Water and Climate

Mussels build their own shells from minerals through complicated mechanisms involved with biomineralisation. These protective structures are made out of calcium carbonate building blocks which are abundant in the oceans. Such building blocks are potentially limited under the changing environments resulting from climate change. Exploring biomineralisation will provide information to predict shell growth in these environments.

Our planet is warming and scientists are more and more worried about the response of ecosystems to climate change. It is thus crucial to study past climates to better understand what we can expect in the future. One approach is to use information stored in one group of algae, the Haptophytes. These algae play an important role in the carbon cycle and are a rich source of climate information as they record water temperature as they grow. I will describe why Haptophytes are important in the ecosystem and how we use them to tell us how the climate has changed in the past.

During our Solar System's early history the region between the Sun and Mars is thought to have been too hot for the existence of liquid water. So how did Earth, Mars, and the other inner-Solar System planetary bodies get their water? During this talk I will explain the two leading theories, and why the true answer could have huge significance for the existence of extra-terrestrial life.

Mangroves are tropical coastal forests inundated by seawater during high tide. Large areas have been converted to shrimp ponds or embanked to grow oil palm. Researchers have warned about the rapid rate of destruction and the difficulty to restore mangrove forests. However, we have not been able to turn the tide on mangrove loss so far. Mangroves provide a range of services to society such as protection against coastal flooding and mitigation of climate change. Valuing such services may be the way forward to halt destruction and safeguard the future of our mangrove forests, but will it?