Overview:
The Institute of Biology of Ireland, as part of the 2019/20 Activity Series, invites its members, the general public, families and friends to a free lecture at National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. The lecture is titled: “Conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources – Towards Sustainable Development Goal 14“. The keynote speaker is Professor Tasman Crowe, of the UCD Earth Institute and School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin.
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About the Lecture:
Oceans and coastal seas are wonderful habitats, essential to human well-being, but they are under a broad range of pressures from human activities. Global changes to climate and ocean chemistry will inevitably occur over the coming decades, with complex regional and local effects. As well as directly affecting ecosystems, these changes will also alter how ecosystems respond to more localised stressors, such as pollution caused by nutrients, oil, plastic debris and other contaminants, and those caused by fisheries, tourism, construction and bioinvasions.
Targets under Sustainable Development Goal 14 encompass the reduction of pollution, the sustainable management and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems and an increase in scientific knowledge to improve ocean health and underpin sustainable development. This talk will outline some examples of research combining marine biology with other disciplines to facilitate the achievement of these targets through better understanding of the benefits we derive from marine ecosystems, the impacts we are having on them and approaches to reducing those impacts.
About the Keynote Speaker:
Professor Tasman Crowe is Director of the UCD Earth Institute and a member of the School of Biology and Environmental Science at University College Dublin. He is a marine ecologist with particular interest in research applicable to environmental policy and management. His research has characterised individual and combined impacts of a range of stressors on marine ecosystems, particularly on rocky shores. He has also worked on biomonitoring tools, eco-engineering of artificial structures, stock enhancement, invasive species, marine protected areas, the consequences of biodiversity loss for ecosystem functioning and the cultural value of marine ecosystems. He has published over 80 scientific papers in international journals and has edited a book for Cambridge University Press entitled Marine ecosystems: human impacts on biodiversity, functioning and services (2015). He is a member of the editorial board of Cambridge University Press’s Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation Series, of Ireland’s National Biodiversity Forum and of Future Earth Ireland. He is currently President of the European Marine Biology Symposium series.
