Please join Point Reyes National Seashore staff for Science Lectures, 45 minute presentations on scientific research being performed at Point Reyes and elsewhere in the California. Science Lectures are sponsored by the Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center at Point Reyes National Seashore. They usually occur at noon on many Thursdays throughout the year and are normally held at the Red Barn Classroom at Point Reyes National Seashore's Headquarters. All are welcome and admission is free.
Visit our Science Lectures page to learn about upcoming lectures.
Some of our Brown Bag Lectures in 2010 included:
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010
Title: "Encounters at Tamál-Húye: The Archeology of Sixteenth-Century Intercultural Interaction at Point Reyes National Seashore"
Presenter: Matthew Russell of UC Berkeley
Date: Thursday, March 11, 2010
Title: "Kolkheti National Park - The Legend That Goes On..."
Presenter: Khatuna Katsarava. Khatuna was an Official National Park Service International Volunteer coming from Kolkheti National Park in the Republic of Georgia. Kolkheti is a Sister Park of Point Reyes National Seashore.
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Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Title: "The Coastal Biophysical Inventory: The methods and observations of 161 kilometers of the intertidal resources of the outer coast for Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore and the database that houses them."
Presenter: Joe Kinyon of the Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center
Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Title: "Clean Energy: What Are Our Options?"
Presenter: Megan Matson and Gail Graham
Summary: Megan Matson and Gail Graham will discuss Marin Clean Energy--the new not-for-profit energy alternative soon to be available to many Marin residents, and answer any questions you might have about renewable energy. This presentation is for informational and discussion purposes only and does not represent an endorsement or promotion by the NPS.
Date: Friday, April 30, 2010
Title: "Project Kaisei Marine Debris Project"
Presenter: Dr. Margy Gassel of UC Berkeley of the California Environmental Protection Agency
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m
Summary: Marine debris, while only beginning to draw worldwide attention, is already causing serious impacts on the environment including marine organisms. Project Kaisei was established to increase understanding of marine debris and its effects on the ocean environment and to develop solutions for both prevention and clean up. In August 2009, a team of scientists along with cinematographers and crew set sail on a four-week expedition to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The research vessel was the 151-foot brigantine sailing ship "Kaisei," which means "ocean planet" in Japanese. The scientists conducted daily and nightly trawls, collecting more than 100 samples of marine debris and over 300 samples of fish. The samples are being analyzed and used to understand the nature and distribution of marine debris and its effects on ocean chemistry, marine life, and ultimately, society. Passive collection prototypes were also built and tested in an effort to determine possible clean up techniques. In this presentation, Dr. Margy Gassel, from the California Environmental Protection Agency, will share her experiences on Kaisei, describe the studies she and other scientists initiated on Kaisei, and explore how human behavior contributes to and can potentially mitigate this significant and critical issue.
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Date: Thursday, May 6, 2010
Title: "Elk Diets at Point Reyes National Seashore"
Presenter: Maura Fallon-McKnight of Humboldt State University
Date: Thursday, June 10, 2010
Title: "New NPS landscape monitoring products"
Presenter: Robert Steers, National Park Service
Summary: This talk will introduce the audience to the NPScape data products that have been created for the San Francisco Bay Area Network parks.
Landscapes are influenced by a variety of natural or human factors. Natural succession, for example, may slowly change a grassland into a forest. As the habitat changes, so does the wildlife that calls it home. Humans also make significant changes to a landscape by increasing the density of roads or housing, fragmenting habitat, or just by changing the conservation status of land.
To track large-scale changes in the landscape, the NPS identified a suite of parameters that represent natural resources (e.g. amount of grassland cover), the conservation context (e.g. type of protected status), and the human footprint (e.g. road density, housing density). Maps of these parameters were created with a GIS for the San Francisco Area Network (SFAN) parks and surrounding lands. These data products can be used to assess vulnerabilities to ecosystems and to plan appropriate conservation efforts.
Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010
Title: "Oceanography on the wing: How Black-footed Albatross use central California Marine Sanctuaries."
Presenter: Pamela Michael of the Hawaii Pacific University
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Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010
Title: "A Visit to the Peruvian Rainforest"
Presenter: Gary Fellers, United States Geological Survey
Date: Monday, October 4, 2010
Title: "Snowy Plover Ecology and Status at Point Reyes National Seashore"
Presenter: Lacey Hughey, Wildlife Biological Technician of Point Reyes National Seashore
Date: Thursday, October 7, 2010
Title: "NPS Staff Experiences from the BP Oil Spill Response"
Presenter: Marie Denn, Marcus Koenen, Darren Fong, John DiGregoria, Mark Rudo, Melanie Gunn, and Sarah Codde
Summary: Come hear the stories of these NPS staff who participated in the Gulf Oil Spill response in roles ranging from volunteer coordination and incident command, to natural resources protection in the field.
Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010
Title: "Landscape Painters, Nature and National Parks"
Presenter: Joan Hoffman
Bio: Joan Hoffmann paints en plein air in oil and watercolor. Her paintings depict her hiking and climbing adventures in remote landscapes. She is integrally connected to the land by teaching, painting, and preserving the wild places that she explores. She has hiked the Colorado Trail and body-floated the Barranco del Cobre (Grand Canyon) of Mexico. She tours with her oil paintings and slideshow, giving talks on Art history of American Landscape Painters in National Parks. She celebrates forty years of oil and watercolor painting in the wilds of the American West. She hosts Painting Retreats in Southern Utah, Grand Tetons, and Sorensen's Resort in the Sierras and teaches through the Point Reyes Field Seminars and The Nature Conservancy of Colorado. She has an exhibit at The Red Barn Classroom at Point Reyes from October through December. One can also find her paintings at The Nature Conservancy's Carpenter Ranch Nature Center in Colorado, the Portico Gallery in Santa Barbara, in her studio in Petaluma, and the Point Reyes National Seashore Association building located at the Morgan Horse Ranch in Point Reyes National Seashore.
www.joanhoffmann.com
For more information about the Brown Bag Lectures, contact Ben Becker at 415-464-5187 by email.
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