When:     7:00 pm, Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Where:    Batdorf & Bronson Coffee House, 516 Capitol Way South, Olympia, WA

October Topic: Climate Change Impacts on Marine Systems

Climate change is expected to be one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in modern times. However, most efforts to assess the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems to date have focused on terrestrial systems. Marine and aquatic systems will likely face many poorly-understood challenges due to the strong links between climatic and aquatic processes, large migrations of many aquatic organisms, and ocean acidification. This presents new challenges for conservation of living natural resources in marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is conducting a set of case studies aimed at identifying the impacts of climate change on a wide range of taxa in many environments, including sea turtles, hard corals, anadromous salmonids, bottom-dwelling marine fishes and marine mammals.  Michelle McClure will present an overview of the range of impacts in marine and freshwater environments, a discussion of each of their case studies and potential approaches to conservation of marine and aquatic systems in the face of climate change. Michelle is the Director of Fisheries Research Analysis and Monitoring Division (Northwest Fisheries Science Center) at NOAA.

November Topic:

Uncertainties in Climate Projections:
Do we know enough now to move ahead with control of greenhouse gas emissions?
by Robert J. Charlson
Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
Professor of Chemistry
University of Washington