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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "The corals of the Red Sea: Humanity's best chance to
  preserve a major coral reef ecosystem beyond this century"
DTSTART:20220329T121500
DTEND:20220329T131500
DTSTAMP:20260916T032122Z
UID:ff86ae0fe95ae99f2b52d124a7bc4606ec604b97f815e29c622e6c39
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Guilhem Banc-Prandi\, Scientist\, LGB-IIE\, EPFL and Scient
 ific Coordinator of the Transnational Red Sea Center\nAbstract:\nCoral re
 efs are wonders of nature and provide a broad spectrum of ecosystem servi
 ces to hundreds of millions of people. But\, they are globally declining 
 as a result of environmental change. Rapid elevation of seawater temperat
 ures together with deteriorating water quality have profoundly impacted co
 ral physiology\, and dramatically reduced their chances of survival in bot
 h short- and long term. In this context\, it is of paramount importance to
  identify coral populations with maximal resistance and resilience to glob
 al warming. Over the last decade\, the northern Red Sea has been recognize
 d as a unique coral refuge\, hosting coral populations that can withstand 
 rapid  temperature increases and ocean acidification. A series of recent 
 studies have tested the thermal tolerance of these corals\, aiming at bett
 er understanding the physiological mechanisms underpinning their exception
 al resistance. Moreover\, the impact of anthropogenic\, land-based polluti
 on on the overall thermal resilience of these corals is also beginning to 
 be addressed. Recent studies reveal how local pollution (e.g. trace metals
 \, such as Cu\, nutrients and artificial light) reduces thermal tolerance\
 , and how corals exposed to such pollution recover less efficiently from c
 limate-related stress. This seminar will synthesize 10 years of research c
 onducted on the northern Red Sea corals and their response to environmenta
 l change and place their exceptional thermal resistance in a global contex
 t. The core idea and mission of the EPFL-based Transnational Red Sea Cente
 r will also be presented.\n\nShort biography:\nGuilhem Banc-Prandi is curr
 ently a scientific assistant in the laboratory of Biological Geochemistry 
 of Professor Anders Meibom. Guilhem just finished his Ph.D at the universi
 ty of Bar Ilan in Israel\, where he studied the impact of trace metals (Cu
 ) on the thermal resilience of common Red Sea reef-building corals. Beside
 s his ecotoxicology work\, Guilhem also focused on the thermal acclimatisa
 tion capacity of corals\, when comparing corals’ performances between th
 e northernmost and southernmost Red Sea. His current research aims at inve
 stigating the seasonality of thermal acclimatisation and identifying the d
 rivers contributing to coral phenotypic plasticity. Guilhem is also the sc
 ientific coordinator of the EPFL-based Transnational Red Sea Center\, and 
 works to organise scientific missions throughout the Red Sea to increase o
 ur understanding of Red Sea corals past\, present and future response to e
 nvironmental change.
LOCATION:GC B1 10 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==GC%20B1%2010 https://epfl.zo
 om.us/j/66723503475
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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