News & Events

EOAS Colloquium: Shaun Barker

Title: Mining to save the plant

Date & Time: Thursday, November 12th at 11:00am

Place: Zoom Room

Abstract:

The global effort to transition from fossil fuels to “green” energy technologies (wind, solar, geothermal) to help mitigate the potential impacts of climate change is well underway. However, there are significant challenges associated with this transition, particularly related to the supply of the mineral resources required to manufacture these new energy sources. Do we have enough lithium for electric cars? Can’t we just stop mining by encouraging more recycling? In this talk I will overview our current usage and requirement for mineral resources, address misconceptions about our ability to supply the resources required, and discuss how society view the mining sector and the challenges that this presents to industry, to society and to Earth Sciences.

IOS Seminar: Dr. Philina English

Title: Impacts of local climate velocity depend on initial climate conditions: a meta-analysis across 35 demersal fishes in the northeast Pacific

Date & Time: Friday, Nobember 13th at 10:15am

Place: Zoom Room

Abstract:

Species responses to climate change are often measured at spatiotemporal scales that are beyond the influence of management interventions. We develop a fine-scale geostatistical approach to assess how fish distributions have been simultaneously shaped by local temperature and dissolved oxygen velocities—the speed and direction an organism would have to move to maintain a consistent conditions—over a recent decade of warming in the northeast Pacific. We estimate distribution change by maturity class for 35 demersal fish species using models that allow depth preferences to vary through time. Across species, warming was associated with declines in biomass, while increases in dissolved oxygen were positively related to biomass; however, the strength of effects differed depending on local conditions. In the warmest locations, warming velocities were associated with negative biotic velocities (estimated distance to nearest location with same biomass when local biomass is declining) for one quarter of species-maturity combinations (17 of 63). In the coolest locations, nearly all (58 of 63) exhibited stable or increasing biotic velocities. After accounting for the e+ect of temperature, dissolved oxygen velocities were associated with biotic velocities for ⇠30% of species. However, this relationship was equally likely to be negative or positive, which suggests a mechanism other than hypoxia avoidance—possibly changes in primary production. We also examined relationships between these e+ects and each species’ ecology, but did not find any strong relationships—though flat fish and younger immature populations appeared to respond most positively to warming in cool locations. Evidence of declines in biomass in the warmest locations and increases in cooler locations suggests a redistribution of species with implications for new ecological and fisheries interactions. Our approach also identifies which species and locations are likely to be most vulnerable to these changes in a way that is 'exible across scales relevant to conservation and fisheries management.