This Friday's Biology Department Seminar speaker is:



Anne W. Thompson, Ph.D.
Portland State University

“Ecology and Dynamics of the Ocean’s Invisible Forest”

Friday, March 1, 2019
4:10 pm Seminar begins
Biology 19


Student Lunch: Email Kristy Gonyer at gonyerk@reed.edu if you would like to go to lunch with Dr. Thompson on Friday at noon.

Abstract: The oxygen in every fifth breath you take was produced by phytoplankton, the abundant photosynthetic microorganisms of the ocean. These abundant and tiny cells create “The Invisible Forest”, an ecosystem that contributes to global primary productivity on the same scale as forests and grasslands, only it is invisible to our eyes. To understand how the Earth System works, we must understand the ecology of phytoplankton. The phytoplankton Prochlorococcus is the most abundant photosynthetic cell on Earth. Prochlorococcus thrives in the vast warm and nutrient poor surface oceans far from land. Here, we present the results of oceanographic field expeditions and laboratory experiments that examine how genetic diversity and oceanographic factors control the contributions of Prochlorococcus to the ocean ecosystem.

Additional Biology Department seminars can be found on-line, including links to some speakers' home pages at: http://academic.reed.edu/biology/seminars/index.html