Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

RW Moriarty Science Seminars

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Moriarty Science Seminar: Our Changing Ohio River: Climate, Water Quality, and Harmful Algal Blooms

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: “Our Changing Ohio River: Climate, Water Quality, and Harmful Algal Blooms”


Speaker: Emily Elliott, University of Pittsburgh.

The Ohio River basin is not only vast, but its waterways are a vital economic, ecological, and recreational resource for the 15 states within basin boundaries. Yet, a half-century after the Clean Water Act, major challenges remain to make the Ohio River fishable, swimmable, and drinkable. For example, in 2015 and 2019 unprecedented blooms of the toxin-producing harmful algal bloom, Microcystis aeruginosa, extended along 600 and 300 miles of the mainstem Ohio River, respectively. Given the unusual nature of these extensive blooms and the potential impacts to human and ecological health, it is imperative to understand factors contributing to bloom formation. I will highlight ecological, hydrological, and climatic changes in the Ohio River over the past 40 years and explore how these factors may be interacting to fundamentally change the ecology and biogeochemistry of the Ohio River. Long-term trends in flow and two key nutrients that contribute to algal bloom proliferation (nitrogen, phosphorous) are evaluated using a U.S. Geological Survey model called Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS). Our model results are placed in the context of current river management strategies, efforts to curb nutrient pollution, and a basin-wide push for federal designation as a restoration target.

This event will take place Monday, September 25,2023 at Noon in person at Earth Theater and online via Zoom.

Seminar 158

Click here to join the webinar live on September 25 at 12:00 p.m.

Click here to download the program.
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Moriarty Science Seminar: Academia and Indigenous Communities: Opening the Doors to Collaborative Research and Community-Driven Projects

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: “Academia and Indigenous Communities: Opening the Doors to Collaborative Research and Community-Driven Projects”


Speaker: Jessie Ryker-Crawford, Institute of American Indian Arts.

An honest assessment of research practices and methodologies often leads to new and innovative strategies that address inclusion and accessibility between researchers and host communities. Collaborative research projects, in particular, allow for a point of entry for ongoing foundational building and networking between institutions and host community organizations—resulting in the long-lasting relationships that are so key to deep research.

This presentation will explore how initial contacts can be made, facilitating co-advisory groups that can formulate effective and meaningful research projects for all involved, soliciting community engagement, and the dissemination of research knowledge and material to a wider community audience.

Stories of events – also known as case studies – will play heavily in the sharing of insights, pitfalls, time-to-stand-up-brush-it-off-and-continue instances, and glorious successes.

This event will take place on Indigenous People’s Day, Monday, October 9,2023 at Noon in person at Earth Theater.

Click here to download the program.

Seminar 159

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Moriarty Science Seminar: Awareness of the Natural World Through the Lens of Amphibian and Reptile Ecology at Powdermill Nature Reserve

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: “Awareness of the Natural World Through the Lens of Amphibian and Reptile Ecology at Powdermill Nature Reserve”
Speaker: Dr. Walter E. Meshaka, State Museum of Pennsylvania.

Curiosity brings awareness, and, awareness, in turn, makes caring possible. A protected resource, Powdermill Nature Reserve, in the northern Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, provides an uncommon opportunity to understand the natural world in short-term and uninterrupted long-term research endeavors otherwise not possible. Presciently, Dr. M. Graham Netting understood the importance of such a place when he undertook the acquisition of the station in 1956. A beneficiary of this vision, Dr. Walter E. Meshaka, Jr. has, with the kind support of Powdermill staff, since 2002 undertaken research projects in the ecology of amphibians and reptiles at the station that have involved museum specimens and mark-recapture of individuals. Referring specifically to a few of the 16 published papers to date, Dr. Meshaka hopes to convey how the combination of traits comprising the Powdermill Nature Reserve can provide and await our awareness of this part of our natural world, its meaningfulness, and the importance of its stewardship.

This event will take place Monday, October 30, 2023 at Noon in person at Earth Theater.

Click here to download the program.

Seminar 161

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Moriarty Science Seminar: 10 Things I Hate About ‘Nature,’ or a Political Ecology of Conservation

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: “10 Things I Hate About ‘Nature,’ or a Political Ecology of Conservation“

Speakers: Dr. Noah Theriault, Carnegie Mellon University

This event will take place Monday, May 8 at Noon in person in Earth Theater and online via Zoom.

Abstract: “Nature” and “natural” are part of our everyday vocabulary, but we rarely pause to ask what exactly these words mean. How we define them reveals as much about our own worldviews as about anything else. Our beliefs, social identities, occupations, and idiosyncrasies are all implicated in how we differentiate what is natural from what is anthropogenic, artificial, unnatural, supernatural, deviant, or mutant. This distinction—between nature and its antonyms—pervades our social structures and political debates even as it evades our critical reflection. Using the principles of political ecology to examine biodiversity conservation in the Philippines, this seminar will push us to consider how conceptions of nature shape our relations with ourselves, with one another, and with the world around us, often in ways that unintentionally reproduce social and ecological harm. In order to love and respect nature, we must confront some of the troubling things done in its name.
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Moriarty Science Seminar: Sleuthing on Cryptic Mammals at Powdermill Nature Reserve: Bobcats & Coyotes & Bears, Oh My!

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: “Sleuthing on Cryptic Mammals at Powdermill Nature Reserve: Bobcats & Coyotes & Bears, Oh My!“

Speakers: Dr. Jan Janecka, Duquesne University

This event will take place Monday, April 24 at Noon online via Zoom.

Abstract: Pennsylvania experienced removal of forest habitat and alterations associated with open pit mining. Starting in the 1960s, pressure on forests was alleviated leading to regeneration across much of Pennsylvania. This contributed to the recovery of many mammals in the Laurel Highlands, such as the bobcat, as well as influx of species that historically did not occur here, such as the coyote. The legacy of mining continues to affect diversity. Powdermill Nature Reserve is an excellent study site to address these dynamics as it encompasses the remains of an abandoned open pit mine. There are plans for mine reclamation to take place. How has this pit mine effected mammal diversity and movement? How will the changes associated with the reclamation affect mammals? These are important questions to address not only for Laurel Highlands, but more broadly for the ecosystems of the mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Mammals including bobcats, coyotes, and black bears, as well as prey species, were surveyed in open pit mine and control plots at Powdermill using camera traps. Comparisons provide insight on how abandoned open pit mines affect mammal diversity and habitat use. The data collected also provides an opportunity to understand changes that will occur after the reclamation.
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Moriarty Science Seminar: Nonhuman artists? Multidisciplinary and Multispecies Accounts of the Origin of Art

R.W. Moriarty Science Seminar Presents: “Nonhuman Artists? Multidisciplinary and Multispecies Accounts of the Origin of Art“

Speakers: Dr. Deirdre Smith, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

This event will take place Monday, April 10 at Noon online via Zoom.

Abstract: Do animals other than humans make what some humans call “art”? What might other animals’ behaviors reveal about art’s “origins”? These are questions that scholars in the sciences and humanities have been actively approaching for at least a century, and that resonate with longer, global histories of philosophy and religion. This presentation will introduce and invite discussion of the tendencies, ironies and implications of this scholarship, focusing on two primary case studies: nonhuman primate painting and drawing studies; and writing on bowerbirds that claims bowermaking as an artform.
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