Scott A. Margolin '99 Lecture in Environmental Affairs

2009 Scott A. Margolin '99 Lecture in Environmental Affairs

Penguins as Marine Sentinels

Dr. P. Dee Boersma
Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science
Biology Department, University of Washington

View video

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
4:30pm
McCardell Bicentennial Hall, Room 216

Free and open to the public
For more information, contact Janet Wiseman

Abstract:
From the tropics to Antarctica, penguins depend on predictable regions of high ocean productivity where their prey aggregate.Increases in precipitation and reductions in sea ice associated with climate warming are affecting penguins. The largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins, at Punta Tombo, Argentina had approximately 200,000 breeding pairs in 2006 a decline of 22% since 1987. In the 1980's and 1990's petroleum pollution was a major source of Magellanic penguin mortality. In 1994 tanker lanes were moved 40 km farther off the coast of Chubut, and the dumping of ballast water and the oiling of penguins are now rare. However, penguins are swimming 60 km farther north from their nests during incubation than they did a decade ago, very likely reflecting shifts in prey in response to climate change and reductions in prey abundance caused by commerical fishing and climate variation. New colonies have formed extending their breeding range farther north. These temperate penguin species, marine sentinels for southern oceans, demonstrate that new challenges are confronting their populations.

Recent New York Times article about
the work of Dr. Boersma: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/science/01peng.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Dr. Boersma received her B.Sc. Honors from Central Michigan University in 1969, and her Ph.D. in Zoology, from Ohio State University in 1974. Her thesis was titled: “The Galapagos Penguin: A Study of Adaptations for Life in an Unpredictable Environment.”

Dee was recently appointed to the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science in the University of Washington's department of Biology. She has been at the University of Washington since 1974, initially as professor of Zoology and then as professor of Biology following the merger of the Zoology, Biology and Botany departments. She is currently Acting Chair of the Biology department, as well as an adjunct faculty member in the Women Studies department.

Dee has also been enlisted to take on numerous national and international leadership and advisory positions in such diverse roles as member of the Board of Trustees of Central Michigan University, as an advisor to the United States Delegation to the United Nations World Population Conference in Romania, as a member of President Nixon's Task Force of Women's Rights and Responsibilities, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Zero Population Growth. In addition, Professor Boersma was associate director of the Institute for Environmental Studies from 1987-1993.

For more information about Dr. Boersma,
please visit her website:
http://www.biology.washington.edu/index.html?navID=42&parecID=20

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The Scott A. Margolin '99 Environmental Affairs Lecture is organized and sponsored each year by the Environmental Studies Program at Middlebury College. The lecture, like the Environmental Studies Program, takes an interdisciplinary approach to the natural environment and human interaction with it.

In 1998, the Environmental Affairs Lecture was named in honor of Scott A. Margolin, of the Middlebury College Class of 1999. In his one year here, Scott established himself as a dedicated student of Environmental Studies, a leader in Environmental Quality and other student affairs, and an outstanding writer. He lives in our memory.

Past Speakers:

2008
Gus Speth, Dean, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

2007
Barry Lopez, essayist and nature writer

2006
Michael E. Mann, Director, Penn State Earth System Science Center

2005
Eileen Claussen, President, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

2004
J. Baird Callicott, professor of philosophy, University of North Texas

2003
Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University

2002
Michael Dombeck, Former Chief of the United States Forest Service