General Information

 

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Contact:	Fran Scannell

Previous Events

 

Date:	Tuesday 28 August
Title:	U-Boats, Titanic and Television
Speaker:	John Chatterton, The History Channel’s "Deep Sea Detective"
Description:	Diver, film-maker and adventurer John Chatterton is one of the world’s most accomplished and well-known wreck divers.  Some of his exploits include dives to the U-869 German submarine off the coast of New Jersey, the RMS Lusitania, The HMHS Britannic, and over 160 dives to the Andrea Doria.    In 2005 using Russian submersibles to 12,500 feet, he and his team filmed “Titanic’s Final Moments – Missing Pieces,” an award winning History Channel special.  More information on his diving adventures can be found at www.johnchatterton.com and Dive Portal Video Magazine www.diveportaldvd.com.
Date:	Tuesday 21 August
Title:	Red Tides, Emerald Seas and the Deep Blue Oceans:  what color tells us about the ocean
Speaker:	Collin Roesler
Description:	Collin's talk  will highlight the research work she has done in South Africa, the Gulf of Maine, and the ocean gyres – the deepest parts of the ocean. Dr. Roesler came to Bigelow in 1999 from the University of Connecticut where she was an assistant professor in the Department of Marine Sciences.   She is a bio-optical oceanographer specializing in the development of optical methods to determine the distribution, composition, and productivity in both marine and aquatic systems.  Her educational background includes a PhD from the University of Washington, MS from Oregon State University, and BS from Brown University.
Date:	Tuesday 14 August
Title:	The significance of sex in the plankton
Speaker:	Thomas Kiørboe
Description:	Dr. Kiørboe is a professor at the Danish Institute for Fisheries Research at the Technical University of Denmark, and is visiting Bigelow to team teach a course “Physical-Biological Interactions in the Plankton” Aug. 13-17th Thomas is a national and international postgraduate lecturer who has taught in Scandinavia, Thailand, Spain, and the United States. He has co-edited and been a member of the editorial board of five international journals.  His remarkable video clips and animations will reveal the fascinating mate-finding and courtship behavior of zooplankton copepods. In his 1859 book On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin hypothesized that evolution is driven by natural selection for traits that enhance survival. Science has since demonstrated the tremendous success of this theory in explaining a wealth of biological phenomena. However, Darwin realized that natural selection for survival traits was insufficient and he later (1871) developed the ‘other’ theory of sexual selection, that is, selection for traits that enhance reproduction rather than survival, typically through female choice of male sexual partner. In Victorian England this theory was immediately rejected and mainly remained ignored during the subsequent 100 years. More recently the theory has received enormous interest and studies of birds and mammals, in particular, where courtship behavior is easy to observe, have demonstrated that sexual selection is (at least) as important as survival of the fittest in driving evolution and for explaining phenomena – the Peacock’s tail and the human brain are both considered the result of sexual selection. Zooplankton copepods, tiny marine animals, have sexual reproduction, and recent studies have demonstrated that fundamental aspects of their morphology, ecology, behavior, and population dynamics are the result of sexual selection. Through video recordings the lecture will reveal the private life of copepods and describe how their behavior through sexual selection has been tailored to optimize mate finding and mating and how their desire for sex has impacted their population dynamics. Plankton population dynamics is traditionally considered a question of food and predators, but sex may be equally important in governing the productivity of zooplankton populations.

Date:	Tuesday 7 August
Title:	Confronting Climate Change in the Gulf of Maine: Findings of the Northeast Climate Impact Assessment 2007
Speaker:	Rick Wahle
Description:	Over the past two years the Union of Concerned Scientists has been working with a team of climate modelers and specialists in the earth, life and social sciences to examine the potential impacts of climate change on different sectors of the US Northeast - ranging from agriculture to forestry to marine resources and human health.  The resulting report, Confronting Climate Change in the US Northeast: Science, Impacts, Solutions, was just released in July.  According to the report, “The very notion of the Northeast is at stake.”  As the rate of climate change accelerates, we can expect increased annual temperatures and summer heat waves as well as greatly reduced winter snow and more extreme precipitation events.  What will the impacts be on marine life in the Gulf of Maine?  Dr. Wahle, a collaborator on the report, will talk about the key findings as they relate to the Gulf of Maine and its iconic fisheries: cod and lobster. The team looked at consequences of two emissions scenarios – continued reliance on fossil fuels versus a transition toward more efficient energy use and clean energy technologies.  These two scenarios help illustrate the consequences of our emissions choices on the climate our children and grandchildren inherit.  Dr. Wahle will have copies of the complete report which is also available online at www.ucsusa.org/. After the brief presentation, there will be questions and answers and informal discussion.  Wahle received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Maine and joined Bigelow Laboratory in 1995 after holding post-doctoral positions at Brown University and the University of Rhode Island.  He and his family reside in Round Pond.