Fri, March 29, 2019 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH LABORATORY (AERL). Speaker: Dr. Evgeny Pakhomov
Director and Professor, IOF
Location: AERL Theatre (Rm. 120)
Distributional range shift is a well-known species response to climate fluctuations leading to a poleward shift in their occurrence. While it may be physically possible for tropical and temperate species, in Polar Regions species are facing rapid contraction of their geographical range, facing new challenges associated with coastal environments. Circum-Antarctic habitats of the Southern Ocean key stone metazoans, the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, and pelagic tunicate, Salpa thompsoni, are perfect to construct their present and predict their future distributions under various climate change scenarios. In the future Southern Ocean, a significant increase in interactions and competition between these species is predicted with potential “winners” and “losers” emerging that have implications for the high Antarctic ecosystem.