EESS talk on "The dynamics of biomass production in ‘marine oases’"
Event details
| Date | 31.10.2024 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 15:00 |
| Speaker | Renato Morais, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, EPHE-CRIOBE, Perpignan, France |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
Biomass is distributed unevenly across Earth, with some ecosystems concentrating and producing much more of it than others. Understanding how heterogeneity in animal biomass emerges has been the central theme of my research, which has focused on tropical reef fish communities as a model. Tropical reef fisheries provide resources that sustain the livelihoods of millions of people but that are increasingly under pressure from multifaceted global changes. In this talk, I will first introduce my prior research quantifying fish biomass production on coral reefs, from small to large spatial scales, and how this ecosystem function is affected by 1) habitat shifts triggered by catastrophic disturbances; 2) fishing and overfishing; and 3) ocean-reef connectivity providing substantial energy inputs to reef consumers. Then, I will introduce two studies recently developed in my Branco Weiss and PSL Junior fellowship project setting coral reef productivity in a broader context. The first formally tests a key assumption that permeates the literature (and my own work) and captivates public imagination, but that has remained largely unchallenged: that coral reefs are marine oases in desertic tropical oceans. The second takes a comparative approach, contrasting estimates of animal biomass across several marine, estuarine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems to ask the question: are coral reefs any special?
Biography:
Biomass is distributed unevenly across Earth, with some ecosystems concentrating and producing much more of it than others. Understanding how heterogeneity in animal biomass emerges has been the central theme of my research, which has focused on tropical reef fish communities as a model. Tropical reef fisheries provide resources that sustain the livelihoods of millions of people but that are increasingly under pressure from multifaceted global changes. In this talk, I will first introduce my prior research quantifying fish biomass production on coral reefs, from small to large spatial scales, and how this ecosystem function is affected by 1) habitat shifts triggered by catastrophic disturbances; 2) fishing and overfishing; and 3) ocean-reef connectivity providing substantial energy inputs to reef consumers. Then, I will introduce two studies recently developed in my Branco Weiss and PSL Junior fellowship project setting coral reef productivity in a broader context. The first formally tests a key assumption that permeates the literature (and my own work) and captivates public imagination, but that has remained largely unchallenged: that coral reefs are marine oases in desertic tropical oceans. The second takes a comparative approach, contrasting estimates of animal biomass across several marine, estuarine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems to ask the question: are coral reefs any special?
Biography:
After a PhD at James Cook University, in Australia, I moved in 2022 to PSL (based at CRIOBE, in Perpignan) to work alongside Valeriano Parravicini on ecosystem functions on coral reefs and beyond. My research project explores the role of the surrounding seascape in shaping the productivity of tropical reefs, from quantifying the ‘energetic footprint’ of animal biomass, to determining links with non-reef habitats across the broader seascape, and the mechanisms that maintain these links. This research is guided by the principle that ecosystem productivity should be understood as the interaction of internal and external energetic pathways connecting photosynthesis to biomass production. The overarching goal is to develop a predictive model relating environment and biomass production and, in the long term, to develop theory explaining the productivity of ecosystems more broadly.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Gabriele Manoli, Laboratory URBES