Cookie Policy

This site uses cookies. When browsing the site, you are consenting its use. Learn more

I understood

DIATOMS AS SENTINELS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: CLIMATE AND ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGES REVELED BY DIATOMS IN SEDIMENTS OF AZOREAN LAKES

15 Oct 2015 - Vítor Gonçalves (CIBIO-InBIO/UAzores) | October 23, 2015 - 15h00 | CIBIO-InBIO’s Auditorium, Campus de Vairão
DIATOMS AS SENTINELS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: CLIMATE AND ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGES REVELED BY DIATOMS IN SEDIMENTS OF AZOREAN LAKES

 

Both local and global environmental changes can affect ecological quality of lakes. In the absence of historical data the detection and quantification of these changes can be revealed by paleolimnological approaches. Lake sediments have been used increasingly in recent years to infer past fluctuations in environmental conditions and several studies have shown the importance of lakes as paleoclimate and ecological archives. Of the range of biological remains preserved in lake sediments, diatoms are useful paleoecological indicators mostly because their wide distribution, well preserved silicate frustules, high indicator values and species diversity. In this seminar, I will present how subfossil diatom assemblages in surface sediments of Azorean lakes responds to environmental pressures and what fossil diatom assemblages in sediment profiles can reveal about past climate and anthropogenic disturbances in the Azorean region.

 

Vítor Gonçalves is an Assistant Professor at the University of Azores. His main research goal is to describe and understand the structure and function of insular aquatic ecosystems and to develop methodologies and strategies for their environmental assessment, rehabilitation and conservation. He is particularly interested in studying the effects of local and global environmental changes, at different time scales, on the distribution and abundance of aquatic biota in remote oceanic islands.

 

[Group Leader: António Frias Martins, Biodiversity and Islands]

 

Image credits: Vítor Gonçalves

 

 

Share this: