February 2021 – Seabed Habitats

Where the wild things are- Antarctic Seafloor Biodiversity by Dr Huw Griffiths

From burrowing worms to sea lemons to twelve-legged sea spiders to life underneath the ice shelf – the Antarctic seafloor is the most biodiverse in the world, with over 20 000 species living in the region!! Today, in the third webinar of the Seabed Habitats Seminar Series, Dr Huw Griffiths of the British Antarctic Survey gave a wonderful talk and discussion on the vast range of organisms living at the seabed around Antarctica. The team’s recent discovery of the first hard substrate sessile community beneath the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, situated on the South Eastern Weddell Sea, breaks all the rules of where scientists thought such life could exist (see the webinar and full Griffiths et al. 2021 paper)! A gigantic thank you to Huw for sharing his research and insights into studying the seabed of Antarctica as part of this webinar! The Antarctic seafloor is a very exciting place to work!!

Thank you to all attendees for signing up and attending from many different time zones and your questions and participation!

Reference

Griffiths Huw J., Anker Paul, Linse Katrin, Maxwell Jamie, Post Alexandra L., Stevens Craig, Tulaczyk Slawek and Smith James A. (2021) Breaking All the Rules: The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice Shelf, Frontiers in Marine Science Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2021.642040

Where the wild things are: Antarctic seafloor biodiversity

It’s an exciting time as the third Seabed Habitats seminar entitled “Where the wild things are- Antarctic Seafloor Biodiversity” by Dr Huw Griffiths of the British Antarctic Survey, is happening on Tuesday 23^rd February at 1300 GMT. Dr Huw Griffiths is a marine biogeographer with an interest in the Polar Regions and a passionate believer in science communication and making science more accessible to the public, policy makers and government. In 2020, Dr Huw Griffiths was awarded Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Medal for Education and Communication. Please save the date and join us to discover the unknown!! Sign up with your name and email to receive occasional updates about this seminar and future seminars in the series. Your email will only be used for this purpose.

seabed habitats seminar series

Ecology of Sand Dunes of East Coast of India

Indian marine biologist Prof. M Srinivasan, Director of Centre for Advanced Study in Marine Biology in Tamil Nadu, India gave the second webinar of the Seabed Habitats Seminar Series! He discussed the importance of sand dunes (and mangroves) for coastal protection along the south Indian coast (against storm waves and the Indian ocean tsunami), sand dune formation and classification, dune vegetation (including its medicinal values), the increasing amounts of anthropogenic impacts affecting different types of dunes and valuable tips for management. A fascinating insight into the applied coastal research at one of the oldest marine institutes in India. We would like to cordially thank Prof. Srinivasan for giving this seminar and further increasing public awareness of sand dunes and their conservation.