The Hunterian

Climate change caused by humans is affecting almost all aspects of daily life across the globe. The Hunterian’s diverse and international collections provide a thought-provoking starting point to explore the issues and ideas around our changing climate. Join us every Tuesday in November for this special series of online talks around the themes of COP26. 

The Effects of Thermally-Induced Anemone Bleaching on Associated Anemonefish 
Tuesday 2 November
1.00pm - 1.30pm
Via Zoom - booking required

Our new Science Showcase, Changing Climate, Changing Stories shares the work of researchers at the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine (IBAHCM). In this talk, Research Assistant Daphne Cortese will share her insights into some impacts of climate change in North Sea food chains and wild tropical anemonefish.

Gigantic Insects of the Age of Coal
Tuesday 9 November
1.00pm - 1.30pm
Via Zoom - booking required

Over 300 million years ago, some insects and other invertebrates grew to a giant size. It is thought that higher oxygen levels may have been the cause, but there may have been other factors. Scotland was near the equator at this time and was covered in a rain-forest that produced 90% of our coal. Parts of this fossil rain forest can still be seen at Fossil Grove in Victoria Park in Glasgow. In this talk, Hunterian Curator of Palaeontology Dr Neil Clark talks about gigantic insects of the age of coal.

Most Don't Like it Hot: A Marine Food Web Perspective
Tuesday 16 November 2021
1.00pm - 1.30pm
Via zoom - booking required

Dr Ruedi Nager is Senior Lecturer in Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow. His seabird research features in The Hunterian's new Science Showcase, Changing Climate, Changing Stories. In this talk, Dr Nager will be discussing his work and exploring the impact that global warming is having on wildlife.

Modelling Ocean Change in Yarn, Paper and Code
Tuesday 23 November 2021
1.00pm - 1.30pm
Via zoom - booking required

Neil Banas is an oceanographer, Reader in Mathematics and Statistics at Strathclyde University and an ecological modeller with Atlantic Salmon Trust. Emily Doolittle is a composer and Atheneum Research Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. One strand of the Changing Climate, Changing Stories grows out of Banas’ research on climate impacts on ocean food webs, but this talk focuses on his and Doolittle’s contributions as visual artists, rendering plankton, anemones, and fish in crochet and origami. The two will discuss the traditions this work grew from and what modelling a krill in paper has in common with modelling its ecology in equations and computer code.

Hunterian Interventions
Tuesday 30 November 2021
1.00pm - 1.30pm
Via Zoom - booking required

Throughout The Hunterian venues, new labels have been added to objects already on display. These interventions, written by curators and students, reinterpret the items with climate change in mind. Some give warnings from the past, such as species becoming extinct when their environment changed too quickly, others make predictions for the future, such as wine and beer tasting different because of global warming, but all show how the world as we know it is undergoing the biggest changes of our lifetime. In this talk, Hunterian Curator of Zoology Mike G Rutherford tells some of these stories.

 

---

First published: 25 October 2021