 Plenary Speakers at the 2008 Joint NZMSS & AMSA Conference
Monday July 7th
Hon Dr Nick Smith MP for Nelson
National Party spokesman for Environment/RMA, Conservation and Climate Change
Professor Tony Underwood University of Sydney
Tony is an ecologist working on rocky shores, mangrove forests and other coastal habitats, using manipulative experiments to try to distinguish among alternative models to explain phenomena, patterns and puzzles I encounter. Tony has a Personal Chair in Experimental Ecology at the University of Sydney and is a University Professor. His work has caused him to become fascinated by relevant ecological and biological issues in experimental and sampling designs and he has derived considerable pleasure from being privileged to supervise numerous Ph.D. students. Tony’s talk will focus on ecology and human impacts: why ecology is losing out to environmentalism. Tony will draw on years of frustration due to trying to get much better ecological outcomes from involvement with governmental so-called managers of resources and of environmental issues.
Dr Drew Lohrer National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Hamilton)
Drew came to National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) from the USA in 2002 (BS from University of California San Diego, PhD from University of Connecticut, Research Coordinator at University of South Carolina Baruch Marine Field Laboratory), where he studied the mechanisms and consequences of non-indigenous species invasions in rocky intertidal and saltmarsh tidal creek systems. Drew’s present focus is benthic soft-sediment community ecology and the functions performed by large burrowing macrofauna in marine soft-sediment habitats. Drew will speak about his recent research, discussing four types of anthropogenic impacts affecting coastal seafloor habitats and how resultant biodiversity losses may alter the functioning of New Zealand’s estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Insights from intertidal flats and the subtidal seafloor will be shared, with examples of how declines in key bioturbators may affect sediment productivity, nutrient regeneration and macrofaunal community composition.
Tuesday 8th July
Professor David Schiel University of Canterbury
Dr Graeme Inglis National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Christchurch)
Wednesday 9th July
Dr Craig Stevens National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Wellington)
Craig is Principal Scientist - Marine Physics at NIWA Greta Point with interests in environmental fluid mechanics. He received his PhD from the University of Western Australia and held an NSERC International Postdoctoral Fellowship in Canada before moving to New Zealand. Current interests include small scale mixing in Antarctic waters, hydrodynamics of aquaculture, seaweed propagule dispersal, marine energy and air sea interaction. Craig’s talk will focus on the intersection of physics and biology in ocean processes at a variety of scales. The emphasis will be on how turbulence, waves and stratification influence various ocean processes. There will be an emphasis on a cascade of scales so small and large scales are often interconnected.
Assoc. Professor Stephen Wing University of Otago
Steve is an Associate Professor of marine ecology in the Marine Sciences Department at Otago University. His recent research interests have focussed on population and food web structure in Fiordland. The landscape of Fiordland and pristine forested catchments provide an extant example of a relatively undisturbed coastal ecosystem. Ecological studies on population structure of marine invertebrates and fishes as well as food web structure among the fjords provide an important context in which to assess human impacts and inform management decision making in the region.
Thursday 10th July
2007 New Zealand Marine Sciences Society Award recipient Dr Wendy Nelson National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Wellington)
Calcified macroalgae – critical to coastal ecosystems and vulnerable to change
2007 New Zealand Marine Sciences Society Student Research Grant recipient Phillip Ross University of Waikato
Where are you going, where have you been? What we can learn about population connectivity from cockle DNA.
2008 Australian Marine Sciences Association Silver Jubilee prize winner
To be announced
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