Project Action Teams (PATs) are groups of Galápagos researchers working together on a common project with the goal of creating research papers, proposals, or both.

Project Action Teams

Integrating Climate and Conservation Genomics in the Galápagos

Participants: Gabriele Gentile, John Phillips, Diane Thompson, Marcus Lofverstrom, Ana Carrión B, Doug Toomey, Gisella Caccone, Simon Goodman, Ainoa Nieto, Gustavo Jímenez, Alberto Velez, Jaime Chaves, Jack Dumbacher, Greg Lewbart

Island Systems are typically characterized by species with small population sizes and limited gene flow. This leads to reduced genetic variability. Strong selective pressure may exist, but selective purging may not prevent high genetic load. Do these populations maintain sufficient evolutionary potential and the ability to respond to rapidly changing environments? The next 50 years will be crucial for population viability and ultimately species persistence. Fine-grained models are urgently needed, integrating past and present data, for a reliable prediction of climate change. In fact, many environmental parameters like temperature and humidity are physiologically relevant and may predict adaptive shifts or extinction in the lack of adaptability. Understanding the genomic base of adaptive traits is crucial to guide conservation also in the light of a One Health vision. How will stressed populations, with low adaptive variability, cope with environmental changes, new diseases, and possible spill over from other species? Will they maintain their resistance and resilience? How will co-evolutionary relationships between hosts/pathogens and hosts/parasites be impacted? Unprecedented advances in molecular biology, theory of population genetics and genomics, the development of proper bioinformatic and analytical tools allows us to extract relevant information from genomes. We will use these data to inform and guide conservation strategies.

Drivers of Coral Distribution in the Galápagos Islands

Participants: Ana Belen, Cameron Tripp, Neda Mobasher, Alyssa Atwood, Marcus Lofverstrom, Gerardo Rivera Tello, Diane Thompson, Maria José Marín Jarrín

Corals in the Galápagos Islands inhabit shallow, mesophotic, and deep-water environments, yet the drivers of their distribution remain uncertain. This project explores how climate change, ENSO variability, nutrient supply, oxygen dynamics, and ocean circulation interact to shape coral habitats across depth zones. Using modern datasets—including 3D reanalysis products, high-resolution ocean current fields, CTD observations, and coral geochemical records—combined with Lagrangian trajectory modeling, the team will evaluate connectivity between surface and deep ecosystems.

The project will establish proof-of-concept analyses linking nutrient proxies with circulation patterns and quantifying connectivity indices across the archipelago. Next, the project will assess how nutrient availability and ocean dynamics influence coral colonization and persistence on ENSO timescales. Longer-term goals extend to paleoclimate reconstructions using coral geochemistry and fossil records to evaluate how external forcing shaped distributions in the past. Together, these efforts aim to identify key processes governing coral resilience in a changing climate.

Modeling the Big Bang of Early Seamount Life

Participants: Valeria Turino, Michael Landis, Vincent Sassard, Kaisa Autumn, Gabriele Gentle, Ana-Belen Yanez

Geological, climatological, evolutionary, and ecological processes and conditions together can lead to differences in island system outcomes – such as plateau and island morphology, weather, and biodiversity patterns. From the birth of a seamount to its development into an island with an established ecosystem, such as Isabela island in the Galápagos Archipelago, it is necessary to understand the structure and evolution of magmatic plumbing system and the successive ecosystems as a seamount evolves from the submerged domain to the sub-aerial domain. One way to understand these relationships is to represent the system mathematically through time and space, with a focus on identifying key system variables and interrelationships.

We will survey ISIC participants and their collaborators to construct and refine a conceptual model to characterize the mechanisms that govern island systems dynamics, with a particular application to the Galápagos Archipelago. In doing so, we will improve communications between island geologists, climatologists, and biologists and identify the modeling gaps across disciplines.

Xplore Galápagos: Interactive Education in Biology and Geology

Participants: Kaisa Autumn, Oluwatofunmi Adeboye, Luke Harmon, KeMia Smith, Nicole Murray, Gerardo Rivera Tello, Ana Carrión, Vincent Sassard, Ana Belen Yanez, Doug Toomey, Christine Parent

The Xplore Galápagos project aims to create engaging educational tools that connect students, families, and visitors to the unique biology and geology of the Galápagos Islands across time. Building on the OneZoom “Tree of Life” platform, the team will develop an interactive map that highlights key geological features while tracing the evolution of iconic Galápagos species. Content will be tailored for younger audiences, presenting scientific information in an accessible and visually engaging format.

Complementary outreach materials will include interactive video-slideshows and simple videogames, such as Iggy the Iguana’s Journey, which follow ecological and geological change through island formation and colonization. Potential formats include 2D scrolling games, choose-your-own-adventure narratives, and resource-based challenges. The project will collaborate with local Galápagos residents and artists to ensure cultural authenticity and vibrant, kid-friendly graphics. Through these multimedia tools, Xplore Galápagos will communicate the intertwined stories of life and land in one of the world’s most remarkable natural laboratories.

An Interdisciplinary View of the Evolution of the Galápagos Archipelago Through Time

Participants: Beck Hufstetler, Christine Parent, Emilie Hooft

This project aims to connect different time scales across disciplines in the Galápagos region, so that events through time can be represented in an understandable but informative graphic. This requires knowledge of the main events through history in geology, biology, climate science, and oceanography and synthesizing them into a timeline graphic. This graphic will likely be logarithmic, starting with a broad overview then zooming into more recent time periods to describe more details as they are known. It will require interviews with scientists in different disciplines to compile their known events through time and the uncertainty associated with their date of occurrence. This timeline may be made in detail, to allow scientists that study within their discipline to better understand how to situate their work within other disciplines, and more easily identify collaboration opportunities. A simplified version will also be made, with the aim of providing it to the broader public and even K-12 environments to help with education and outreach about the history of the Galápagos archipelago.

A Synthesis of Galápagos Paleoclimate Records: Insights from Converging and Diverging Proxy Records

Participants: Cindy Froyd, Jess Conroy, Diane Thompson, Alyssa Atwood, Nicole Murray

The Galápagos Islands host a rich array of paleoclimate archives, including marine sediments, corals, lake deposits, and bog sediments, which collectively span interannual to millennial timescales. While these records provide critical insights into past hydroclimate and temperature variability, they often diverge in their signals when overlapping in time. This synthesis project will evaluate both areas of agreement and disagreement across proxies to better understand the unique climatological, biological, and geological influences shaping the Galápagos climate system.

By compiling and analyzing diverse records with quantitative approaches—including statistical synthesis methods and metadata-based comparisons—we aim to identify the causes of proxy divergence and refine interpretations of ENSO variability, mean state shifts, decadal to centennial patterns, and highland–lowland climate differences. The project will also highlight opportunities to integrate modern tools such as forward modeling, data assimilation, and inter-model comparisons. Ultimately, this work will establish a comprehensive baseline of Galápagos climate variability and guide future research directions.

DOVE: Distribution of Volcanism Everywhere in the Galápagos

Participants: Janine Andrys, Darin Schwartz, Adam Soule, Christine Parent, Eric Mittelstaedt, Karen Harpp

The DOVE project seeks to understand the processes controlling late-stage, distributed volcanism across the Galápagos platform and its broader implications for Earth systems and ecosystems. The central question is whether lower crustal flow and mass redistribution, or pre-existing ridge structures, drive mantle upwelling and localized magmatism. Complementary investigations will examine subsidence and degradation of volcanic plateaus, their influence on ocean circulation, and connections between geomorphology, climate variability, and biological species distribution across land and sea.

To address these questions, the team will employ state-of-the-art autonomous vehicles and mapping technologies to collect high-resolution bathymetry, sub-bottom profiles, magnetics, and seafloor imagery. Additional measurements of ocean currents, water properties, and gravity will complement geological and biological sampling. Integration with paleoclimate and ecological data will enable cross-disciplinary synthesis. Beyond advancing fundamental geoscience, the project emphasizes broader impacts through collaborations with Galápagos scientists and development of a universal, cross-disciplinary timeline illustrating platform evolution and its ecological consequences.

Cocos and Carnegie Ridges

Leads: Tushar Mittal, Gabriele Gentile

Participants: Gisella Caccone, Gabriele Gentile, Sally Gibson, Kris Karnauskas, Tushar Mittal, Eric Mittelstaedt, Mark Richards, Mike Stock, Omar Torres-Carvajal, Scott White

Molecular genomic data suggest that colonization of Galapagos by Iguanas might have started from Central America and South Mexico between 4-8 Million Years Ago (Ma). This possible route for colonization contrasts with other evidence suggesting direct colonization from South America (e.g. geckos, tortoises, but see Kehlmaier et al. 2022 for possible different scenarios for tortoises). Based on our understanding of the surface currents in the past, a consensus exists that, for terrestrial organisms, the direct colonization from South America might have occurred by drifting. The alternative colonization route from Central America is not understood and available geological and climatological data are insufficient to test hypotheses related to this possibility. This PAT will address long-distance colonization of oceanic islands through now submerged volcanic stepping stones with the goal of reconciling geological, climatological, and biological inconsistencies.

Connectivity at the Ecological Scale

Leads: Robert Lamb, Jon Witman

Participants: Alexandre Fuster Calvo, Jaime Chaves, Robert Lamb, Ian Oiler, Mikell Warms, Jon Witman

Various communities and ecosystems have a range of connections in ecological time, including energy connectivity through food webs, genetic connectivity through gene flow. These interactions can cross shallow and deep marine systems, terrestrial and marine systems, and range in spatial and temporal scales. This PAT will explore these connections and seek to understand source/sink dynamics, impacts on resilience, and other factors related to ecological and evolutionary connections.

Genomics, Communities, and Colonization Histories

Leads: Christine Parent and John Phillips

Participants: Jaime Chaves, Jack Dumbacher, Alex Fuster, Lucinda Lawson, Leonie Moyle, Christine Parent, John Phillips, Andrea Sequeira, Omar Torres-Carvajal, Robert Weiss

Using data from multiple lineages from different ecological zones, this PAT will reconstruct the chronological colonization of Galapagos biota, with a focus on tracking hierarchical trophic groups. Goals include building a chronology of species arrival using phylogenetic data, assessing whether the kind of, and number of members in a trophic group increases through time, and identifying missing links in the dataset: e.g. timescales or taxa/functional groups that are missing but needed.

Mapping, Sediment Coring, and Geological Sampling of the Galápagos Platform

Leads: Mark Richards and Julia Cole

Participants: Alyssa Atwood, Julia Cole, Sally Gibson, Karen Harpp, Kris Karnauskas, Emilie Hooft, Tushar Mittal, Eric Mittelstaedt, Mark Richards, Mike Stock, Cameron Tripp

There is a need to understand the subsidence history of the platform, and the climatic implications of the platform being subareal. To that end, this PAT will characterize the temporal evolution of the height of the Galápagos Platform and quantify its impact on tropical climate variability. This PAT will conduct sediment coring, mapping of seafloor topography and sediment thickness, and geophysical data collection on Galápagos platform to address questions of climate, geologic evolution, and ecological history. The PAT will test the null hypothesis that temporal variations in the height of the Galápagos Platform have not influenced ENSO variability over paleoclimate time scales using a combination of modeling, new samples, and interpretation of paleoclimate proxy records.

Mapping the Eastern Galápagos Platform and Seamounts

Leads: Eric Mittelstaedt, Tushar Mittal

Participants: Julia Cole, Kris Karnauskas, Tushar Mittal, Eric Mittelstaedt, Mike Stock, Scott White, Jon Witman

In recognition of the critical need for quantitative reconstruction of the GA over time, which provides the base boundary conditions for understanding the biological and climate evolution of GA, this PAT aims to constrain the subsidence history of the Galápagos hotspot track through time and quantify its role in regional climate variations over millions of years. To address this goal, this PAT will conduct mapping of seafloor topography and sediment thickness, geophysical data collection and biomass mapping using mid-water modes of sonar along the portion of the Carnegie Ridge nearest the Galapagos Platform, dredging, and gravity coring of sediments. The approach of this PAT will include bathymetry, biomass measurements from mid-water multibeam, gravity cores, CTD, dredging, ocean modeling, and more.

Museum contributions to study of the Galapagos

Leads: John Dumbacher, Maria Jose Barragan

Participants: María José Barragán, Alexandre Fuster Calvo, Jaime Chaves, Jack Dumbacher, Miriam Kannan, Robert Lamb, Christine Parent, Omar Torres

Researchers working in Galapagos collect tangible materials for their research. Many collections were created as infrastructure for future research – for the purposes of describing and documenting what is present, but also to study geology, climatology, disease, evolution, ecology, morphology, health, demographics, genetics, and many other topics. This PAT will make the available material and infrastructure more accessible, build collections of today’s conditions, and be resilient to future needs. Specific activities may involve digitizing, imaging, data aggregation, and development of simple search tools and specimen finders.

Population Genomics through time

Leads: Lucinda Lawson, Robert Lamb

Participants: Lucinda Lawson, Andrea, Christine Parent, Robbie, Jaime Chaves, Gabriele Gentile, Eric Mittelstaedt

Historical effective population sizes can be inferred from genomics data and can be used to estimate the geological age and emergence history of the GA, as well as the availability and potential size of habitats required by particular species. This PAT will explore the potential of these genomics data and combine data across species to calibrate and validate estimates provided by geological and climatological data sources.

Tuff cones

Leads: Karen Harpp and Sally Gibson

Participants: Benjamin Bernard, Sally Gibson, Karen Harpp, Kris Karnauskas, Eric Mittelstaedt

Tuff cones reflect interaction of water with lava; tuff cones especially are generally formed along the coast. This PAT will fill a knowledge gap regarding relationships between volcanic features and sea level changes, generating insights into sea level changes over the last few tens of thousands of years or more, global climate change impacts, paleobiology of the archipelago, and the impact of changing sea level on individual volcanic edifices and their evolution. Data will include satellite imagery, morphometric measurements, particle size distribution, formation ages, erosion extent, information on wave-cut terraces, and biological evidence of sea level changes.

Dynamics of marine communities on shallow and deep vertical walls

Leads: Ana Belen Yanez and Jon Witman

Participants: Julia Cole, Robert Lamb, Katleen Robert, Jon Witman, Ana Belen Yanez

The complex volcanic history of the Galapagos has produced steep bathymetric gradients with ubiquitous vertical rock walls. These habitats are colonized by diverse and dynamic communities of marine invertebrates There is a need to study the linkages between them to better understand their biodiversity, persistence and resilience in the face of climate change. This PAT will address depth zonation, structural complexity and ecological diversity/processes, water flow and larval supply, deep/shallow exchange along wall, and community assembly. Techniques will include ROVs, ADCP, CTD, coral DNA, deployment of recruitment substrates and photogrammetric techniques.

Garúa, a vital water resource in a changing climate

Leads: Nicole Murray, Mikell Warms

Participants: María José Barragán, Jess Conroy, Cindy Froyd, Carolina Carrión Klier, Nicole K. Murray, Ian Oiler, Christine Parent, Mikell Warms

Garúa is an important water resource that sets key vegetation zones and habitats, is a potential human hazard. In recent decades, there is evidence that garúa is declining, with potential implications for highland habitats and wildfires. This PAT aims to understand what controls the elevation and spatial/temporal extent of the garúa, whether garúa is changing, the role of garúa in the hydrologic budget, whether it can be utilized as a freshwater resource, and more. Data will include satellite observations of SST and clouds, snails, weather station data, climate models, and more.