RTPEC Lecture Series Speaker and Meet the Scientist Presenter: Dr. Robert Thieler

Dr. Thieler at a “Meet the Scientist” session in Old Lyme’s Mile Creek School

The Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center (RTPEC) welcomed renowned, sea-level rise researcher, Robert Thieler, to Old Lyme as one of three featured speakers for the RTPEC Fall Lecture Series. Thieler is based out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and works as a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, yet beaches of the planet serve as his living laboratory.

Earlier in the afternoon, fifty-five fifth graders of Old Lyme’s Mile Creek School were fortunate to have an up close and personal session with Dr. Thieler at the RTPEC’s first “Meet the Scientist” session for school children. 

In the Old Lyme Town Hall Thieler outlined a range of responses that Connecticut’s coastal areas and their habitats are likely to show in the face of sea-level rise—resiliency, transformation, and inland migration.

He also discussed practical steps that all of us can take to safeguard the health and sustainability of our coastlines. His presentation, sponsored jointly with the Lower Connecticut River Council of Governments, was the first in the RTPEC’s fall 2016 lecture series.

While distributing vials of beach sand, Thieler described the tools he employs for his research such as remotely operated underwater vehicles, jet skis, helicopters, waterproof and shock-proof cameras, and an app that he designed and built to monitor the habits of the threatened Piping Plover.

His slide presentation included photos of beaches from Spain to Hawaii to Cape Cod, as well as topics like “Animals use beaches, too,”  “Using drones to study beaches,” and “What’s under the sea?”

He also responded to the students’ questions (including “What’s the weirdest natural thing you’ve observed on a beach?”—Answer: “Traffic-cone-orange ghost crabs on the coastline of Colombia”) and, for the first time in his career, was asked for his autograph. 

Finally, he encouraged the students to create their own sand collections from Long Island Sound and the estuary, thus engaging and exciting the next generation of marine and estuarine scientists—starting right here at home.