Speaker: John Lewis “The Southern Australian Marine Flora – Diversity and Change”
Annual General Meeting: The 2023 AGM will be held before the usual monthly meeting observations and talk. The AGM agenda will include the Annual Report for 2022, the Treasurer’s Report, and the election of office bearers and committee members for 2023. All positions on the committee will be open, so you are encouraged to consider joining the committee. Members with a range of skills and interests are welcome. For more information, please contact the President or one of the committee members. Nomination forms are available from the Secretary and completed forms should reach the Secretary (castlemainefnc@hotmail.com) before the meeting.
Monthly Talk: Our speaker, CFNC member John Lewis, a marine biologist, will describe the fascinating marine flora of southern Australia. The public perception of our marine flora is often tainted by the odour of rotting seaweed cast up on to beaches with little awareness of the beauty and diversity of plants living below the waves. The southern Australian algal flora is one of the richest in the world. The macroflora, those organisms visible to the naked eye, is composed of three major groups of algae (reds / Rhodophyta, browns / Ochrophyta, greens / Chlorophyta), together with the seagrasses (vascular plants). In numerical terms, in southern Australia the red algae are most numerous with more than 300 genera and 800 species, followed by the brown algae (~90 genera, 200 species) then the greens (~40 genera, 120+ species). In this talk, John will take us on a journey across the seashore and down through the upper depths of the ocean to give you a taste of this spectacular marine flora. He will also bring to you more detail on one family of red algae that he has a particular interest in (the Halymeniaceae), which will lead into a discussion on the spread of some seaweeds around the world and current threats to our algal diversity and marine ecosystems.
Our guest speaker will follow the usual ‘observations’ session when members and visitors can share recent interesting sightings with an option to show a photo or two. If you have photos for the meeting, please email JPEG file(s) to Euan Moore (calamanthus5@bigpond.com) by noon on Friday 10th March.
All welcome.