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COURSE INFO PROVIDER: SWSPCP Webinar
COURSE TITLE: The history of biodiversity in Mexico's Cuatro Ciénegas wetlands, and its significance to the future of humanity.

INSTRUCTORS Valeria Souza, PhD

COURSE DESCRIPTION The history of biodiversity in Mexico's Cuatro Ciénegas wetlands, and its significance to the future of humanity.
Presented by Valeria Souza, PhD
March 24, 2021, SWS Latin American Conference Webinar Series

Abstract:
Cuatro Ciénegas is an extraordinary oasis, not only for its natural beauty, but for all its mysteries. When we arrived 20 years ago, taken by NASA, we thought it was a simile of an ancient sea due to its minerals and presence of stromatolites. However, after much work, we found that this site not only looks like, but IS a lost world that guarded diversity since ancient times in the living sediments of a mountain. San Marcos y Pinos is a mountain of almost 3000 mt of altitude that was raised by the presence of a magmatic anomaly (2 super continents were opened there) this magma, heats the deep aquifer and sends it to form pools and springs on the surface, which is where microbial mats and stromatolites form when in contact with the sun. This cycle of mountain and sun, together with the survival of ancestral lineages, has generated a kind of hyper diverse time machine. The question we started working with from doctorate: Why are there so many species? it can be explored in these microbial communities where the cohesion of the community explains its survival. Hopefully humanity can learn from this lesson of mutualism to face the future.

Instructor's Bio:
Valeria Souza obtained a bachelor's degree as a biologist (1983), a master's degree in science (1985) and a doctorate in ecology (1990) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Later he obtained 2 post-doctorates under the tutelage of Dr. Richard Lenski. He is currently a Senior Researcher C; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Institute of Ecology where he has worked since 1993, has Pride D and is SNI level III.
Throughout his scientific career to date, he has 122 research articles published or in press in international refereed journals, which have accumulated more than 7000 citations. He has produced 40 chapters in books, a co-edited book and two biology texts for the 5th year of high school, UNAM program. Springer is editing a collection of 7 books on the enormous diversity of Cuatro Cienegas,
His distinctions include a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, National Conservation Award, research category awarded by SEMARNAT, 2006, VW Award for love of the planet 2010. In April 2019 it was announced that he is an honorary international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has just received the “environmental stewardship” by the Scientific Society for Freshwater Studies (SFS).

Credit Points: 0.06

SYLLABUS/TOPICAL OUTLINE 1. The natural history of Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB), an official nature reserve in Mexico (10 min.). 2. Investigations into the evolution of the Basin’s highly endemic biota (20 min.). 3. How humanity may benefit from lessons learned about the mutualistic relationships within the Basin’s biotic community (15 min.). 4. Questions and answers (15 min.).

COURSE CONTACT

Louis Mantini
9225 CR49, Live Oak, FL 32060
lfm@srwmd.org
P: 386.647.3144
F: 386.362.1056

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