Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Blue Dot: Mussels and a scientific detective story at Bodega Marine Lab and ocean acidification mapping

Bodega Bay mussels
Jacqueline Sones
/
UC Davis
Bodega Bay mussels

Host Dave Schlom is joined by two researchers who have connections to UC Davis's Bodega Marine Laboratory on the Northern California coast.

Emily Longman, now a marine biologist at the University of Vermont, was a leader in a detective story with roots in UC in the days leading up to World War II.

Two young undergrads did a study of mussel colonies at Bodega in 1941. Their unpublished paper was found recently and Longman led a team to see how the mussel colony had changed in the course of 80 years.

Astonishingly, they found that while mussels are struggling on parts of the California coast, they are thriving at the original study site!

Then, UC Berkeley Professor Rachel Carlson visits with Dave to discuss her work on mapping ocean acidification along the Pacific coast and its implications for marine life as our climate changes.

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.