SEMINAR: OI Seminar Series - Aaron Macneil

Title: Transitional states in marine ecosystems: Integrating analysis of multiregional change

Abstract: Anthropogenic stresses from fishing and climate change are dramatically altering the structure and function of tropical marine ecosystems. How increases in thermal trend and environmental variability interact with ecosystem components depends strongly on local and regional conditions that change through space and time. The exposure of societies to these effects will depend greatly on their adaptive capacity to understand and act relative to change. Using examples from a wide range of tropical ecosystem components I contextualize the kinds of change occurring within marine fish communities and discuss the role of spatio-temporal information in quantifying changes in key social and environmental components of marine fish communities. Coping with accelerated change in marine ecosystems will depend largely on our ability to understand spatial changes in food-web structure and to promote the adaptive capacity of coastal societies.