[PAST EVENT] Coastal ecosystem services and sustainability

April 13, 2012
3:30pm
Location
VIMS - Watermen's Hall, McHugh Auditorium
1375 Greate Road
Gloucester Point, VA 23062Map this location
Dr. Just Cebrian
Associate Professor
University of South Alabama
Dauphin Island Marine Laboratory


"Coastal ecosystem services and sustainability"

Reception at 3:00 p.m. in the lobby of Chesapeake Bay Hall
Seminar from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in McHugh Auditorium

Background:
Dr. Cebrian received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Barcelona (Spain) in 1990 and his M.S. in Oceanology in 1991 from the University of Perpignan (France) in Oceanology. He also received his Ph.D. in Marine Sciences in 1996 from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain). His research interests are centered around the controls of the magnitude and trophic fate of primary production in ecosystems. Elucidating what controls the amount and quality of food produced in ecosystems, as well as the routes followed by that food (consumption by herbivores, decomposition, export out of the community, and storage as living or detrital mass) is essential in understanding a number of important ecological roles. These roles include the system's capacity to support secondary biomass within (consumption in the system) or off (through export) the system, carbon and nutrient accumulation or release (sink vs. source), and nutrient links with neighboring systems (i.e. the system's dependence on imported nutrients). His field and experimental work focuses on coastal marine communities including phytoplanktonic communities, sediment flats, macroalgal beds, seagrass meadows and marshes.

Abstract:
The presentation will address patterns of shift in dominating populations of primary producers that occur in shallow (photic) coastal systems as a result of anthropogenic eutrophication. We will first summarize the nature of the patterns, and then explore the mechanistic processes responsible for those patterns as well as their functional consequences for coastal ecosystems. Some management implications and actions will be discussed.
Contact

[[seitz, Rochelle Seitz]] at 804-684-7698