A frozen sea in flux: Understanding changing Arctic Ocean ecosystems through art and science
7:00 – 8:30 pm MDT
Imagine a world where microscopic plants, drifting in the vast ocean, produce half of the oxygen we breathe. This is the incredible reality of phytoplankton, often overlooked yet essential to life on Earth. Phytoplankton are also the base of the marine food web, and because the largest blooms of phytoplankton can be generated in the Arctic Ocean, animals like whales migrate to the Arctic from around the world in the summer to eat the bounty. As sea ice melts and ocean temperatures warm, how is the phytoplankton bloom responding?
In their Explorer Series lecture, scientist Courtney Payne and cinematographer Anna Lindemann come together to discuss the far-reaching consequences for Arctic marine ecosystems, impacts on availability of food, and overall health of the Arctic Ocean.
Anna Lindemann
Anna Lindemann calls herself an Evo Devo Artist. Her work as a composer, animator, and performer explores the field of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). Her work seeks to uncover narratives within rigorous scientific research, to visualize biological processes in novel ways, to define new creative processes modeled on biological processes, and to examine the human emotion and subjectivity behind scientific research. Her work, including the animated short “Beetle Bluffs” and the art-science performances Theory of Flight and The Colony, has been featured internationally at black box theaters, planetariums, galleries, digital arts conferences, concert halls, biology conferences, film festivals, classrooms from elementary schools to universities, scholarly publications, and natural history museums. Anna received an M.F.A. in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Biology from Yale. She is an associate professor in the Digital Media & Design department at the University of Connecticut where she has pioneered courses integrating art and science.
Courtney Payne
Courtney Payne is a postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder and the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). She completed her Ph.D. in Earth System Science at Stanford University. Her research focuses on primary production in the Arctic Ocean. She uses models, satellite remote sensing, and field experiments and observations to study changes in the timing and magnitude of phytoplankton blooms and the impacts of primary production on Arctic ecosystems.