July 24 , 7:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Maureen Conte of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Marine Biological Laboratory to Speak about Climate Change and the Ocean at the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association
The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) is hosting a lecture by Dr. Maureen Conte of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Marine Biological Laboratory on Wednesday, July 24 from 7:00-8:00 pm at 33 Washington Street. Her talk, entitled “A Changing Climate, A Changing Ocean,” will discuss the effects that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations are having on the world’s oceans.
Dr. Conte is an oceanographer and biogeochemist who is an Associate Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, a Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory, and an Adjunct Faculty member at Brown University. Since 1996, she has led the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) time-series, a nearly four decade long study of the particle flux in the deep Sargasso Sea off Bermuda. She received a BA in Geography and Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a MA, MPhil, and PhD in Geology from Columbia University.
Today’s atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is 50% higher than it has been over the last 350,000 years, and the concentration is continuing to rise. This increase is leading to profound changes in the Earth’s climate such as droughts, floods, stronger hurricanes, and melting ice caps. The vast majority of the carbon dioxide and trapped heat has not stayed in the atmosphere ̶ it has been absorbed by the oceans. This lecture will take us on a journey along interlinked pathways from fossil fuel emissions on land, through the atmosphere and into the ocean, and explore how climate change is changing our ocean.
The Maria Mitchell Association will be hosting a speaker each Wednesday evening from 7:00-8:00 as part of its summer Science Speaker Series, which will feature astronomers, authors, environmentalists, biologists, professors, and doctors. The MMA Speaker Series is sponsored by the Bank of America, Hyline Cruises, Zaazey Olive Oil, Cisco Brewers, and Nantucket Island Resorts. For a full schedule and description of each speaker, please visit our website at mariamitchell.org. The event is free for MMA members and $10 for Non-Members.