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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "The dynamics of biomass production in ‘marine oase
 s’"
DTSTART:20241031T140000
DTEND:20241031T150000
DTSTAMP:20260316T101824Z
UID:10e6306f6bc412f4d4a08485a9ebfedc32b651a2a8493a57bcac36d3
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Renato Morais\, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres\, EPHE-C
 RIOBE\, Perpignan\, France  \nAbstract: \nBiomass is distributed unevenly
  across Earth\, with some ecosystems concentrating and producing much more
  of it than others. Understanding how heterogeneity in animal biomass emer
 ges has been the central theme of my research\, which has focused on tropi
 cal reef fish communities as a model. Tropical reef fisheries provide reso
 urces that sustain the livelihoods of millions of people but that are incr
 easingly under pressure from multifaceted global changes. In this talk\, I
  will first introduce my prior research quantifying fish biomass productio
 n on coral reefs\, from small to large spatial scales\, and how this ecosy
 stem function is affected by 1) habitat shifts triggered by catastrophic d
 isturbances\; 2) fishing and overfishing\; and 3) ocean-reef connectivity 
 providing substantial energy inputs to reef consumers. Then\, I will intro
 duce two studies recently developed in my Branco Weiss and PSL Junior fell
 owship project setting coral reef productivity in a broader context. The f
 irst formally tests a key assumption that permeates the literature (and my
  own work) and captivates public imagination\, but that has remained large
 ly unchallenged: that coral reefs are marine oases in desertic tropical oc
 eans. The second takes a comparative approach\, contrasting estimates of a
 nimal biomass across several marine\, estuarine\, freshwater and terrestri
 al ecosystems to ask the question: are coral reefs any special?\n\nBiograp
 hy:\nAfter a PhD at James Cook University\, in Australia\, I moved in 2022
  to PSL (based at CRIOBE\, in Perpignan) to work alongside Valeriano Parra
 vicini on ecosystem functions on coral reefs and beyond. My research proje
 ct explores the role of the surrounding seascape in shaping the productivi
 ty of tropical reefs\, from quantifying the ‘energetic footprint’ of a
 nimal biomass\, to determining links with non-reef habitats across the bro
 ader seascape\, and the mechanisms that maintain these links. This researc
 h is guided by the principle that ecosystem productivity should be underst
 ood as the interaction of internal and external energetic pathways connect
 ing photosynthesis to biomass production. The overarching goal is to devel
 op a predictive model relating environment and biomass production and\, in
  the long term\, to develop theory explaining the productivity of ecosyste
 ms more broadly.\n\n\n 
LOCATION:GC C2 413 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==GC%20C2%20413 https://epfl.
 zoom.us/j/69011077410
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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