants for a sustainable Galapagos with applicability to global island settings.

We are eager to hear your perspective and have you join us at the World Summit on Island Sustainability!