Climate Change, Ocean Acidification and Sponges

Dr. Jose Luis Carballo is a Senior Researcher and Professor of the postgraduate program in Marine Ecology at the Institute of Marine Science and Limnology at Universidad Nacional Autonóma de Mexico. (UNAM). He received his doctorate in Zoology in 1994 (Sevilla University) obtaining Cum Laude with the Thesis Sponges from the Strait of Gibraltar and after that obtained a postdoctoral Research Fellow on Research and Development. Currently is Senior Researcher in the UNAM, where he has published more than 100 scientific research papers, books, invited major review chapters which have been cited more than 1,800 times (Google Scholar). He has also successfully supervised to completion more than 40 postgraduate (MS and PhD thesis) and Postdoctoral research fellows who research focused mainly in the study of taxonomy, biology an ecology of marine sponges. His current research interests focus mainly in coral reef sponges, and especially in boring sponges, on topics ranging from taxonomy, distribution, reproduction and dispersion. He is also interested in the general broad-scale variability in bioeroder communities and rates of erosion in Mexican Pacific coral reefs, and to understand how climate change and ocean acidification will influence bioerosion distribution and abundance of boring sponges. Dr James J. Bell is an Associate Professor in marine biology and programme director from the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He received his undergraduate degree in marine biology in 1998 from Bangor University (1st Class hons), and his doctorate in 2001 from University College Cork (Ireland). Following his PhD, he held lectureship positions at Reading and Aberystwyth Universities (UK), and started at Victoria University in 2006. To date, Dr Bell has published over the 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and books, the majority of which are on sponge ecology. He has supervised over 50 honours, MSc and PhD students over hiss career, and has over 1800 citations. Dr Bell has extensive experience of temperate and tropical sponge ecology, and his current research interests include the impacts of climate change, ocean acidification and environmental degradation on sponges. His research interests also extend to understanding the functional roles of sponges and the factors influencing sponge biodiversity and abundance patterns.