Functional Ecology of Benthic Habitats and Marine Biological Invasions

Sergej Olenin
Chair of the Institute Council and Lead Researcher
Coastal Research and Planning Institute Klaipeda University, Lithuania
Monday, Mar. 28, 2011, 3:00pm
Chase 130
Abstract

Sergej Olenin will be talking about habitat mapping, sediment modifying activity of benthic macrofauna and how it is distributed along the environmental gradients of the Baltic Sea. He will consider benthic habitats (biotopes) as functional units of marine coastal ecosystems. He will also talk about biological invasions and their role in changing marine environment, particularly benthic habitats. He will present a newly developed method to assess the magnitude of biological pollution (the “Beaufort Scale” for bioinvasion impacts).

Bio

Sergej Olenin received his Ph.D. from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (Moscow, Russia) in 1990 and D.Sc. from the Institute of Oceanology (Sopot, Poland) in 2006. He is a lead scientist at Coastal Research and Planning Institute and a professor in Biological Oceanography at Klaipeda University (Lithuania), specializing in benthic ecology and aquatic invasion biology. Since the 1980s he has participated in research cruises in the Baltic and North Seas, and Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He conducted SCUBA diving and underwater video research expeditions in the Black Sea, White Sea and Svalbard. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the international journals Biological Invasions, Oceanologia, and Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies. In 2009-2010, he chaired the Joint Research Center / International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Task Group “Non-indigenous Species,” developing Good Environmental Status Descriptor for the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. In time spent away from teaching, grant hunting/reporting and administration, he likes to hike, SCUBA dive, read and listen the sea or flamenco music.