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CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Past Seminars

Seminar Abstract

Functional interfaces, trophic models and re-invented governance: an introductory talk

Individual scientists are like separate species. They partition functional niches, exhibit variable niche breadths, and achieve functional complementarity in a community by limiting similarities.

The main purpose of this talk is to introduce myself in terms of past, current, and future projects (and interests) with the hope of facilitating collaboration and interdisciplinary consilience. My explorations of the benthic macrofauna of the shallow head of Monterey Submarine Canyon through sampling and experimentation were fortuitous, in retrospect, because examination of such a highly disturbed and subsidised soft-bottom environment indicated that communities can be shaped simultaneously by both disturbance and biotic interactions in settings that are highly subsidized. This implies an integration of equilibrium and non-equilibrium views of community organization and a ‘functional interface’ hypothesis for explaining diversity.

Whole food web trophic models (e.g., Ecopath with Ecosim) can provide valuable insights into the structure and function of marine ecosystems, the role of human activities (such as fisheries) relative to other forces, and ecosystem-based evaluations of alternate policies.

Finally, degraded marine ecosystems indicate absent or dysfunctional governance. There is great potential for inventing or re-inventing governance systems, particularly in fisheries, climate change, and the interaction thereof.

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CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
Peter Oke, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5387
Piers Dunstan, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine Research (03) 6232 5382
Katrina Nitschke, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265 & IASOS, University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2509