> SFU joins universities in Climate Change initiative
SFU joins universities in Climate Change initiative
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Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
January 25, 2008
Simon Fraser University researchers will play a key role in the new Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions announced today by the provincial government.
The province is seeking to create a $94.5-million institute that will be a joint collaboration between the four B.C. universities.
SFU researchers from a diverse number of faculties and schools – from resource and environmental management to health – are at work conducting research in numerous areas related to climate change.
• Faculty of Applied Science/School of Resource and Environmental Management
SFU’s Energy and Materials Research Group (EMRG) is one of the world’s leading research units studying the cost of greenhouse gas reduction.
Led by Mark Jaccard, one of Canada’s foremost experts on the environment, the EMRG developed the Canadian Integrated Modelling System (CIMS), one of the key models used by the federal government to examine options for meeting greenhouse gas targets.
Jaccard is a member of the National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy and is author of Hot Air, Solutions for Canada’s Climate Change Challenge (2007). See http://www.emrg.sfu.ca.
Other REM research groups, such as the Forest Ecology Lab are addressing issues such as adaptive silviculture – how to grow forests to meet a broad range of management objectives, such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration. See http://www.rem.sfu.ca/forestry.
Fisheries researchers in REM, alongside biological scientists, are also looking at how freshwater and marine species are responding to climate change and how they might mitigate adverse effects. See http://www.rem.sfu.ca/fishgrp/.
Karen Kohfeld, a Canada Research Chair in Climate Resources and Global Change, is studying how climate and land surface conditions influence the production of dust emissions, and how dust affects carbon assimilation through the marine food chain. See http://www.rem.sfu.ca/COPElab/.
• Faculty of Science
Researchers in SFU’s Centre for Chemical Ecology, Chemistry and Biological Sciences are utilizing pheromones in their quest to control the mountain pine beetle and other forest pests.
Biologists are also studying climate change’s impact on forestry practices and examining the possible role of carbon sequestration rates of various tree species. Biologist Isabelle Côté is studying the impact of climate change on the world’s valued coral reefs.
Several research centres and groups are addressing climate impact modelling, including researchers in the Centre for Natural Hazards Research and the Department of Earth Sciences, such as John Clague, a Canada Research Chair in Natural Hazards Research, formerly of the Canadian Geological Survey.
Earth sciences professor Gwenn Flowers holds a Canada Research Chair in glaciology and is studying the rate at which glaciers and icecaps are responding to global warming. See http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/news_releases/archives/news01200502.htm and http://www.sfu.ca/~gflowers/research.html.
• Faculty of Health
SFU’s newest faculty has several researchers focusing on the impact of climate change on human health. That focus includes the investigation of climate variability and its impact on population and public health and changing patterns of disease. See http://www.fhs.sfu.ca/.
• Faculty of Arts
Soil scientists in SFU’s Department of Geography are examining links between climate and forest soils and ecology – keys to knowing how to manage our forests and determining sustainable harvesting practices. Researchers are also measuring sea level changes over the millennia in the Pacific Northwest and studying climate shifts in BC’s coastal mountains.
Geographer Jeremy Venditti is studying how the frequency and intensity of fall and winter storms have changed and altered the magnitude of annual flood events and how that in turn has affected the rate of channel erosion and deposition in the Fraser basin. See http://www.sfu.ca/%7Ejvenditt/research.html. He is in the process of creating a model of the river on campus to test theories.
The Centre for Sustainable Community Development at SFU addresses climate adaptation and governance in a variety of projects that include how to relieve pressure on climate through better construction methods and materials, and devising strategies that value both community sustainability and investment for community infrastructure (e.g. transportation, water and sewage) to help communities implement sustainable community plans. See http://www.sfu.ca/cscd/
• Interdisciplinary approaches
A new multidisciplinary project entitled the Secondary Effects of Climate Change on Human and Ecosystem Health is being proposed to examine the indirect impacts of climate change.
Those include the potential spread of infectious diseases, quantity of water available, water degradation and loss of biodiversity. Such effects are bound to raise questions about how existing human infrastructure will be able to support growing urban populations.
The team, from Earth Sciences, Resource and Environmental Management, and the Faculty of Health Sciences (researcher Tim Takaro, see http://www.fhs.sfu.ca/portal_memberdata/timt) will also investigate secondary prevention measures and their costs. The research will potentially spawn a new faculty position in the area of Environmetrics.
• SFU’s Adaptation to Climate Change (ACT) initiative is working to develop policy recommendations for sustainable adaptation to climate change.
Through a series of focused research and dissemination activities, ACT will play a role in advancing the development of public policy options for a wide range of issues, such as extreme weather events, energy production and distribution, health risks and food production. See http://www.sfu.ca/act/.
• Public Affairs and Media Relations’ list of Experts on the Environment
This experts list features a wide range of individual researchers and their areas of expertise related to the environment and climate change. They include Boyd Cohen, a professor at SFU Business, whose See-It software tracks and monitors carbon emissions – and was used by organizers of last year’s Live Earth global concerts to track emissions. See the release here.
For more on individual faculty members and their expertise in the area of climate change, see: http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/issues_experts/hot_topics/environment.html
The province is seeking to create a $94.5-million institute that will be a joint collaboration between the four B.C. universities.
SFU researchers from a diverse number of faculties and schools – from resource and environmental management to health – are at work conducting research in numerous areas related to climate change.
• Faculty of Applied Science/School of Resource and Environmental Management
SFU’s Energy and Materials Research Group (EMRG) is one of the world’s leading research units studying the cost of greenhouse gas reduction.
Led by Mark Jaccard, one of Canada’s foremost experts on the environment, the EMRG developed the Canadian Integrated Modelling System (CIMS), one of the key models used by the federal government to examine options for meeting greenhouse gas targets.
Jaccard is a member of the National Roundtable on the Environment and Economy and is author of Hot Air, Solutions for Canada’s Climate Change Challenge (2007). See http://www.emrg.sfu.ca.
Other REM research groups, such as the Forest Ecology Lab are addressing issues such as adaptive silviculture – how to grow forests to meet a broad range of management objectives, such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration. See http://www.rem.sfu.ca/forestry.
Fisheries researchers in REM, alongside biological scientists, are also looking at how freshwater and marine species are responding to climate change and how they might mitigate adverse effects. See http://www.rem.sfu.ca/fishgrp/.
Karen Kohfeld, a Canada Research Chair in Climate Resources and Global Change, is studying how climate and land surface conditions influence the production of dust emissions, and how dust affects carbon assimilation through the marine food chain. See http://www.rem.sfu.ca/COPElab/.
• Faculty of Science
Researchers in SFU’s Centre for Chemical Ecology, Chemistry and Biological Sciences are utilizing pheromones in their quest to control the mountain pine beetle and other forest pests.
Biologists are also studying climate change’s impact on forestry practices and examining the possible role of carbon sequestration rates of various tree species. Biologist Isabelle Côté is studying the impact of climate change on the world’s valued coral reefs.
Several research centres and groups are addressing climate impact modelling, including researchers in the Centre for Natural Hazards Research and the Department of Earth Sciences, such as John Clague, a Canada Research Chair in Natural Hazards Research, formerly of the Canadian Geological Survey.
Earth sciences professor Gwenn Flowers holds a Canada Research Chair in glaciology and is studying the rate at which glaciers and icecaps are responding to global warming. See http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/news_releases/archives/news01200502.htm and http://www.sfu.ca/~gflowers/research.html.
• Faculty of Health
SFU’s newest faculty has several researchers focusing on the impact of climate change on human health. That focus includes the investigation of climate variability and its impact on population and public health and changing patterns of disease. See http://www.fhs.sfu.ca/.
• Faculty of Arts
Soil scientists in SFU’s Department of Geography are examining links between climate and forest soils and ecology – keys to knowing how to manage our forests and determining sustainable harvesting practices. Researchers are also measuring sea level changes over the millennia in the Pacific Northwest and studying climate shifts in BC’s coastal mountains.
Geographer Jeremy Venditti is studying how the frequency and intensity of fall and winter storms have changed and altered the magnitude of annual flood events and how that in turn has affected the rate of channel erosion and deposition in the Fraser basin. See http://www.sfu.ca/%7Ejvenditt/research.html. He is in the process of creating a model of the river on campus to test theories.
The Centre for Sustainable Community Development at SFU addresses climate adaptation and governance in a variety of projects that include how to relieve pressure on climate through better construction methods and materials, and devising strategies that value both community sustainability and investment for community infrastructure (e.g. transportation, water and sewage) to help communities implement sustainable community plans. See http://www.sfu.ca/cscd/
• Interdisciplinary approaches
A new multidisciplinary project entitled the Secondary Effects of Climate Change on Human and Ecosystem Health is being proposed to examine the indirect impacts of climate change.
Those include the potential spread of infectious diseases, quantity of water available, water degradation and loss of biodiversity. Such effects are bound to raise questions about how existing human infrastructure will be able to support growing urban populations.
The team, from Earth Sciences, Resource and Environmental Management, and the Faculty of Health Sciences (researcher Tim Takaro, see http://www.fhs.sfu.ca/portal_memberdata/timt) will also investigate secondary prevention measures and their costs. The research will potentially spawn a new faculty position in the area of Environmetrics.
• SFU’s Adaptation to Climate Change (ACT) initiative is working to develop policy recommendations for sustainable adaptation to climate change.
Through a series of focused research and dissemination activities, ACT will play a role in advancing the development of public policy options for a wide range of issues, such as extreme weather events, energy production and distribution, health risks and food production. See http://www.sfu.ca/act/.
• Public Affairs and Media Relations’ list of Experts on the Environment
This experts list features a wide range of individual researchers and their areas of expertise related to the environment and climate change. They include Boyd Cohen, a professor at SFU Business, whose See-It software tracks and monitors carbon emissions – and was used by organizers of last year’s Live Earth global concerts to track emissions. See the release here.
For more on individual faculty members and their expertise in the area of climate change, see: http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/issues_experts/hot_topics/environment.html