Hobart

Seminar Abstract

Tuesday 29 September, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Piers Dunstan
Research Scientist
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart

Predicting Biodiversity

Predicting patterns of biodiversity is an increasingly important aspect of ecosystem and conservation management. More than just single species, an operational definition of biodiversity includes the composition of communities, the abundances of species and the frequency of occurrences. In many cases biological data is limited and predictions utilising broad scale physical covariates are need to make informed decisions. Typically, the focus of biodiversity prediction has been on single species, particularly species that are large and visible. Multispecies predictions are difficult and have been limited by methodological issues.

One aspect of the CERF Marine Biodiversity Hub has been the development of new methods to predict multi species diversity that incorporates an understand of uncertainty. These methods have been applied as part of the current DEWHA marine planning process to bioregions around Australia. Predictions of Rank Abundance Distributions and predictions of Species Archetypes are significant advances on contemporary statistical methods and offer new insights into the patterns of marine biodiversity in Australian waters. The analysis shows that broad scale multispecies distributions are linked to large scale oceanographic patterns. This seminar outlines the statistical advances and the applications to broad scale predictions of biogeography and multispecies diversity in several marine habitats.

Seminar recording

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
To schedule a seminar, contact:
Clothilde Langlais, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5399
Natalie Kelly, (Biology/Modelling seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research 0438 452 483
Jillian Enraght-Moony, (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5320
Communications Manager, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 8/12/09