Fri, October 4, 2019 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH LABORATORY (AERL). IOF Seminar Series
Speaker: Alejandro Buren, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Location: AERL Theatre
Oceans cover almost three quarters of our planet’s surface, and therefore represent its largest habitat. We increasingly depend on the oceans’ resources for food, trade and transport routes, recreational opportunities, and oil and gas exploitation. Consequently, most marine ecosystems are highly perturbed, and their biological resources are often subject to exploitation rates beyond sustainability. Scientists and resource managers are therefore confronted with the need to predict and give insight into the management of human interaction with the marine environment. As scientists concerned with providing advice on how to exploit marine resources in a sustainable way, we must understand populations and community structure, and the complex processes linking community components. The integration of these processes drives community dynamics and regulates ecosystem functioning. Synthesizing complex ecosystem processes to identify key components and linkages becomes then crucial to enable the provision of useful science advice. By focusing on a relatively small number of ecosystem components, effort can be directed toward species of interest and operationally feasible monitoring programs be put in place.
In this seminar Dr. Buren will show examples of this pragmatical approach, using the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelf marine ecosystem and some of its main components: capelin, Northern cod and harps seals, as study cases.