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"Searching for the Small: Hidden Lives in the Indian River Lagoon " • Paul Hargraves, Ph.D. - Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution About the Lecture Dr. Hargraves will present some of his observations on the little-known microscopic life in the Indian River Lagoon system. These organisms, at the base of the food web, influence all other life in the system, and conversely, rely on more familiar creatures to provide them with sustenance. Because of this complex interdependence, what affects one group of species ultimately affects all [including us!]. One of the first steps in understanding this complexity is to find out what's there Ñ biodiversity. To most observers, the IRL extends from Ponce de Leon inlet to Jupiter Inlet, a distance of 250 km [155 miles], but has only five direct connections to the Atlantic Ocean: the inlets named above, and the Sebastian, Fort Pierce and St. Lucie inlets. The IRL system includes the Indian River Lagoon proper, the Mosquito Lagoon, and the Banana River. The IRL is climatologically intermediate between two distinct biogeographic zones: temperate to the North, and tropical to the South. Because of this, the life in the Lagoon has components of both zones, leading to a rich biological milieu. It has often been called the most biologically diverse estuary in North America. In this lecture, Dr Hargraves will examine the validity of the "most diverse" claim, briefly summarize the state of biodiversity ignorance, and introduce to the audience some of the many hundreds of fascinating microscopic inhabitants of the IRL, whose unseen lives ultimately influence everything about the IRL that we cherish. About the Speaker Dr. Paul Hargraves has recently joined Harbor Branch after a multi-decadal career at the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island. During his professional career, Dr. Hargraves has received research funding totaling several million dollars from several divisions of the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Agency, the National Sea Grant program, and several private organizations. He has been a visiting professor at the National University of Costa Rica, and at the University of Salzburg, Austria, served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, and held adjunct positions at several other universities. His former students, including 12 Ph.D. and 20 M.S. recipients, have gone on to successful careers in academia, industry, and government, and he has served on the thesis committees of over 50 additional graduate students. His interests focus on the biodiversity, systematics, ultrastructure, and life cycles of microscopic life in aquatic environments, and his >100 publications include research on freshwater, coastal, and oceanic environments from the North Atlantic to the Antarctic, from the Peruvian Amazon to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, from the IRL to 50-million year-old fossils. |