“The growth of the human population, combined with economic development, is putting unprecedented pressure on global ecosystems. This fact has generated great concern for the future of global biodiversity, and its ability to sustain the ecosystem services on which it depends”, says Anne Magurran.

The expert explains that, as Charles Darwin pointed out, ecological communities are not static, but instead undergo continual rearrangements of species identity and abundances. In this sense, Magurran analysed that temporary diversity in a period continues to be an underestimated aspect of biodiversity change. It drew on recent work such as the BioTIME database and the sampling of freshwater on the island of Trinidad, to examine biodiversity change in the two dimensions of community structure. “These analyses reveal interesting and, sometimes, unexpected patterns, and I will emphasise the important challenge of understanding the causes and consequences of biodiversity change”, the Scottish professor points out.

The Peregrí Casanova Memorial is organised by the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the Unit of Scientific Culture and Innovation-Chair of Dissemination of Science of the University of Valencia.

Scientists who have participated in previous editions have been Stanley L. Miller (University of California, San Diego), David M. Hillis (University of Texas, Austin), Francisco J. Ayala (University of California-Irvine), José Luis Sanz (Autonomous University of Madrid), Rosemary and Peter Grant (Princeton University), Roger Butlin (University of Sheffield), evolutionary biologist Rosemary * Gillespie (University of California) and Robert D. Holt (University of Florida).

Introducer of Darwinian ideas

Peregrí Casanova y Ciurana (Valencia, 1849-1919) was professor of Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Valencia and introducer of evolutionary ideas. He also organised the tribute to Darwin that took place in the Paraninfo hall of the University of Valencia in 1909, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the English scientist. His publications and his work covered several fields of Medicine, especially Morphology. Student of Ernst Haeckel, was a faithful follower of Darwin and a rigorous evolutionist, and turned València into a peninsular centre for dissemination of evolutionism. The Health Sciences Library of the University of Valencia was named after him.

More information: http://ir.uv.es/wQ1Rhtr