Research is a SeaTrust Institute core activity. Environmental and climate change science and policy, education, resilience, adaptation indigenous knowledge, and sustainability inform our projects that engage interdisciplinary teams in exploring complex global environmental and social issues.
Global and International
Halcyon Adaptation Scenario - a locally based process to enable communities to build their own environmental change adaptation scenario that addresses critical socal, economic and political concerns in the context of global, regional, local and anecdotal climate change and health data. A 2013 successful pilot in the Lower Zambezi region of Zambia shows the value of combining local knowledge with global science to create adaptation plans for communities.
Climate Change Migrants into India - a 2013 research study by SeaTrust Institute staff integrates interviews and film making to analyze the policy implications and practice of Indian law governing in-migration to Mumbai and Delhi from surrounding countries effected by climate change, including flooding and land erosion in Bangladesh, SriLanka, the Maldives and Pakistan.
Research Consortium on Climate Change and Population Health – an interdisciplinary research group convened to explore new approaches to climate change and health issues.
Coalition on Health and Environment: Climate Change Initiative - the UNFCCC-based collaborative designed to put health is the heart of climate change considerations
Capacity Building for African Nurses on Climate& Health Science, Disease Surveillance and Policy - an innovative North-South partnership between SeaTrust Institute and the African NGO Nurses Across the Borders builds nurses’ capacity to lead process and decisions about adaptation to climate change and climate related diseases, engages nurses with disease surveillance, and helps forge the link between climate science, health research and policy-making.
In a Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX), see in the video below how to interplay between extreme weather and social/economic/political conditions create the "perfect storm" for disasters. SeaTrust Institute is working in partnership with the UNISDR (United Nations Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction) to prepare key first responders including public health professionals to lead local climate change disaster risk reduction efforts.
Regional
Ongoing coastal and marine research studies link with our educational projects as we both study and teach about the linked scientific and social forces that shape the Pacific Northwest. A key component to this research is information and knowledge-building in collaboration with experts, the public and policy makers.
Our staff continues to coordinate regional biological, ecosystem, health and social scientific research on issues of interest to the SeaTrust Institute community. For example, an increase in jellies and other invertebrates in parts of Puget Sound, such as the sunflower seastar shown in this photo, are indicators of changing ocean chemistry. Monitoring changes in the ocean and nearshore environment and working to educate policymakers and the public about what those changes mean to the Northwest ecosystem and people is part of our regional program.
If you are a researcher who has contributed to coastal ecology, environmental policy, climate and health, or ecological tourism globally or along the Pacific Northwest coast, we would like to include your work in our database, please contact us at seatrust@seatrustinstitute.org.
We have conducted studies in various areas such as a nature-based Marine Tourism / Indigenous Interpretation project wiht a visiting scholar and researcher from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia in 2011, aquatic invasive species issues, local resilience to sea level rise and climate change and more.
(Top image: SeaTrust Institute and Nurses Across the Borders Lead UNFCCC Side Event, COP16 in Cancun, MX 2010)
(Bottom image: Sunflower Star in Puget Sound, Washington State USA)