Heads up: Fish talk.
Here’s an interesting talk happening today. It’s called Some Like it Hot: How Temperature Affects the Biochemistry Physiology and Ecology of Fish, and it will be delivered by Killam Award winner, Dr. Patricia Schulte.
Environmental temperature plays a critical role in determining the distribution and abundance of animals. This fundamental ecological pattern is the result of mechanisms that operate at the biochemical and physiological levels. For example, many species of antarctic fish are incapable of surviving temperatures above four degrees Celsius, while many tropical fish die when the temperature dips below fifteen degrees. But the mechanisms involved in these differences remain unknown. My research group uses several species of fish, particularly those living in highly variable habitats such as the intertidal zone, to investigate these mechanisms. Our work attempts to integrate processes at multiple levels of biological organization (from genes to populations), and across differing temporal scales in order to provide insights into the mechanistic basis for ecological phenomena such as species distributions.
The bonus here is that this is part of the UBC Adventures in Science Seminar Series (hosted by the students of Biophysics), which aims to provide Scientific talks that emphasize assessibility. i.e. you don’t have to be a science junkie to follow along. Anyway, it looks like it’s worth checking out, so I’ll do my best to mention it each week in this blog.
Anyway, here’s the abstract for today’s talk which will be held at 12:30pm at the main lecture hall of the Michael Smith Building (next to the bookstore).
