SEMINAR: CWR Presents

Inland aquatic ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, ponds and reservoirs, occupy a small part of the landscape, but play a key role as a conduit for gas exchange with the atmosphere.

This is dependent on a much larger active surface that previously recognised, intense metabolism in aquatic ecosystems, and imports of carbon from adjacent land ecosystems derived from groundwater and runoff.

Here I will report on the rates and drivers of gas exchange between inland aquatic ecosystems and the atmosphere and identify a number of questions that need be addressed in order to further our understanding of this role.

Biography

Professor Carlos M. Duarte is Director of the Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia and Research Professor with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA) in Mallorca, Spain.

Professor Duarte’s research focuses on understanding the effects of global change in aquatic ecosystems, both marine and freshwater. He has conducted research across Europe, South-East Asia, Cuba, México, USA, Australia, the Amazonia, the Arctic, the Southern Ocean, and the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, spanning most of the marine ecosystem types, from near-shore to the deep sea.

Professor Duarte currently leads the Malaspina 2010 Expedition, a Spanish circumnavigation expedition that sailed the world's oceans to examine the impacts of global change on ocean ecosystems and explore their biodiversity (see http://www.expedicionmalaspina.es).

He is co-leader of a large EU-funded project on Arctic Tipping Points. He is also working closely with the United Nations (the United Nations Environment Programme and FAO) to develop strategies to increase the sustainable production of marine aquaculture, as well as the restoration and conservation of coastal habitats to mitigate climate change and protect coastlines.

Professor Duarte served as President of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography between 2007 and 2010. In 2009, was appointed member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC), the highest-level scientific committee at the European Level.

He has published more than 400 scientific papers and two books, and was editor-in-chief of Estuaries and Coasts, as well as associate editor for a number of journals.

He has received many honours for his work including the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography in 2001, the National Science Award of Spain (2007) and the King James I Award for Research on Environmental Protection (2009). In 2009, he received the Silver Medal Cross of Merit from the Guardia Civil, Spain, for his service to environmental protection. In 2011, he also received the Prix d’Excellence, the highest honour awarded by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). He has received honorary doctorates from the Université de Québec a Montrèal (Canada) in 2010 and Utrecht University (The Netherlands) in 2012.PS.

* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****