5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Auditorium (bldg. 20)
Mare Incognitum – How Little We Know About Coastal Biodiversity and How to Change That
Biodiversity is key to sustaining ecosystem health and resilience, and is a master variable for evaluating the success of management efforts. We know more about the ocean than ever before thanks to broad field and molecular surveys which show overwhelming diversity. Yet, we do not know the order of magnitude of marine diversity for even the macrobiota – the living organisms of a region that are large enough to be seen with the naked eye-, most described species are poorly understood, historical collections are mostly not accessible to modern molecular tools, and identification tools are inadequate.
What is the magnitude of the Marine Biodiversity?
In this talk, Gustav Paulay will explain how new collections provide an effective way forward in determining the magnitude of marine biodiversity. Such a foundation greatly increases the power of emerging tools like environmental DNA sequencing, large-scale biodiversity surveys are cost-effective and thoroughly sample diversity, species can be rapidly delineated with modern, integrative tools, and interregional comparisons can effectively lead to global synthesis. During this talk, Paulay will use examples from recent surveys in the Red Sea and elsewhere to demonstrate the taxonomic challenge and an effective solution.
Introduced by Michael Berumen, Acting Director, Red Sea Research Center.
Light lunch will be served before the keynote lecture.
Read more on the Enrichment in the Fall Program website.