Dr. Joe Roman, University of Vermont.

If forests are the lungs of the planet, then animals are its arteries, transporting nutrients across vast distances and from the deep sea to the ocean surface. During this seminar, Joe Roman will discuss his book, Eat Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World, exploring the role of animals in the nitrogen, phosphorous, and carbon cycles, including seabirds that catalyzed the formation of a grassland ecosystem on a young volcanic island off Iceland and his research on the vertical and horizontal movement of nitrogen by feeding and fasting whales. With many wild animals at risk worldwide, Roman will discuss efforts to conserve and rewild native animals and restore ancient nutrient pathways.

Biography
Joe Roman is a conservation biologist, marine ecologist, and writer at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on endangered species conservation, whale ecology, and zoogeochemistry. He has received fellowships at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Duke University Marine Lab, the University of Iceland, and the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil. Joe has worked extensively in Latin America and is dedicated to transforming the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba into an international peace park and biodiversity research center. Born and raised in New York, he considers King Kong as an early conservation influence. You can read more about his work at joeroman.com.

The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Network are interested in promoting a wide variety of views and opinions on nature recovery from researchers and practitioners.

The views, opinions and positions expressed within this lecture are those of the author alone, they do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery/Biodiversity Network, or its researchers.