Biological Sciences Seminar Series venue is wheelchair-accessible. Persons who wish to request disability-related accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, should contact the Department of Biological Sciences, c/o peb112@humboldt.edu. Please request accommodations at least two days prior to the event. Some attendees may be sensitive to various scents from perfumes, shampoos, soaps, etc. Although optional, please consider refraining from wearing scented products to this event.

Biology SeminarBiology Graduate Student Association and Department of Biological Sciences

Fri. 2/2 @4pm in SCI B133

Marine Mammal Physiological Capacities: Assessing Vulnerability to Human and Environmental Perturbations

In order to “make a living”, marine mammals must dive down into dark murky waters to locate prey, which is patchily distributed and ephemeral. At depth, they must actively forage in a viscous medium that readily steals body heat, and all this is done while breath-holding. The challenge of survival is exacerbated as marine mammals are faced with human and environmental perturbations, such as fishery interactions and global climate change. Small body size and underdeveloped physiology of young animals and the energetic costs of gestation and lactation of reproductive females makes these groups most vulnerable to environmental perturbations. I study physiology to model limits to performance to determine the ability of these animals to alter behavior to survive in their changing environment. The ability to monitor how climate change is impacting marine mammals is especially important because as top predators marine mammals serve as ecosystem sentinels.

[Hours] (xxx) yyy-yyyy

Dr. Shawn NorenAssociate Research ScientistInstitute of Marine Science

University of California Santa Cruz