The Dean of the Faculty of Natural Scare cordially invites you to the Dean's Podium
A lecture by Prof. Michal Kucera, University of Bremen, Germany
Marine Plankton in Times of Global Change: a View from the Geological Archive
Marine plankton in times of global change: a view from the geological archive
Marine ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from ongoing global change. Understanding how the ecosystems as a whole and their constituent species individually will respond to the escalating pressure requires knowledge of ecological processes that act on time scales exceeding most observational studies. I will show how the fossil record of marine plankton can be used to place the ongoing trends into the context of natural ecosystem variability, and how it may provide clues on the likely reaction of plankton species to increasing stress.
Prof. Michal Kucera - Biography
Michal Kucera currently holds the chair of Micropalaeontology and Paleoceanography at the University of Bremen. He studied Geology in the Charles University in Prague and obtained a PhD from the University of Gothenburg. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he taught at the Royal Holloway University of London and at the University of Tübingen in Germany. His research combines the investigation of ecology and biodiversity of foraminifera, a geologically important group of marine microorganisms, with the investigation of their fossil record as an archive of evolution and climate change. As past president of The Micropalaeontological Society, co-chair of the SCOR Working Group on Modern Planktonic foraminifera and Ocean Change, and member of the steering boards of PAGES and PMIP, he strives to promote community engagement in research and education on micropalaeontology and its applications.
