The future of Greenland’s coastal zone in a rapidly changing Arctic
17 Feb 2023 - Jakob Thyrring, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Denmark | 15h30 - CIBIO-InBIO’s Auditorium, Campus de Vairão
INVITED SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION
As a benthic ecologist, I focus on the environmental factors and species interactions that control populations in both intertidal and subtidal polar habitats. Mainly I study the coastal zone around Greenland to understand how climate change and human activities intertwin and affect Arctic coastal ecosystems through time and space. I often use blue mussels as a model organism to understand how the interplay between physiology, ecology and environmental stress impact population dynamics and ecosystem structure and function.
The Arctic is warming 4-times faster than the global average, and combined with a diminishing cryosphere, this may allow temperate species to expand in the region. Continued warming is predicted to suppress endemic Arctic species while facilitating a northward expansion of temperate species. However, current species distribution and knowledge of drivers affecting population dynamics are largely unknown. Greenland’s coastlines are north - south orientated, hereby providing an ideal setting to study the impact of climate change on marine species population dynamics and ecosystem responses.
In this talk, I will present results from our coastal work in Greenland, and touch on how species physiology and different abiotic drivers affects the distribution of species, and the dynamics of coastal systems.
[Host: Fernando
P. Lima, Marine Ecology, Diversity and Change - MarChange]