For those who missed the virtual lecture by Dr Indrani Mukherjee entitled “An account of Earth’s Middle Ages – Life and Resources” on October 4, 2020, view it now on our YouTube channel. Read more about the lecture here.
Antarctic krill: What do the Southern Ocean’s charismatic “omega-fauna” eat, and how might they fare in a future high CO2 world?
The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to a Zoom webinar by Dr Jessica Ericson on November 8, 2020, at 3pm.
To participate in this webinar, you must register in advance; click here to do that. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are fascinating invertebrates with an important role in the Southern Ocean, as the primary prey of Antarctic whales, seals, penguins, fish, squid and seabirds. Krill are lipid rich, making them a particularly nutritious food for their predators.
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Many of us know what animals eat krill, but what do krill eat and what makes them so nutritious? This PhD research used fatty acids as dietary biomarkers to investigate the diet of krill over consecutive years and seasons, filling knowledge gaps on krill diet, especially in winter. Because krill are so important in the food web, any decreases in krill biomass could result in a major ecological regime shift.
Little is known about how climate change will affect krill. As part of this PhD research, the first long-term study (one-year) was carried out to investigate the effects of ocean acidification on the physiology and biochemistry of krill. These novel results, and those from other recent studies will be discussed.
About the speaker
Dr Jessica Ericson — Post-doctoral Research Scientist (Shellfish Ecophysiology and Aquaculture) at Cawthron Aquaculture Park, New Zealand — specialises in the study of ecologically and economically important marine invertebrates from temperate and polar regions.
Her research primarily focuses on how climate change stressors (e.g. ocean acidification and warming) affect the physiology, biochemistry, immunology and behaviour of different invertebrate species. She has studied a wide range of ‘charismatic micro-fauna’ including limpets, mussels, oysters, sea urchins and krill. The unique responses of these organisms to their environment always provide opportunities to learn something new.
Her studies have taken her to remote locations including Antarctica and she has spent many weeks at sea on research voyages. Jessica was born in New Zealand and comes from a long line of lighthouse keepers and scientists, so believes it is no coincidence that she chose marine science as a career path. She is also a keen mountain biker, ocean swimmer and printmaker. She lives in Nelson, New Zealand, but considers Tasmania to be her second home.
Butterfly Brilliance: The Lambkin-Knight Butterfly Collection
The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to a public lecture by Trevor Lambkin, David Maynard and Simon Fearn.
Where: On your computer via Zoom
When: 1.30 pm Sunday 25th October 2020
To participate in this webinar, you must register in advance; click here to do that. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
To download a flyer for printing, click here.
A collection of around 12000 butterflies compiled by Trevor Lambkin and Ian Knight over the last 50 years has most generously been donated to QVMAG. Including many hundreds of species, some extremely rare and some that are now extinct, it is an important part of Australia’s national research infrastructure.
Hear from one of the donors, lepidopterist Trevor Lambkin about building the collection, and from QVMAG staff David Maynard (Senior Curator of Natural Sciences) and Simon Fearn (Museum Collections Officer) on its research potential and housing such a large collection.
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Generously supported by
View recording of virtual lecture by Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick in September 2020
For those who missed the virtual lecture by Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick entitled “Cyclic dynamics in Tasmanian high mountain treeless vegetation” on 6 September 2020, view it on our new YouTube channel.
An account of Earth’s Middle Ages – Life and Resources
Indrani’s PhD involved understanding pyrite trace element and sulphur isotope geochemistry of Proterozoic marine black shales using LA-ICP-MS and SHRIMP-SI techniques. The research focussed on nutrient-productivity cycles in past oceans and atmosphere-ocean redox state in the context of biological evolution in the Proterozoic era. Pyrite chemostratigraphy was also used for assessing mineralisation potential of black shales. This presentation will expand on the research foundations built over the course of Indrani’s PhD targeting both fundamental and applied aspects of geochemistry. The former involves advancing our knowledge of Precambrian atmosphere-ocean dynamics in shaping the course of early evolution. The latter involves utilisation of the geochemical data combined with statistical tools, for applications such as biogenicity tools, predictive modelling, and mineral exploration.
Our speaker, Dr Indrani Mukherjee, is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Geochemistry at CODES, University of Tasmania. She completed her PhD in 2018 from the University of Tasmania under the supervision of Professor Ross Large. Indrani acquired her B.Sc. (Honours) and M.Sc. in Geology degrees from the University of Delhi, India. She was awarded a RST Doctoral Award in 2019.
Indrani’s main focus has been on understanding pyrite trace element and sulphur isotope geochemistry in Precambrian marine black shales. Her research ties past geochemical conditions of the atmosphere-ocean system to evolution of early complex life and secular distribution of ore deposits through time. Indrani aims to apply the pyrite LA-ICP-MS technique towards developing a deep time model for evolution of complex life and devising vectors to SEDEX Zn-Pb and sedimentary Cu mineralisation.
Chemical Answers Now: protecting us and our environment
Where: On your computer via Zoom
When: 1.30 pm Sunday 27th September 2020
To participate in this webinar, you must register in advance; click here to do that. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Professor Breadmore is pioneering the development of portable and transportable technology to provide chemical information when and where the sample is collected. Applications include the detection of home-made explosives at airports, the continuous monitoring of nutrients in our rivers, and more recently, whether we can use these to detect viruses.
After public education in northern Tasmania, our speaker graduated from University of Tasmania with BSc (Hons); PhD; DSc. He has made a continued and sustained contribution towards miniaturized analytical technology for clinical, forensic, environmental and food applications at UTAS. He was one of three finalists in the Eureka Outstanding Young Researcher Award (2011), has been listed in the Analytical Scientist’s power list of the top 100 analytical chemists in the world (2014, 2017, 2019), and is the Director of the Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science.
Generously supported by
Cyclic dynamics in Tasmanian high mountain treeless vegetation
Virtual lecture by Distinguished Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick, winner of the RST Clive Lord Medal 2019.
When: 3pm, Sunday, 6th September, 2020, by Zoom webinar.
To participate in this webinar, you must register in advance; click here to do that. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Tasmanian high mountain treeless vegetation is globally outstanding for its dominance by shrubs, hard-leaved graminoids and cushion plants, many of which are Cretaceous palaeoendemics. The highly maritime Tasmanian environment makes snow intermittent, exposing plants to fierce wintry winds and allowing mammals to graze all year round. The high mountain winds are associated with apparently cyclic succession in several situations, including bogs and fjaeldmark. Other apparently cyclic changes relate to the internal dynamics of ecosystems. Climate change has, so far, not affected the areas exhibiting these processes because of an interaction between stronger winds caused by climate change and environmental lapse rates. However, any marked ongoing warming at higher altitudes is likely to fossilise active processes. There is already some indication of such fossilisation in low altitude fjaeldmarks.
Our speaker Jamie Kirkpatrick AM is Distinguished Professor in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania where he helps students learn about nature, researches its characteristics and conservation, and engages with wider society. He has supervised to graduation more than 70 higher degree students. He is most cited in the academic literature for his work on planning conservation reserves and on the socio-ecology of urban areas. He has also written, or contributed to, many publications that are accessible to a wider audience. These include several books with Peter Dombrovskis, and, most recently, his own book Art by Nature.
View recording of virtual lecture by Professor Arko Lucieer – August 2020
For those who missed the virtual lecture by Professor Arko Lucieer entitled “From Surface to Satellites – remote sensing from drones advances our understanding of plant biodiversity” on 2 August 2020, view it on our new YouTube channel.
RST Northern Branch Science Week Forum: Breaking New Ground
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Sunday 23 August 2020 at 1:30 PM Launceston
Three University of Tasmania PhD Candidates will inform us about their research in a wide variety of topics – Diabesity, perfect bananas, and renewable energy from the sea.
Open this post to get instructions for participation. You will need to register in advance.
Click here to register in advance for this webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Urgent change for “Map Spam: (yet more of) Launceston Revealed” webinar
After technical problems developed with registration for this webinar, it was necessary to change the meeting number. We apologise for the inconvenience, but if you registered before July 22, you will need to re-register using this new link [link removed]. Use the same link if you are registering for the first time.
If you have told anyone else about the webinar we would appreciate it if you could pass on this information.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
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