Fri, March 3, 2017 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH LABORATORY (AERL). Speaker: Malin Pinsky
Assistant Professor, Pinsky Lab, Rutgers University
The same ecological and evolutionary processes operate in both marine and terrestrial environments, and yet marine ecosystems have substantially different physical conditions, geographic patterns, and taxonomic diversity than ecosystems on land. Given these differences, do the process of global change play out similarly on land and in the ocean? In this talk, I will present a few striking contrasts and similarities. First, I will present evidence that marine species are better able to shift their distributions as climates change, while many terrestrial species appear to be lagging behind. Second, I will show how conventional wisdom about which species are most at risk of decline does not apply in the ocean. Finally, I will discuss the surprisingly similar histories of global change in the ocean and on land, and what we can learn from the longer history of impacts on land. These differences imply the need for distinct conservation and climate adaptation approaches in the ocean.
Malin Pinsky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow in Ocean Sciences. Previously, he was a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Princeton University, received his Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University, and received an A.B. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Williams College. He grew up in central and downeast Maine. His research focuses on the responses of coastal marine communities to climate change and variability, both in temperate waters and on tropical reefs of the western Pacific. Much of his work uses long-term ecological datasets or population genomic methods to answer questions at large spatial and longer temporal scales.
Location: AERL 120