Smithsonian Tuesday seminar January 22, 2013 at the Earl S. Tupper Conference Center

Smithsonian Tuesday seminar January 22, 2013 at the Earl S. Tupper Conference Center

Announcing the STRI Tuesday afternoon seminar for January 22, 2013 at 4:00 pm in the Earl S. Tupper auditorium:  
Speaker: John Pandolfi, Director, Centre for Marine Science, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland
Title:  Fossils as tools for Marine Management
Abstract:  The fossil record prior to human interaction provides a unique insight into how natural systems behaved in the absence of human impact, and can even provide information about ecosystems before and after human interactions. In this talk, I will show how study of fossil marine sequences shows: what was natural in the sea prior to human influence; evidence for ecological response to similar environmental drivers that are operating today; how climate and anthropogenic drivers for ecological responses can be differentiated. An understanding of the fossil record of marine organisms can provide managers with both ecological goals around which targets can be derived, and metrics for measuring the success of management actions.