From a scientific perspective, climate change can be complex, but viewed through a game of musical chairs, it becomes a lot more digestible.

If you have no chair to sit down in when the music stops, that means there’s no habitat for the fish, thanks to warming sea temperatures.

That was the premise behind one of many demonstrations and exhibits featured Sunday during Marine Science Day, hosted by San Diego State University’s Marine Ecology Biology Student Association at the university’s off-campus marine research institute located near the San Diego airport.

From a simulation of a degraded kelp forest to a talk on the impact of growing storm disturbances, the day-long open house sought to entertain while also educate about the potential impacts of global climate change.


“Right now we live in a pretty politicized climate where environmental Issues are seen as sort of an ideology instead of a fact,” said Chris Knight, a graduate student in biology who helped organize the event.

“There are a lot of us who go out and collect data and give it to the public objectively. The hope is that we can get the children here excited about the natural environment and see that this is something they can do so we can cultivate a new generation who want to be scientists or, at the very least, understand the natural world and to respect it.”

During the game of musical chairs, the kids were meant to represent different kinds of fish inhabiting a pretend kelp forest. As Disney tunes played, they had to find a chair to sit in under varying scenarios.

During a normal year, there was no problem finding a chair; during a very warm year — only one chair was left.


“As the water temperature rises, that decreases the abundance of these kelp forests, and those fish have no home and die off,” Knight said. “We’re giving kids a game all children know and a metaphor where it will hopefully stick with them.”

One group of SDSU students showed off a simulation of both a healthy and degraded kelp forest, fashioned from blue tarp. The deteriorating kelp forest boasted plastic bags and trash, fake jelly fish, but no other fish or kelp. The other half, populated with pictures of fish, strings of simulated kelp and algae depicted a healthy ecosystem.

One popular attraction at Marine Science Day was the marine life touch tank, filled with species commonly found in San Diego tide pools like snails, limpets, sea stars, sea urchins and sand dollars.

Jolie Dillenbeck touches a Fissurellidae, the common name for the keyhole limpet, on a touch table filled with sea life. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)


Jolie Dillenbeck, 8, said she had no qualms about submerging her hand into the water and touching the bottom of a starfish.

“It felt tickly,” she said. Dillenbeck was accompanied by her mother and older sister Rena who is studying marine science at Cal State University, Monterey Bay.

Lucia Vila, also 8, came to Marine Science Day with her friend, whose father is a biology professor at San Diego State. She preferred examining microscopic larvae to dipping her hands in the tank.

“I like the ocean,” she said, “but I didn’t want to get my hands slimy.”


lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @loriweisberg