The Lincoln County Historical Society welcomes you to the first of our three science talks in conjunction with our new exhibit, Cycles of Nature, which explores how human activity impacts nature and its cycles.

The first speaker is Dr. John Chapman who is a faculty member of the Oregon State University, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation. Dr. Chapman’s research over the last 50 years has concerned the unnatural history, biogeography, and ecology of marine biological invasions in estuaries and oceans. He will give a talk about blue mud shrimp and their habitat in Yaquina Bay. This talk will take place in our Doerfler Family Theater at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Newport on Thursday, July 25 at 6pm.

“Climate change driven ocean warming causes thermal stress, increased infectious diseases and coral bleaching in the worldwide tropics. Equal and greater alterations of many other marine ecosystems, that are due to climate change, are occurring world-wide but are less visible and thus commonly overlooked. Native northeastern Pacific blue mud shrimp, Upogebia pugettensis, populations of the northeast Pacific maintain a complex burrow gallery ecosystem in intertidal estuary mudflats. The ongoing collapse of these mud shrimp populations, even in Yaquina Bay, along with their cryptic ecosystem is a climate change effect that permitted the introduction of an Asian parasite.”

His resin installation piece of blue mud shrimp burrows is on display at the exhibit Cycles of Nature. This will be a great opportunity to deepen your understanding of the global issue through his work.

Our exhibit, Cycles of Nature, runs to November 3, 2024.