Marine Biodiversity Networking Fridays

The Southern Ocean: Antarctic Marine Biodiversity Monitoring

On May 13th, 2022, 1-2 PM UTC we had a dedicated session to Antarctic Marine biodiversity. Dr. Huw Griffiths talked about Antarctic Biogeography and Dr Fernando Tarapow about Biodiversity in the context of the Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic may appear almost lifeless, a cold desert where tiny plants and animals clinging on to rare rocky gaps in the ice, but below the frozen ocean surface is a rich, varied, and complex community of species shaped by dramatic past geological, oceanographic and climate changes. Home to around twenty thousand species, Antarctica’s marine life is specially adapted to the coldest ocean on Earth. The continent commitment to peace and science is preserved and protected by the Antarctic Treaty. At this session the legal aspects related with marine biodiversity research will be address. A pertinent coordination with the Antarctic Joint Command, will allow us to make a live connection with scientist Rosana Sandler from the Antarctic Carlini base.

Programme (UTC):

1:00 PM – Welcome remarks, Yi Ming Gan (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)

1:05 PM – Life beneath the ice: Antarctic biogeography, Huw Griffiths (British Antarctic Survey)

1:25 PM – Biodiversity in the Antarctic Treaty System, Fernando Tarapow (University of Buenos Aires / Argentine Navy)

1:45 PM – Q&A, moderated by Yi Ming Gan

2:00 PM – Closing

This is an Ocean Decade Event.

Ocean Decade logo

Speakers

Huw Griffiths

Life beneath the ice: Antarctic biogeography

Huw Griffiths is a marine biologist with an interest in the Polar Regions. He has worked for the British Antarctic Survey since 2000 and has participated in several expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic, investigating sea floor biodiversity. His studies focus on large-scale ecological patterns in space and time, to investigate trends in the distribution in the Polar Regions. He has a passion for science communication and making science more accessible to the public, policymakers, and government.

Headshot Fernando Tarapow

Fernando Tarapow

Biodiversity in the Antarctic Treaty System

Fernando TARAPOW is a lawyer from the University of Buenos Aires and Argentina Navy officer. As a lawyer, he is professor of “Public International Law” and “South Atlantic and Antarctic Law”, a subject in which he has specialised in recent years. Her also teaches Ocean Governance Course, Ocean Sciences and GeoEthics at the International Ocean Institute Training Center for Latin America and the Caribbean. As a Navy officer, he was Commander of the Oceanographic Vessel ARA “Puerto Deseado” and carried out the 2006/2007 Summer Antarctic Campaign. Fernando feels Antarctica as if it were his own home, and he is convinced that Antarctica is a paradise.

Moderator

Yi-Ming Gan

Miss Yi-Ming Gan is a data manager from the SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal based in Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal is the regional node for Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON). She the chair of the OBIS data quality project team and participates in multiple data standard working groups in Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). She is currently working for the Antarctic Biodiversity Information System project funded by LifeWatch. Her tasks include helping scientists to publish their data in FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) manner, maintain a number of online applications and others. Hence, she is familiar with the current biodiversity data standards, data quality requirements and the ongoing challenges of data management.

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Please do not forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel.  Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting mornings, afternoons or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.

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