Jan
8
January Café Scientifique with Eric Taylor
Posted by: jdewitt | January 8, 2014 | Leave a Comment
Dear Café Scientifiquers, our next café will happen on Tuesday January 28th, 7:30pm at The Railway Club. Our speaker for the evening will be Eric Taylor, a zoology professor at UBC and director of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The title of his talk is:
Fluviatili Pisces Diversi (The Diversity of Freshwater Fishes): Underappreciated and Under Threat
The term fish biodiversity immediately conjures up images of strikingly-coloured fishes on a coral reef, but over 40% of the more than 33,000 fish species occur in fresh water which comprises only 0.8% of the Earth’s surface area. Freshwater fishes are, therefore, the most diverse group of vertebrates per unit area on Earth. Furthermore, recent research suggests that the rate of the origin of new biodiversity is greater in fresh water than in the marine realm. Within this context, my presentation will discuss general patterns of biodiversity in British Columbia freshwater fishes, its nature and origins, and explore a few examples of evolutionary marvels of our native freshwater fishes. Finally, I will outline some of the key threats to our freshwater fish bioheritage.