The growing threats to water quality and the potential affect on Coastal Georgia will be the focus of the first lecture in the next program in the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography 2010 Fall Lecture Series, “Crystal Ball: Changes Afoot for Our Oceans and Coast in the 21st Century. ”
The final program in the series will be presented on Monday, October 11, at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Educational Alliance (JEA) on Abercorn Street. The same program will be repeated on Thursday, October 14, also at 7 p.m., in the McGowen Library Auditorium on the Skidaway Institute campus.
Dr. Marc Frischer in the field.
Skidaway Institute professor Marc Frischer will open the program with an examination of the threats to local water quality.
“Since the beginning of the 18th century and the Industrial Revolution, water quality has been recognized as a critical public health and welfare issue,” said Frischer. “With the world population approaching seven billion, a significant fraction of fresh water resources contaminated, and potentially catastrophic ecosystem changes associated with climate change looming, there is a growing recognition that protection of the world’s water resources goes well beyond drinking water and human pathogen management.”
Frischer will discuss an ongoing long-term coastal water and ecosystem monitoring program in the southeastern United States where environmental are underway that threaten the long-term health and sustainability of coastal water resources in the region.
Dr. Dana Savidge
In the second lecture on the program, Skidaway Institute professor Dana Savidge will describe new high-tech developments that allow scientists to study the ocean by remote control. These include the development of technologies to gather information from shore or satellite; increasing variety in autonomous vehicles gathering measurements at sea; and exciting new “laboratory in a capsule” instruments performing analysis in the ocean that had previously only been possible by transporting seawater samples to labs on land. Savidge will discuss some of these new capabilities and the national effort to develop an effective national ocean observatory within which to operate them.
All programs will begin at 7 p.m.
Admission to the lectures will be $5 per program for adults. Students and members of the Skidaway Marine Science Foundation and The Learning Center will be admitted free.
For additional information, visit the Skidaway Institute Web site at www.skio.usg.edu or call (912) 598-2325.