Next General Meeting: Wednesday, May 30

Details

• Location: Ground-floor auditorium of the Women's Building at 3543 18th St. #8, San Francisco
• 6 pm: Doors open; pizza, salad, and dessert provided, $8-10 donation suggested for food cost
• 7 pm: Club news and announcements
• 8 pm: Presentation

Featured Presentation:

• Topic: Eelgrass ecosystems: natural history and the impacts of climate change and coastal activities
• Presenter: Sarah Lummis
• Presentation Summary: Eelgrass is one of 72 species of seagrass, a group of flowering plants whose ancestors evolved from land back into the ocean. Seagrasses are true angiosperms, and are important nursery habitats for many fish species in the shallow coastal areas where they grow. Eelgrass is a dominant seagrass species along our coasts, forming thick beds in areas with soft sandy bottoms and providing ecosystem services such as water filtration and sediment stabilization. Presenter Sarah Lummis will go into detail about three eelgrass ecosystem projects:
  1. Using an experimental mesocosm system to examine eelgrass ecosystem responses to ocean acidification and increased nutrient loading
  2. How does eelgrass respond to oyster aquaculture?
  3. Can we develop a drone monitoring protocol as a cost-effective surveying alternative?

  Sarah is a marine ecologist from UC Santa Cruz working to better understand sustainability in eelgrass ecosystems at a landscape level. She studies seagrass ecosystems, and how the function and services of these ecosystems will be impacted by climate change and anthropogenic impacts to the coast. Recently, Sarah has been collaborating with The Nature Conservancy and Hog Island Oyster Company to better understand the impacts of oyster aquaculture on eelgrass ecosystems. She likes working on questions at the intersection of science and policy, and is excited to share her results with both resource managers and local communities.
  
  Top: Sarah Lummis conducts field work in Tomales Bay
  Bottom: Bags of oysters on racks adjacent to seagrass beds, Tomales Bay

Other Agenda Items

• Tiburon Mile Swim - swimmer escort volunteers needed
• New member introductions

Transportation & Parking: You can take BART to the 16th & Mission station; it's a short three-block walk to the Women's Building. If you must drive all the way, we have a special arrangement that allows us to park in the Mission High School lot on the west side of Delores Street between 17th and 18th Streets. The parking driveway is closer to 17th Street and takes you up a ramp to an elevated parking slab behind a chain link fence, as shown in this Google Street View. From there, it's a two-block walk. Put something that says "BASK" on your your dashboard. The lot will be locked at 10 pm, so make sure you're out well before then. Other parking in the Mission is limited. If you need to drive, carpooling and parking west of Mission St. are recommended. There are two parking garages in the area. For trip planning information, see the Women's Building contact page.
Note: This presentation will NOT be broadcast as a "virtual meeting," but it will be recorded for the BASK YouTube channel, pending permission by our presenter.