Date: 27 April 2022
Time: 17:00 – 18:00 (GMT +02:00)
Location: 213 (Clore Lecture Theatre), Huxley Building – Campus: South Kensington Campus
This event is taking place in person, with a livestream (online access via Zoom) for those attending attending online.
Audience: Open to all
Cost: Free
Tickets: Registration in advance
A Changing Planet Seminar by Dr Sian Henley, Lecturer in Marine Science at the University of Edinburgh
Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems are under increasing pressure from global climate change and direct human impacts. Decisive, immediate action on climate change mitigation is required at the global scale, as well as effective management at the local scale, to protect these ecosystems and their societal benefits worldwide.
The Southern Ocean is globally important for regulating climate by taking up atmospheric carbon dioxide, connecting the world’s oceans and ocean-climate system, and supporting key species and ecosystem services. Global climate change and ocean acidification are impacting the health and productivity of the Southern Ocean, with knock-on effects on these critical processes as well as regional fisheries (e.g. Antarctic krill) and other ecosystem services.
The first Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO, 2021) has shown significant changes in Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems, driven by global climate change and direct human impacts. MEASO is an international collaboration of over 200 researchers from 19 countries. A team of scientists from the MEASO initiative attended the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 to present the key findings and advocate for urgent global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to instigate climate recovery and to avoid irreversible deterioration of Southern Ocean ecosystems and associated loss of their wide-ranging societal benefits. In this talk, I will present an overview of the key findings and make the case that only by mitigating global climate change, alongside effective local conservation and management, can we effectively safeguard these vulnerable polar oceans now and into the future.
About the speaker
Dr Sian Henley is a Lecturer in Marine Science at the University of Edinburgh. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), a member of the Southern Ocean Task Force for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and a Science Theme Leader within the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society (SAGES). Sian has a diverse range of research interests from polar ocean ecosystem change to climate change impacts on children worldwide, and is a passionate lecturer, educator and communicator across the spectrum of marine and polar science.
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Imperial College London, 25 April 2022. More information.
