A frozen sea in flux: Changing Arctic Ocean ecosystems
5:30 – 7:00 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 is devoted to integrating art and science. Her work combines animation, music, video, and performance to explore the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). Her Evo Devo Art seeks to uncover narratives within rigorous scientific research, to visualize biological processes in novel ways, to define new artistic creative processes modeled on biological processes, and to examine the human emotion and subjectivity behind scientific research. Professor Lindemann’s work includes the animated shorts BEETLE BLUFFS and ANT SISTERS, and the art science and animation-infused performances THEORY OF FLIGHT and THE COLONY. These and other works have 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.
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.