Interactions between UV sensitivity of phytoplankton and other environmental stresses associated with climate change
Professor John Beardall, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
Abstract
Our planet is currently undergoing changes in climate, the rates of which are unprecedented in global history. Not only are algae responsible for around half of Earth’s annual primary production and the basis of most aquatic food chains, they are also forming the basis of a rapidly expanding biotechnology effort. Understanding the effects of global climatechange on these organisms is thus of paramount importance to our ability tomake informed decisions about the future of production systems, marine ecosystems and the global carbon cycle. Elevated CO2 is causing global warming and ocean acidification but the overall impact of these on marine biota depends on complex interactions with the other consequences of global change such as nutrient availability and increased UVB. In this talk I will discuss some of these interactions, focussing on the ways in which the impacts of UVB on microalgae are modified by other factors such as temperature, nutrient supply and CO2 levels.
Biographic information
John Beardall was born in the UK and has a BSc in Microbiology and a PhD from the University of London. After post-doctoral fellowships at what is now the School of Ocean Sciences at Menai Bridge, North Wales and at the University of Dundee, in Scotland, he moved to La Trobe University in Australia in 1982. In 1988 he took up an appointment as Senior Lecturer at Monash University, where he is currently a Professor. John has over 30 year’s experience in algal physiology, especially in relation to photosynthesis and inorganic carbon acquisition. He has authored/coauthored over 140 papers and book chapters and his h-index is currently 30. In recent years his research has been focused on aspects of the impacts of global change on phytoplankton, including the effects of elevated CO2, ocean acidification and UVB on algal physiological performance.
For more information: http://www.bsb.murdoch.edu.au/groups/beam/Beardall.html
