International Research Projects

Featured Projects

The establishment of Maritza Biological Station marked the beginning of increasingly far-flung travels for Stroud Water Research Center researchers and educators, which over the next 30 years would take them literally around the world: to conduct research on the Amazon and Congo rivers and the streams of Papua New Guinea; to lead education workshops in Peru and organize a Leaf Pack group in Kenya in collaboration with Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement; and most recently, to journey to the bucolic country of Bhutan, high in the Himalayas, to assess water-quality conditions and help set up monitoring and citizen science programs to enable local communities to protect their freshwater sources, which are at once an enormous economic asset and a fragile natural ecosystem.

Forest Restoration on Indigenous Lands: Restoring Biodiversity for Multiple Ecosystem Services, Community Resilience, and Financial Sustainability Through Locally Informed Strategies and Incentives

Panama contains vast Indigenous territories of mixed land use. This project seeks to facilitate the development of economically sustainable reforestation approaches to expand contiguous forest cover and improve Indigenous livelihoods.

Knowledge and Stewardship of Freshwater Ecosystems in Costa Rica and Around the World

This project contributes to ongoing operations, monitoring, and synthesis of long-term research at Maritza Biological Station in Costa Rica. Seed funding advances collaborations between the Stroud Center and the Smithsonian

Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology: Costa Rica

A study of small to intermediate size streams in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste in Costa Rica, with the backdrop of a natural and successional mosaic.

Molecular Ecology of Archaea in Aquatic and Terrestrial Environments

Less is known about Archaea than the other two domains of life on Earth (Bacteria and Eukarya), particularly the role they play in ecosystem functions and nutrient cycling (e.g., ammonia

Physical, Chemical, and Biological Assessment of Streams and Rivers in Bhutan and Bangladesh

Scientists evaluated water quality using macroinvertebrate studies and real-time data from monitoring stations equipped with open source technology.

Silk Grass Farms Water Resources Assessment

This project evaluates water resources at Silk Grass Farms in Belize through physical, biological, and chemical indicators and identifies potential activities at the farms that may be degrading or improving

The First Assessment of Congo River Organic Matter Chemistry and Reactivity

The Congo River is the second largest river in the world, but little is known about it because regional conflict has made its study logistically difficult. Funded by: Stroud Water

The Peru Project

Stroud Water Research Center applied its decades of experience to an integrated research and education project in headwaters of the Amazon.