First-ever summer institute on climate change

Students investigate how grapevines are responding to climate change in the Niagara Region.
Students of the Summer Institute on Applied Climate Change investigate how grapevines are responding to climate change in the Niagara Region.

This past July, UTSC’s Climate Lab welcomed student participants from Peru, Tanzania, China and North America to its first Summer Institute on Applied Climate Change.

During the two-week course, they tracked species diversity in a forest test plot in UTSC’S own ravine and also travelled to Niagara Region to examine the effect of climate change on local wineries. In the classroom participants worked with climate models and data sets and learned how to analyze and mitigate community vulnerability to climate change. 

The program, which was organized by the Climate Lab in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute, was designed to provide basic climate-change research techniques to scientists and students in related fields such as biology, geography and geology. 

The Climate Lab is located in the University of Toronto’s Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences at UTSC.