Welcome to the E&ERC
Welcome to the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre. The Centre was established in 2007 with the generous support of the University of New South Wales. It builds on a desire to provide a cohesive and cooperative environment for the University's effort in evolution and ecology research and research training.
Speedier Sperm
For some fish, climate change may be the ultimate fertility aid. Or, at least, it could help them hit sperm speed records. A new study of eastern mosquitofish living in southern France shows that male fish reared in warmer environments also churn out faster-swimming sperm. The results reveal, for the first time, how warming global temperatures could influence the performance of sex cells, potentially altering species’ ability to reproduce. From E&ERC Member Bart Adriaenssens.
100 Things we didn't know last year
Results from work conducted by the Wroe Lab on the feeding behaviour of bears ranked in the BBC News Top 100 list of Things We Didn’t Know In 2010; one of only two findings based on work by Australian researchers.
E&ERC Seminar Series
11th May 2012| UNSW, Biomed C
3pm
Tim Bralower
Penn State University, USA
Mass Extinction and Recovery of Ocean Plankton at the End of the Cretaceous
Calcareous nannoplankton, a predominant group of skeletonized marine autotrophs, were decimated during the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary mass extinction event. Over 90% of nannoplankton species disappeared at this time, among the highest extinction rates of groups that survived the catastrophe. Despite the significance of nannoplankton in marine food webs, the cause of their extinction is poorly understood. Here, we analyze nannoplankton counts from Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary sections representing all of the major ocean basins. The northern hemisphere oceans suffered high extinction rates and a nannoplankton crisis that peaked 40 kyr after the impact and lasted for 310 kyr. By contrast, the southern hemisphere oceans suffered lower extinction rates and experienced nearly immediate recovery of a normal nannoplankton population.
In my presentation, I will provide an overview of the previous hypotheses that explain the mass extinction and propose a new mechanism that is consistent with the geographic data. In addition, I will consider the factors that shaped the initial recovery of the nannoplankton from the event, including an experimental “boom-bust” stage, followed by the origination of successful Paleocene species.
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