On the evening off April 29th, the NHCS was pleased to present a wine and cheese evening with Dr. Brent Wilson from the Petroleum Geoscience Programme, Faculty of Engineering at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad.
The topic of the lecture was “Unravelling the Unfathomable: Deciphering the Community Ecology and Environmental Significance of Some Calcareous Microscopic Organisms around Nevis”
Dr. Wilson is a world expert on foraminifera,  tiny, one celled organisms, similar to plankton that inhabit all the worlds seas and oceans.  Dr. Wilson did most of his early doctoral research while living on Nevis for several years during the 1990’s.  The lecture which was attended by 20 or so NHCS members focused on the crucial role ‘forams’ play in the environmental cycle of the seas.  In particular most people were surprised to discover that ‘foram skeletons’ account for about 10% of the sand on Nevis beaches, and as generations of them live and die within a matter of weeks, they are constantly replenishing our coastlines.  However as they primarily live on turtle grasses and other marine vegetation, if these are destroyed then the forams go with them and thus our beaches start to shrink and recede as we have seen over the last decade or two.