Corals and Coral reefs under ocean acidification and climate change
Event details
| Date | 14.10.2014 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Maoz Fine, The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Israel |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
Ongoing ocean acidification (OA) and global warming are rapidly altering the environment in which coral reefs developed for millions of years. Changes in the carbonate chemistry, photosynthesis and microbial community associated with corals may impact the health of corals and their ability to participate in reef building. Furthermore, this influences the ecological performance of corals (such as competition) and their resistance to potential pathogens. Diverse, often contrasting, responses of reef-building corals calcification and photosynthesis to OA and climate change hinder our ability to decipher reef susceptibility to elevated pCO2. Different life strategies and physiological characteristics and consequently different responses of corals to environmental change may cause vast changes in reef functionality. In some cases, ecological shifts rather than physiological responses are the biggest threat to these unique ecosystems.
Short biography:
Maoz Fine is a professor of Ecology at Bar-Ilan University, and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science in Eilat, Israel.
Prof. Fine performed his PhD at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of the renowned coral reef ecologist Yossi Loya. He then left Israel to undertake research in the Australian Great Barrier Reef as a post-doctoral fellow at prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg lab at the University of Queensland. He returned in 2004 to take a faculty position at Bar-Ilan University.
Ongoing ocean acidification (OA) and global warming are rapidly altering the environment in which coral reefs developed for millions of years. Changes in the carbonate chemistry, photosynthesis and microbial community associated with corals may impact the health of corals and their ability to participate in reef building. Furthermore, this influences the ecological performance of corals (such as competition) and their resistance to potential pathogens. Diverse, often contrasting, responses of reef-building corals calcification and photosynthesis to OA and climate change hinder our ability to decipher reef susceptibility to elevated pCO2. Different life strategies and physiological characteristics and consequently different responses of corals to environmental change may cause vast changes in reef functionality. In some cases, ecological shifts rather than physiological responses are the biggest threat to these unique ecosystems.
Short biography:
Maoz Fine is a professor of Ecology at Bar-Ilan University, and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science in Eilat, Israel.
Prof. Fine performed his PhD at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of the renowned coral reef ecologist Yossi Loya. He then left Israel to undertake research in the Australian Great Barrier Reef as a post-doctoral fellow at prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg lab at the University of Queensland. He returned in 2004 to take a faculty position at Bar-Ilan University.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Anders Meibom, LGB