Wednesday, August 10, 2011: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Ballroom E, Austin Convention Center
Organizer:
Exequiel Ezcurra
Co-organizers:
Sula Vanderplank
and
Benjamin Wilder
Moderator:
Exequiel Ezcurra
Understanding the effects of climatic anomalies on coastal deserts and neighboring marine ecosystems is essential, as these habitats depend on pulses for their renewal and their biological productivity can change dramatically from one year to the next. Oscillations in oceanic temperatures can strongly modify marine productivity, while ocean-modulated atmospheric anomalies impose similar cycles of drought and rain in deserts.
Furthermore, in oceans and deserts the abundance of life is not spread evenly but tends to clump at distinct locations where biological productivity concentrates: In deserts, the collection of water drives these aggregations; in the sea, it is normally nutrient upwelling, rocky reefs, and coastal lagoons which provide the nutrients that sustain large aggregations of life.
This multidisciplinary symposium will bring together terrestrial and marine scientists to analyze (a) how oceanographic anomalies affect resource availability in desert coastal environments, (b) how the spatial distribution of high-productivity ecosystems affects resource conservation, establishment pulses in deserts, fisheries, and freshwater availability, and (c) what is the true value of the environmental services provided by high-productivity environments in both desert and sea, such as mangroves, wetlands, oases, and reefs.
Endorsement:
Former Chair, Mexico Chapter, Former Chair, Mexico Chapter
8:00 AM
Spatio-temporal heterogeneity and interactions of fishes, fisheries, and coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of California Region
Brad Erisman, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD;
Philip Hastings, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD;
Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego;
Ismael Mascareñas-Osorio, Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación;
Charlotte González-Abraham, San Diego Natural History Museum
8:15 AM
Climate variability and environmental services of mangroves, sargassum beds, and reefs
Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego;
Brad Erisman, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD;
Ismael Mascareñas-Osorio, Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación;
José Cota-Nieto, Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación;
Exequiel Ezcurra, University of California, Riverside