Date:

Friday 14 March 2008

Time:

5.00-7.00pm

Location:

Museum of Tropical Queensland, Flinders Street East, TOWNSVILLE

Description:

Global climate is changing rapidly as human activities increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Warming of Great Barrier Reef waters has already caused impacts on this iconic ecosystem, such as recent mass coral bleaching.

As our climate changes, subtle but potentially more serious effects are becoming apparent as the oceans absorb part of the extra atmospheric carbon dioxide, turning them more acidic. Under these conditions, marine creatures may experience greater difficulty in forming their skeletons and shells, and this will have consequences for the health of the whole ecosystem.

Speaker:

Participants are from:

• National Center for Atmospheric Research (Colorado, US)

• Laboratoire d'Océanographie (France)

• University of Miami

• Centre for Marine Studies (University of Queensland)

• CSIRO (Hobart)

• AIMS.

Hosted by:

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)

Contact:

Everyone is welcome and attendance is free. For further information, and to indicate your intention to attend, please contact Melissa McLean at AIMS, Tel: (07) 4753 4180 or E-mail: m.mclean@aims.gov.au