Tuesday, June 22, 1700-1800
Invited Guest Speaker
Beronda Montgomery
Michigan State University
Presentation: Lessons from Plants
Biographical Information: Beronda L. Montgomery, PhD, is a writer, researcher, and scholar who pursues a common theme of understanding how individuals perceive, respond to, and are impacted by the environments in which they exist. Dr. Montgomery is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University (MSU). She is also a member of the MSU- Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory. Her primary laboratory-based research is focused on the responses of photosynthetic organisms (i.e., plants and cyanobacteria) to external light cues. Additionally, Dr. Montgomery pursues this theme in the context of effective mentoring and leadership of individuals, and the role of innovative leaders in supporting success. Her comprehensive efforts are to promote career competencies and increase diversity in the natural sciences and in the professoriate in general. As a thought leader on inclusivity in academic and research environments, she will be speaking to the theme of plant biology and insights for human thriving from her recently published book Lessons from Plants (April 2021, Harvard University Press) contributing to ASLO’s commitment to foster a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive scientific society.
Plenary Sessions
Plenary sessions will be an important part of each day’s schedule, emphasizing the meeting theme - Aquatic Sciences for a Sustainable Future: Nurturing Cooperation.
William Cheung
The University of British Columbia
Plenary Presentation: Future of seafood resources and the role of cooperation
Biographical Information: William Cheung is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, The University of British Columbia. He is the principal investigator of the Changing Ocean Research Unit. His current research focuses on using scenarios and models to understand and project the responses and risks of marine coupled human-natural systems to global change, thereby to explore solution options to meet challenges of sustainable ocean management under climate change. His works cut across multiple disciplines, from oceanography to ecology, economics and social sciences, and range from local to global scales. Dr. Chung actively involves in international and regional initiatives that bridge science and policy. For instance, he has served as Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report for the Ocean and Cryosphere in Changing Climate, and as a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment. 9).
Wednesday, June 23, 1800-1900
Catherine Lovelock
The University of Queensland
Plenary Presentation: Restoration efforts in addressing global challenges in aquatic ecosystems
Biographical Information: Catherine is Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on climate change and its impacts on coastal plant communities as well as the role of coastal wetlands in adaptation and climate change mitigation or Blue Carbon. She is a member of the International Scientific Blue Carbon Working Group of The Blue Carbon Initiative. She leads projects in Australia and internationally focused on climate change adaptation, carbon sequestration and restoration of mangroves. She was lead author for the Wetlands chapter for the 2019 refinement of the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
Thursday, June 24, 1800-1900
Yves Prairie
Université du Québec à Montréal
Plenary Presentation: CO2 and CH4 in lakes and reservoirs: from biogeochemical processes to global emissions
Yves Prairie is an aquatic biogeochemist that has focused over the past two decades on various aspects of carbon biogeochemistry in lakes and reservoirs, at local and global scales. His most recent work revolved around biogenic GHGs in various types of aquatic ecosystems and is particularly interested in the interplay between biological, chemical and physical processes in regulating the dynamics of these gases. He is professor of aquatic ecology at Université du Québec à Montréal and currently holds a UNESCO chair in Global Environmental Change.
Friday, June 25, 1800-1900
Katharina Pahnke
University of Oldenburg
Plenary Presentation: Trace metals as agents and tracers in the ocean and climate system
Biographical information: Katharina is professor for marine isotope geochemistry at the University of Oldenburg, Germany. Her research focuses on the input, transport and biogeochemical cycling of trace elements and metal isotopes in the ocean as well as their role as tracers of past ocean conditions and changes. She and her group are particularly interested in rare earth elements and radiogenic isotopes, that act as fingerprints of trace element source regions and transport pathways both in the modern and the past ocean and offer insight into the role of the ocean in Earth’s climate system.
Saturday, June 26, 1800-1900
Lora E. Fleming
European Centre for Environment and Human Health (University of Exeter Medical School)
Plenary Presentation: Linking the health of the oceans and humans
Biographical Information: Professor Lora E. Fleming is a physician and epidemiologist with expertise in the environment and human health; she is based at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health [www.ecehh.org]. Professor Fleming is involved with research, training and policy activities in the new transdisciplinary area within Planetary Health of Ocean and Human Health. She has received the Ocean and Human Awards from the Edouard Delcroix Foundation (2014) and the IOC Bruun Award (2015). Prof Fleming is leading the H2020 funded Projects, BlueHealth (https://bluehealth2020.eu) to explore the connections between blue environments and human health; and Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe (SOPHIE) (https://sophie2020.eu) to establish a network and create a strategic research agenda for Ocean and Human Health in Europe and beyond.
Sunday, June 27, 1800-1900
Dr. Lehner, McGill University, will present the freshwater aspect of this topic, while Dr. Huisman, University of Amsterdam, will be addressing the marine component of the subject.
Bernhard Lehner
McGill University
Plenary Presentation: Global monitoring of terrestrial surface water: not seeing the lake for the rivers and trees?
Dr. Bernhard Lehner joined the Department of Geography at McGill University in 2006 as a professor in global hydrology and a faculty member of McGill’s Earth System Science program. His main research themes are large-scale hydrology, hydrographic mapping and modeling, and freshwater conservation. Dr. Lehner’s research projects include the design and development of novel global databases and maps related to rivers, watersheds, lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands, as well as their environmental and ecological characterizations. The goal of these projects is to generate basic data and information in support of regional and global eco-hydrological modeling, watershed analyses, and freshwater conservation planning at a quality, resolution and extent that have previously been unachievable. His research involves the novel design of Geographic Information Science techniques and interpretation Remote Sensing imagery. Signature data products developed in his lab and used by many colleagues around the world include HydroSHEDS, HydroLAKES, GRanD, and GLWD. Dr. Lehner’s own applications of these datasets span multiple scales from national to global and cover a broad variety of topics, ranging from global climate and environmental change studies to assessments of the fate of human-caused contaminants in river systems, the eco-hydrological effects of dam constructions, environmental flow requirements, and integrated freshwater management and protection strategies.
Jef Huisman
University of Amsterdam
Plenary Presentation: Molecular vibrations of water predict global distributions of photosynthetic organisms across lakes and oceans
Biographical information: Jef Huisman is Professor of Aquatic Microbial Ecology and head of the Department of Freshwater and Marine Ecology at the University of Amsterdam. His research combines mathematical models, laboratory experiments and field studies to investigate species interactions in aquatic ecosystems. He has worked on a wide variety of organisms, ranging from microbes to whales. However, he is best known for his work on plankton communities. With his team, he investigates impacts of rising CO2 and global warming on toxic cyanobacterial blooms. Furthermore, he has made key contributions to resource competition theory, advancing models and experiments to assess how nutrients and light affect the species composition of freshwater and marine phytoplankton communities.