Past Carbon Isotopic Events and Future Ecologies

The biosphere and many of its ecosystems are currently changing due to global warming in an manner unprecedented for many million years. Research shows that abrupt environmental perturbations of the late Palaeocene to early Eocene some 55 million years ago, and also of some earlier periods, might be used as biospheric and ecological palaeoanalogues for present-day and future global change.

This two-day discussion meeting invited presentations from internationally renowned geoscientists and ecologists in environmental and palaeoenvironmental change. The meeting brought together scientists and policymakers from a range of disciplines to explore how current geological and ecological synergies illuminate our understanding of what planet Earth might be like 100 years or more in the future.

Speakers included:

Dr Manuel Barange, Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Dr Peter Mayhew, University of York
Professor Paul Valdes, University of Bristol
Professor Jim Zachos, University of California, Santa Cruz

At the end of the conference, there was a panel discussion on ‘Past rapid changes in CO2 levels and the climate system: lessons for the future’, with Professor David MacKay, Chief Scientific Advisor at DECC; Bryan Lovell, Geological Society President and Professor John  Raven, University if Dundee.

You can now view the panel discussion online .

To download an MP3 audio file of the panel discussion, please click on the link below: