What can we learn about climate change from Antarctic soil biodiversity?
May 25, 2022, 7:00 MDT, 9:00 EDT, 14:00 BST, 15:00 CEST
Moderated by Byron Adams
The polar desert of Antarctica continues to be impacted by climate change. What can we learn about the resilience of mosses, lichens and simple soil food webs to increased temperatures and wetting events? Are these ‘pristine systems’ now vulnerable to invasive species? What are scientists learning about the changing polar terrestrial ecosystems, their biodiversity and ecosystem functions that may apply to temperate soils? Join moderator Byron Adams (Brigham Young University, Utah, USA) and panelists Gemma Collins (Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Claudia Colesie (University of Edinburgh, UK), Jackie Goordial, (University of Guelph, Canada) and Jasmine Lee (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) for a discussion on hidden soil life, (microbes, invertebrates, cryptogams) and the changing terrestrial environment of Antarctica.