Can past lessons and present innovations pre-empt future impacts of pests and diseases in an expanding seaweed industry
Juliet Brodie, Merit Researcher, Phycology, Natural History Museum, The United Kingdom
About the speaker:
Professor Juliet Brodie is a leading international seaweed expert based at the Natural History Museum in London. Her extensive research experience includes leadership in biodiversity discovery, seaweed conservation and addressing the challenges faced by the seaweed industry in a time of rapid environmental change.
Company info:
The Natural History Museum is a world-leading centre for biodiversity research, with globally significant collections and exceptional curation, digitisation and public capacity. The museum houses over 80 million objects, including a unique seaweed herbarium of c. 20,000 specimens, and state-of-the-art molecular laboratories and imaging facilities. Its vision is of a future where people and planet thrive.
Presentation:
As the global seaweed industry expands, cultivated seaweeds are becoming increasingly vulnerable to pests and diseases. In this presentation, pests and diseases associated with farmed seaweeds will be reviewed in relation to genetic and environmental factors compounding the problem, and innovative solutions, including the development of temperature-resilient cultivars and protection of wild stock, will be discussed.