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Thursday, 5 August 2010

Premier's Fellow and research leader at The University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute, Professor Malcolm McCulloch, will examine the future of coral reefs at a free public lecture.

Recently elected to the prestigious Royal Society, Professor McCulloch will argue that rapidly rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the last century are not only causing global warming but also changing the oceans' carbonate chemistry in a process known as ‘ocean acidification'.

A member of the School of Earth and Environment, Professor McCulloch is one of two Deputy Directors of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies and in 2009 was responsible for establishing a new node for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies at UWA.

During the seminar, The Future of Coral Reefs in a Rapidly Increasing CO 2 World , he will explain that acidification is causing a reduction in the oceans' carbonate-ion concentration, upon which coral calcification is dependent.  This has the potential to cause substantial but still largely uncertain impacts on coral reef and marine ecosystems generally.

Professor McCulloch will discuss how to enhance the resilience of coral reefs at both the local and global scale and whether they will be able to adapt to the now inevitable impacts of environmental and climate change.

Over the past decade, Professor McCulloch has been a trailblazer in developing new indicators of climate and environmental change preserved in coral skeletons.  He has demonstrated a direct link between the degradation of the Great Barrier Reef and human activity in Australia following colonisation by examining the effects of river runoff on inshore reefs, and has documented the effects of climate change and ocean acidification on coral reefs.

The free seminar will be held at the University Club Theatre Auditorium at 6pm on Wednesday 25 August.  (Nearest Carpark, Hackett Entrance 1).  Bookings are essential by Wednesday, 18 th August to Augustine Kang Bacale , telephone (+61 8) 6488 7739.

To mark the UN International Year of Biodiversity 2010, UWA Extension has teamed up with UWA Oceans Institute and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to run three lectures from August 17 to 31.  Speakers will be Professor Gary Kendrick, Acting Director of the UWA Oceans Institute, Professor McCulloch and Dr Mark Meekan from AIMS.  The cost to attend the three lectures is $60 and RSVP is essential on 6488 2433.

Media references

Professor Malcolm McCulloch (+61 8)  6488 1921
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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