NATURE’S TREASURES REVEALED: CORALS, PLANKTON AND BUTTERFLIES

Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center Spring 2021 Lecture Series
3 FREE LECTURES FROM 3 DISTINGUISHED SCIENTISTS

March 11, April 8, and April 29 on Zoom
All lectures begin at 6 p.m. 

Click below to subscribe for the entire series or scroll down to register for individual lectures.

SPECIAL OFFER: DINNER prepared by renowned chef Ani Robaina, formerly chef to the Microsoft Conference Center and the Pond House in Hartford, currently owner and chef at Ani’s Table. $75.00 per meal (pick up day of event between 4:00 and 5:30 p.m.) at: The Bee & Thistle, 100 Lyme St, Old Lyme, CT *limited capacity
All but $40 per meal is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Proceeds will support Roger Tory Peterson Estuary education programs in southeast Connecticut.

Coral Reefs: Rainforests and Canaries of the Sea
Mark Hixon, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.  

Thursday, March 11, 2021, 6 p.m. via Zoom

A leading expert on coral reefs, Dr. Hixon will discuss what is happening to them, why they are important, and how we can help preserve them.

Mark Hixon is the Sidney and Erika Hsiao Endowed Chair in Marine Biology and Chair of the Zoology Graduate Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. His research analyzes what determines the number of fish in the sea, how so many species naturally coexist, and how marine reserves and artificial reefs help conserve sea life and enhance fisheries. A Fulbright Senior Scholar, Aldo Leopold Fellow, and Fellow of the International Coral Reef Society, Dr. Hixon serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals. Past chair of both the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee for NOAA and the Ocean Sciences Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation, Mark has given TED talks and appeared on the PBS TV show “Saving the Oceans.”

View Menu Here: March 11, Mark Hixon on Coral Reefs – MEAL ORDERS NOW CLOSED

Butterflies: Monarchs, Migrations and Conservation
Robert Michael Pyle, Ph.D., conservation biologist and author of The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, will be interviewed by Evan Griswold.

Thursday, April 8, 2021, 6 p.m. via Zoom

As a foremost authority on butterflies and other invertebrates, in 1971 Dr. Pyle founded The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of butterflies and all invertebrates and their habitats. Evan Griswold will interview Dr Pyle about his life’s work on invertebrates and monarch butterfly migration and conservation.

Robert Michael Pyle grew up and learned his butterflies in Colorado. He earned his Ph.D. in butterfly ecology at Yale and worked as a conservation biologist in Papua New Guinea, Oregon, and Cambridge, England. He has written 22 books including The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, winner of the 1987 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing and the 2007 National Outdoor Book Award. His book about Pacific Northwest forests and origins of the legends of Sasquatch was recently made into a movie. Dr. Pyle has also published a book of poetry and his newest book, Nature Matrix, is a collection of essays, expressions of a life immersed in the natural world.

Evan Griswold, a Yale School of The Environment/School of Forestry classmate of Dr. Pyle’s, is a former Executive Director of the Connecticut Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and a prominent Connecticut conservationist.

View Menu Here: April 8, Evan Griswold interviews Robert Michael Pyle on Butterflies – MEAL ORDERS NOW CLOSED

The Secret Life of Plankton: The Base of the Marine Food Web
Hans Dam, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Connecticut.

Thursday, April 29, 2021, 6 p.m. via Zoom

©Richard Kirby www.PlanktonPundit.org

Plankton, a single cell organism, is the base of the marine food web. Hans Dam will speak about the evolutionary ecology of plankton and its vulnerability to climate change. He will describe the macro-power of these micro-organisms and help us to better understand the invisible life teeming in a tablespoon of river or Sound water.

Hans Dam is a biological oceanographer interested in the ecology and evolution of planktonic organisms: tiny creatures that control the biology of the sea. His current research focuses on how copepods, the most abundant animals on Earth, adapt to the ocean’s warming and acidification. Another area of work is the evolutionary “arms race” between grazers and toxic plants. Dr. Dam has published more than 100 papers and trained a generation of oceanographers. He has also spent 20 years advising the State of Connecticut about water quality in Long Island Sound.

View Menu Here: April 29, Hans Dam on Plankton – MEAL ORDERS NOW CLOSED

Register for the Secret Life of Plankton: the Base of the Marine Food