BIOTOX Seminar - Researching coral reef functioning in a rapidly changing world
The seminar ‘Researching coral reef functioning in a rapidly changing world’, organised by the BIOTOX group, will be held on 18 June. The event will take place in person at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon at 11am.
Dr Sonia Bejarano from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) will be the guest speaker at the seminar. She has made herself available to present her work in the area of Global Change and Pollution.
Abstract:
Under current policies, Earth is on track to warm up beyond 2°C, triggering tipping points with catastrophic effects for humanity and threatening the existence of one of the most diverse and productive marine ecosystems: Coral reefs. At the Reef Ecosystems Research Group at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), research follows five themes to address the multiple dimensions of this problem: (1) Reef biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, (2) Climate change impacts on coral reef organisms, functions and contributions to people and nature, (3) Local human impacts, uses and management of reefs, (4) Persistence of reef building corals in a rapidly warming ocean, and (5) New tools and automation in quantitative reef ecology. This presentation will give an overview about the approaches and findings of each theme. A bird's-eye view of regional-scale maps of current distribution of reef fish diversity, decadal climate-driven changes in reef fish distribution ranges, and global maps of key ecosystem functions sustained by reef fish. Detailed insights into our recently-published research on the main drivers of the contributions of reef fishes to the inorganic carbon cycle of tropical oceans as well as first results of climate change experiments on fish metabolism, histopathology, and carbonate excretion rates. First findings regarding the patterns of natural thermal tolerance of reef building corals across habitats, seasons, and the different stages of a typical coral reef restoration programme, and reflections of what these mean for the persistence of corals throughout the century. Lastly, a view of the potential application of consumer-grade drones to facilitate coral reef mapping including the description of benthic community structure, topographic complexity, and incidence of coral disease, as well as a case in which reef topography has no relationship with coral reef fish abundance. A reflection on future directions to harness coral thermal tolerance to inform coral reef restoration and assisted evolution approaches while embracing the emergence of novel reef systems will close the presentation.