Greener shores in Atlantic Canada through university research

Canada is one of the few countries that shares shorelines with three different oceans. Our Atlantic provinces have a particularly strong connection to the ocean, and naturally, much research based in Atlantic universities centers around the ocean. 

Learn how Atlantic universities are working to protect, preserve and learn from the ocean in the fight against climate change. 

Working together to address the ocean’s role in climate change 

Two Atlantic institutions, Memorial University (MUN) and Dalhousie University, collaborate in the Transforming Climate Action (TCA): Addressing the Missing Ocean program with Quebec universities Université du Québec à Rimouski and Université Laval. Their goal: discover the ocean’s role in climate change, which they are uniquely able to do as coastal institutions. Researchers at MUN recently opened up about their projects through the TCA program—from developing sustainable solutions for fisheries to a massive multidisciplinary study on coastal communities.

Helping coastal homeowners care for their shores 

The TransCoastal Adaptations Centre for Nature-Based Solutions, housed at Saint Mary’s University, recently expanded their Green Shores for Homes program into Nova Scotia. The Centre, a hub for research on climate change adaptation, aims to build climate resilient coastal communities. The Green Shores for Homes program helps waterfront homeowners assess, restore, preserve and protect their natural shorelines, empowering the community to take climate action in their own backyards. 

Advocating internationally for Canada’s oceans 

In November 2023, Dalhousie University sent a delegation to COP28—the 28th Conference of the Parties for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—to promote the North Atlantic Carbon Observatory (NACO). With Dalhousie as home base, the NACO will help researchers collect more ocean carbon data—which they urgently need—to better understand the carbon process of the ocean and how it is changing amid climate change. The research findings would ultimately inform climate policies and help enact actual climate solutions.