Lecture: Meiofauna Matters - The What, Why and How Of Tiny Marine Creatures That Live Everywhere On Our Ocean Floor

Conservation Lecture Series  Enhancing Global Coastal Literacy in Florida

Thursday August 16, 2018 From 7pm to 8pm  FSUCML Auditorium 3618 US-98 St. Teresa, FL 32358 Free & Open To the Public. Refreshments available before talk   Meiofauna Matters - The What, Why and How Of Tiny Marine Creatures That Live Everywhere On Our Ocean Floor By Dr. Jeroen Ingels , PhD, Resident Faculty, FSU Coastal & Marine Lab, Florida State University Meiofauna, microscopic organisms, are everywhere. You might not see them, but they are there, in extraordinary numbers. These small organisms live in between the sediment grains from the beach all the way down to the deepest ocean floors, and are ecologically important. Despite recent advances in meiofauna research, there are many aspects of their biology and ecology that we do not know. Join us for an introduction into the world of meiofauna: what are they? What do they do in our oceans? Do we know how many species there are? How can we use them to address important questions? About the Speaker: Dr. Jeroen Ingels is a resident faculty member at the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory. He received his Ph.D in deep-sea biology at Ghent University in 2009, and was a research fellow in the UK for several years before joining FSU.  As a community ecologist, he  studies benthic biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and food web ecology of marine ecosystems, with a special focus on the smallest of metazoan organisms - the meiofauna. His research tries to create a better understanding of meiofauna biodiversity patterns and their drivers, the roles meiofauna play in sediments and on hard substrates, and how they may contribute to important marine functions that keep our oceans healthy.  His research is often framed in studies that assess anthropogenic and climate-change impacts.

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