Dr. Chris Harley - Maintaining Biodiversity Amidst Rapid Environmental Change | UBC Lecture Series
Explore the balance of forces that help to hold diverse ecological communities together on the rocky coasts of British Columbia. Many species would be buried under an onslaught of mussels were it not for the presence of sea stars that eat them. Patterns of sea star predation create a mosaic of mussel beds, seaweeds, and barnacles, all of which provide habitat for dozens of associated species. Although these habitat-forming species are vulnerable to climate-driven extremes, they are also key in buffering the effects of such extremes on many other organisms. Discover ongoing changes in coastal marine biodiversity, and a few reasons to be hopeful in the face of the rising tide of bad news.
Dr. Chris Harley is a Professor in the Department of Zoology at UBC. Chris studies the impacts of climate change on nearshore marine environments, with an emphasis on the seaweeds and marine invertebrates that live on rocky shores. His lab is interested in how climatic factors, such as warming, ocean acidification, and changing salinity directly affect marine species, and how these direct impacts interact with biological relationships such as predation and facilitation to create ecological patterns in time and space.
Filmed May 26, 2024 at the Great Hall in the Nest, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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