Friends of Hopkins Series

Northern California’s bull kelp forests are an iconic and invaluable ecosystem, but they’ve been reduced to an all-time low due to a “perfect storm” of large-scale climate change impacts. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 20 year kelp forest monitoring program led by Dr. Laura Rogers-Bennett has documented the impacts of a massive marine heat wave and purple sea urchin population explosion on the kelp forest ecosystem including the mass mortality of abalone populations in northern California.

Please join us for the annual open house and picnic! After a short business meeting, we will enjoy a fascinating talk about sharks given by post-doctoral researcher Aaron Carlisle. Steve Palumbi will open his lab for tours so you can meet his undergraduate interns and hear about what they will be working on for the summer. Bill Gilly will be offering his famous squid dissection activity – kids love it!

This will be followed by lunch behind Agassiz with some of the HMS faculty and students.