The Future of Oceans: Short of Breath―Marine Life in a Warming World

Curtis Deutsch, PhD

Associate Professor, 

School of Oceanography, 

College of the Environment 

University of Washington

Sunday, December 10
3 pm
Curtis Deutsch, PhD
The Fort Worden Commons*
*Please note change of venue


Admission: $5

(students, teachers FREE)


Dr. Curtis Deutsch’s research is aimed at understanding the interactions between climate and ecosystems. He combines numerical models of varying complexity with diverse types of biological and physical data, to discover the ways in which climate produces spatial pattern and temporal variability in ecosystems, and thus influences their basic functioning. Most of this work has focused on biogeochemical cycles in the ocean, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms that regulate the cycles of nutrients and oxygen over a range of time scales from years to millennia. He also works with terrestrial ecologists to understand how climate influences the patterns of thermal fitness, and their implications for biodiversity in a changing climate. He received an Investigator Award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and is a Fellow of the Kavli Frontiers of Science.

This is the third installment of The Future of Oceans lecture series (learn more about the series here).

This event is offered with generous support by the Darrow Family.

Assisted Listening Devices available

40 YEARS OF CHANGE: COOPER ISLAND'S SEABIRDS RESPOND TO A MELTING ARCTIC

Sunday | January 8, 2017 | 3 pm

presented by George Divoky, PhDDirector/Researcher, Friends of Cooper IslandThe Fort Worden ChapelAdmission: $10 ($5 for PTMSC members)

George Divoky has studied seabirds in arctic Alaska since 1970 when, as a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution, he participated in the Coast Guard’s survey of the Arctic Ocean adjacent to Prudhoe Bay. Since then he has been involved in Alaskan seabird research relating to a diverse group of conservation issues including the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act, oil and gas exploration of the outer continental shelf, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and regional climate change. Since 1975 he has maintained a continuing study of Black Guillemots on Cooper Island, Alaska, that is one of the longest longitudinal bird studies in the Arctic. The Cooper Island study’s findings on the consequences of recent snow and sea ice reductions provide some of the best examples of the biological consequences of climate change. 

Dr. Divoky’s research was featured in a cover story in the New York Times Magazine entitled “George Divoky’s Planet,” in the PBS’s Scientific American Frontiers program “Hot Times in Alaska,” and on ABC Nightly News and Nightline. He has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, been interviewed NPR’s Talk of the Nation and Science Friday, and his story and findings were featured in a play about climate change, Greenland, staged by the Royal National Theatre in London in 2011. He helped found and has twice been chair of the Pacific Seabird Group, an international organization working to advance conservation and research of Pacific Basin seabirds. Currently, as Director of the nonprofit Friends of Cooper Island, he is working to ensure the continuation of research on Cooper Island seabirds in coming decades when they will have to deal with the complete disappearance of summer ice, offshore drilling, increased shipping and commercial fishing. 

Divoky was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Michigan State University and a doctorate from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. When not in the field he lives in Seattle, Washington.

Marine Science Center Finds 5.8 Tons of Plastic on Salish Sea Beaches

The following is a guest post by former Port Townsend Marine Science Center Executive Director, Anne Murphy. She tells the story of the Plastics Project from its earliest days and emphasizes that without dedication and hard work of our volunteers, this timely study of plastics pollution in the Salish Sea would not have been possible:

It was around 2006 when I first I heard about the “garbage patch” in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It brought up the question that would fuel our research:

If that much plastic is floating out in the Pacific Ocean, how much is here in our local marine waters and on our beaches? 

With the help of Marcus Eriksen* of Algalita Marine Research Foundation, PTMSC conducted some exploratory beach sampling trials at home in rural Jefferson County and in urbanized King County. Our trials focused on sampling sandy beaches for small bits of plastic called microplastic, a size that beach clean up efforts generally miss and a size that commonly enters the food web through ingestion by birds and fish. (*Marcus Eriksen is now with 5 Gyres Institute.)

We found microplastic in our trials. We conducted more trials on new beaches, this time looking for a pattern in microplastic distribution along the length of drift cells. Again we found microplastics, but no pattern emerged within drift cells. Sampling by drift cell proved to be more complicated than our original approach. By this time, I was convinced that we wanted to develop a sampling plan that could be easily learned and replicated by volunteers throughout the region.

We secured funding to conduct a three-year study that we hoped would provide a baseline estimate of how much microplastic was on WA Salish Sea beaches. (Thanks to our major funders: WA DOE’s PPG Program and Foss Maritime.) In Year 1 we recruited and trained volunteer groups in 7 counties. In Year 2 we expanded to include volunteer groups and partnering institutions in all 12 Washington Salish Sea counties.

Enthusiasm, support, and interest remained high throughout the three-year project duration. When the project ended, many volunteers were motivated to share what they’d learned about plastic debris accumulating on their beaches and the associated impacts to marine ecosystem health. In many cases, volunteers chose to engage at a deeper level as partners in conservation. Examples of their actions included creating a plastic bottle reduction campaign, working with local municipalities to ban the distribution of plastic bags, offering awareness-building programs in schools to help youth think about their choices and alternatives to single-use plastics, leading beach clean-ups, and more.

After the project ended, PTMSC received repeated queries about starting up again. It was a very popular citizen science project. Public awareness about plastic pollution in the ocean had grown so much by 2011 that people wanted to be part of a solution.

After three years of sampling, PTMSC’s next hurdle was to find a statistician to analyze and interpret the data so that we could share our findings. We dreamed of writing an article for submission to Marine Pollution Bulletin about this research, but who had the time while working full time? It was after I retired from my position as executive director that a window of opportunity opened.

I met Wally Davis, a retired biologist/statistician from Snohomish County who was conducting his own research on plastics in surface water. We conversed about our research and stayed in touch. It was Davis’s idea to jointly write an article on the two studies. He pointed out that they overlapped in time and space and provided complimentary views of plastics in the environment. And, Davis loved crunching data. Murphy readily agreed. The PTMSC is eternally grateful to Davis for stepping in and running with this joint project.

It is important to note that a project of this regional scale could not have happened without partners in the 12 counties where sampling occurred. Each partner group helped PTMSC recruit and train volunteer citizen scientists. Many volunteers stuck with the project from start to finish while others joined or left at various points in the project. We conservatively estimate that over 600 citizen scientists contributed over 4313 hours to acquire our data. PTMSC again thanks our partners in this project and is pleased to share our article with them. We simply could not have done this work without their assistance.

—

ANNE MURPHY is the retired executive director of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and co-author of the article, “Plastic in surface waters of the Inside Passage and beaches of the Salish Sea in Washington State.”  The article, as published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, is accessible for free until September 30, 2015. After that time, you may contact the Port Townsend Marine Science Center for access to the paper.

Live link until September 30, 2015: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X15003860

We’ve got BIG news!

Since the industrial revolution around 1750, burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This contributes substantially to climate change by trapping excessive heat in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide is also absorbed by the ocean changing the PH of the water, a process known as “ocean acidification.”

Ocean acidification affects species like oysters, clams, sea urchins, corals, and plankton. Their shells, comprised largely of calcium, can become brittle and difficult to form in acidic conditions, making survival for these species more challenging and placing stress on the entire food web.

It is estimated by the end of the century, surface waters of the ocean could become 150% more acidic.

Our oceans support us in a big way (like providing 50% of the oxygen we breathe). It’s time to go BIG to support our local ocean.

Next Tuesday, May 5, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center will participate in GiveBIG, a one-day fundraising event. If you choose to donate next Tuesday, your gift will allow us to pilot a program giving local high school students the opportunity to investigate ocean acidification solutions.

We need your help in raising $13,000 in one day to support climate change action.

When you donate next Tuesday, you are making a direct investment to reduce climate change.

And, thanks to some of our PTMSC champions, your investment on May 5 will be matched dollar for dollar up to $6,500, doubling your impact!

Gone Green? GiveBIG! Support Your Local Ocean next Tuesday, May 5.

New Go Blue Exhibits

We have exciting news to share with you! On Tuesday, May 5th, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center is joining more than 8,000 nonprofits for the GiveBIG fundraising event through the Seattle Foundation to raise funds that will support the collective action necessary in addressing the problems affecting our oceans today, including climate change!

In anticipation of this BIG event, we will be sharing updates on some of our climate change efforts: our new Gone Green? Go Blue! exhibits, our citizen science project concerning jellyfish, and a pilot program with our local high school focusing on ocean acidification.

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s Gone Green? Go Blue! Support Your Local Ocean initiative builds on what we already do as individuals to live green and takes it to the next level — inspiring collective action to improve ocean health — starting locally with the Salish Sea.

Brand new exterior exhibits at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center show how the community can take ‘living green’ to the next level for local ocean health! Check out a video our Americorps volunteers made while installing part of the new exhibit:

The exhibits feature some of the wonderful things about the Salish Sea, the issues affecting the sea, and inspiration for all of us to take action towards a healthy future for the Salish Sea.

Go Blue! is an environmental initiative led by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center to raise awareness and inspire collective action to improve ocean health — starting here at home with the Salish Sea.

Our exhibits are open Friday-Sunday, 12-5 pm.

Visit us to discover life in the Salish Sea and what we as a community can do to ensure its health for generations to come. Through collective solutions, we can inspire other communities to Go Blue!

Gone Green? Go Blue!

In a clamshell…what is Go Blue?
Go Blue is a campaign led by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center to raise awareness and inspire collective action to improve the health of the Salish Sea.

  

What exactly does it mean to Go Blue?
Going Blue is about making ocean health a priority--understanding how the ocean sustains our lives and doing something to take care of it. Together. It means building on what we already do as individuals to live Green and taking it to the next level by engaging in collective solutions for community-wide marine conservation. As a coastal community we have a responsibility to be stewards of our marine environment and an opportunity to be leaders. The Go Blue endeavor dives deeper into the global issue of ocean health, reveals the human impact of climate change, waste, and toxics on marine marine ecosystems, and provides choices for what we can do as a community to address it in our own backyard.

Wendy Feltham photo

 Examples of Go Blue Collective Actions:
· Learn the 7 principles of Ocean Literacy and spread the word
· Google ‘dirty dozen chemicals’ and find out how to avoid them
· Support locally grown organic food
· Support stores that sell products with little or no packaging
· Support stores that promote the use of re-usable shopping bags
· Ask local media to cover more environmental news
· Ask cosmetic companies to use fewer toxics
· Ask Consumer Reports to include environmental impacts in product ratings
· Plant a city rain garden and stop 90% of the pollutants from stormwater runoff
· Join 3 friends biking 5 miles twice a week instead of driving and reduce 1 ton of CO2 emissions in a year
· Start a “stuff exchange” with friends or join groups like The Freecycle Network freecycle.org or Buy Nothing buynothingproject.org
· Post links about ocean health on your Facebook page
· Support federal and state policies and lawmakers who work to protect the ocean environment

Port Townsend Farmer's Market photo

How Does the Ocean Sustain Us?
Humans and the ocean are inextricably linked. The ocean moderates the Earth’s climate; influences weather patterns, and affects human health. It supplies 85% of Earth’s rainfall through evaporation and is our greatest source of oxygen thanks to tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton that live near the ocean surface. Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, more than 90% of life on Earth is aquatic, and nearly half of the world's human population lives within 50 miles of a coastline. From the ocean we acquire food, medicine, minerals, and energy resources. The ocean provides jobs, supports our economy, and serves as a highway for transportation of goods and people. The ocean is a constant source of inspiration, recreation, rejuvenation and discovery. The bottom line is we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the ocean. It takes care of us. So when we make the ocean sick, it’s our responsibility to make it right.

How is ocean health adversely impacted by human activities?
Climate change – Since the Industrial Revolution around 1750, burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This contributes substantially to climate change by trapping excessive heat in the atmosphere. The ocean has absorbed 50% of the carbon dioxide from these emissions and 80% of the heat added to the atmosphere by climate change. The major effects on the ocean have been increasing water temperatures and ocean acidification. Rising ocean temperatures can directly impact development, age of sexual maturity, timing of spawning, growth, and survival of most fish and cephalopods such as octopus and squid. Ocean acidification makes survival difficult for organisms that have chalky shells, which are harder to form in acidic conditions. Species directly affected include many plankton, sea urchins, scallops and clams and the stress on their populations affects the entire food web.

Pollution & Waste – Garbage, plastics, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, as well as toxic chemicals found in pharmaceutical, industrial, household, and personal care products enter the ocean waters from deliberate dumping, untreated household sewage, stormwater run-off and the atmosphere. These pollutants make their way into the marine food web and ultimately reach humans.

Dive deeper to discover life in the Salish Sea and what we as a community can do to ensure its health for generations to come. For more information visit our exhibits at Fort Worden State Park
 in Port Townsend WA.