Anthony Richardson,
University of Queensland and CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Meet: https://meet.google.com/niy-gtpk-sro
YouTube Stream: https://youtube.com/live/ML2R59WPk2I
Join group to receive calendar invite: https://groups.google.com/a/modelingtalks.org/g/talks
Abstract:
Marine life is facing accelerating threats from climate change, overfishing, oil and gas extraction, shipping, and a host of other human uses. In response, the UN Global Biodiversity Framework has proposed the 30x30 target, whereby 30% of land and seas would be protected by 2030. This huge challenge is fundamentally a zoning optimization problem. As in a city, the question is where do we best place different human uses, including natural spaces? In this talk, I summarise the global marine conservation landscape, and how we are trying to improve marine management. I describe some of the optimization algorithms, specifically integer linear programing, we use to solve the spatial zoning problems in the statistical software R. In practice, identifying zoning solutions requires interaction with different stakeholder groups. To facilitate this, we have developed an R Shiny App, that allows stakeholders to explore different potential marine zoning plans in seconds and understand the trade-offs involved. Our aim is to facilitate the rapid development of marine zoning plans so that stakeholders – including Governments – can ensure that there is a transparent process that considers the mutual benefits and tradeoffs between conserving marine biodiversity and maintaining human uses of our ocean.
Bio:
Anthony is a mathematical ecologist with a joint position between the University of Queensland and CSIRO in Australia. He graduated from the University of Queensland in 1992, majoring in Maths and Ecology. He obtained his PhD in Marine Ecology from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) in 1998, and did several postdocs at universities in South Africa before moving to the Marine Biological Association of the UK. In 2005, he moved back to Australia.
His research interests include using mathematical, statistical and computational models to improve marine conservation and understand impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. He has published 250 papers, and his work has been cited 35,000 times. He has made valuable contributions to understanding how climate change is impacting marine life, and how we can improve marine management. In his spare time, Anthony enjoys long-distance bike riding. On holiday, he can often be found in African game reserves.