Posts

The Hidden Worlds Within Ice Sheets and Glaciers, March 19th

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Photo: Mouth of the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska (Richard Moore, CC-3.0-BY-SA)

Tuesday, March 19, 2024
7 pm
Sign up on Zoom to watch live or on-demand

The world’s ice sheets and glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates. Meanwhile, one of our best tools to quantify what’s happening beneath the surface remains largely untapped. Geophysicist Dustin Schroeder specializes in ice-penetrating radar: a powerful technique for studying ice sheets and glaciers on Earth and other planetary bodies. In this webinar, he will explore the hidden interiors of ice sheets through radar images and radar sounding data. When brought to their full potential, these tools can help us zero in on some of the most urgent questions surrounding Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers: How do they flow? What controls their behavior, evolution, and stability? And how will they impact sea level rise?

View more SERC Life on a Sustainable Planet webinars

Climate Extremes: What’s the Forecast for Invasive Species?, Webinar, January 16th

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Photo: Julia Blum

Tuesday, January 16, 2024
7 pm
Webinar
Register here.

As the planet heats up, non-native species all over the U.S. are pushing north to follow the warmer weather. But the simple narrative doesn’t end there. Dr. Andy Chang, lead marine biologist for Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s California branch, has tracked the movement of species introduced by human activity to San Francisco Bay and the California coast for the past two decades. In addition to northward and upstream migrations in warmer years, his team has also noticed species getting wiped out in years of intense rainfall. In this talk, he’ll reveal how climate change and extreme weather like droughts and floods are changing the seascape for invaders. He’ll also highlight how countries can use this knowledge to help stop nascent invasions before they get a foothold, in San Francisco Bay, Chesapeake Bay and around the world.

The Mysterious Migrations of Cownose Rays, webinar September 19th

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Photo: SERC

Tuesday, September 19, 2023
7 pm
Zoom, hosted by SERC

Register here.

Cownose rays are enigmatic, and sometimes controversial, summertime inhabitants of Chesapeake Bay. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s Fisheries Conservation Lab has been tagging cownose rays and tracking their long-distance migrations since 2014. On Sept. 19 Dr. Matt Ogburn, head of the Fisheries Conservation Lab, will reveal some of the discoveries from this 9-year tracking effort. Their studies have uncovered the rays’ overwintering habitat, documented the different migration patterns of males and females, and revealed the environmental cues that help rays know when to start migrating. These findings are helping support conservation and management of this often misunderstood and overlooked stingray.

This webinar will be recorded! Closed captioning will be available during the live event and on the recording. By signing up on Zoom, you’ll be able to join live and receive a link to the recording approximately one week after it airs.

Hope for Humpbacks, webinar July 19th

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Photo:  Pacific Whale Foundation

Tuesday, July 19, 2022
7 pm
Register here.

Biologist Stephanie Stack from the Pacific Whale Foundation will share tales from her 10 years of research on humpback whales. Humpback whales are a conservation success story, having largely recovered from the threat of commercial whaling, but they still need our help. Stephanie will discuss the most urgent threats to whales today, why whales are critical for a healthy ocean, and the actions needed to protect these ocean giants.

This is a Smithsonian Environmental Research Center monthly science talk from the Virtual Earth Optimism lecture series.

Advancing Equity in Urban Greenspace, webinar June 21st

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Tuesday, June 21, 2022
7 pm
Register here.

Join the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center at their next Earth Optimism webinar and hear from Atiya Wells, founder of the nonprofit Backyard Basecamp in Baltimore City. Atiya will highlight the importance of equity in landscape design, creation and community cultivation. With the Bliss Meadows project, Backyard Basecamp has reclaimed 10 acres of vacant land in their neighborhood to be used for environmental education and community greenspace, and to help communities of color reconnect with nature.

DO NOT USE THIS PHOTO AFTER 8/17/22

Spring Spectacles: When & Where to Find Jaw-Dropping Birds, Blooms & Beasts in the Mid-Atlantic, March 15th

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Photo (c) Barbara J. Saffir

Tuesday, March 15, 2022
7 – 8 pm
Webinar
Register here.

Learn when and where to find some of the Mid-Atlantic’s most jaw-dropping plant and animal life, with nature photographer and Virginia Master Naturalist Barbara Saffir. In this joyful spring jaunt, she’ll reveal wildflowers worthy of Monet; a bounty of beasts; and close-up encounters with cobalt-blue, sunflower-yellow and ruby-red breeding birds that visit the DMV each spring. More than half of this “virtual safari” will focus on birds, with award-winning photographs of migratory and resident birds that capture their cool behaviors. Other animals and wildflowers will also make an appearance. You’ll learn about curious critters—such as backyard squirrels that “fly” and dazzling bugs typically overlooked by their human neighbors—and wildflower spectacles, including acres of blush-pink blossoms; pink, yellow, and purple native orchids; and miles of perky bluebells meandering along curving creeks.

This webinar will be recorded! By signing up on Zoom, you’ll be able to watch the live event and receive a link to the recording a few days after it airs. Closed captioning will be available at the live webinar and on the recording. The Earth Optimism lecture series through the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) airs live on Zoom every third Tuesday of the month.

See more past and upcoming SERC science talks.

Two-Part Evening Webinar: Things You “Otter” Know, February 16th

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River otter, courtesy of SERC

Tuesday, February 16, 2021
6-8 pm
Speaker: Karen McDonald, SERC education specialist
Sign up online to watch live or on demand

Brought to you by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), you can learn about river otters in the Chesapeake Bay, in a two-part event for kids and adults! Once you sign up, you’ll be able to enter the webinar any time after it starts, so you’ll be able join either or both activities. They’ll also send you a link to a recording of the event 1-2 days after it airs.

6pm – Draw An Otter With A Biologist. All you need is a pencil, a blank sheet of paper and a good Internet connection. Ideal for ages 6+, and anyone who enjoys mixing science and art.  

7pm – Things You “Otter” Know. In this virtual science talk, Karen McDonald will explore what we know, what we don’t know and the research SERC is conducting to better understand river otters. Younger viewers can download this coloring sheet to do during the talk or afterwards.