Ulf Dieckmann Leader, Evolution & Ecology Program, IIASA "The Global Fisheries Crisis: Acknowledged Causes and Elusive Cures"
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Worldwide, three-quarters of fish stocks are maximally exploited or over-exploited. Wasteful practices, ineffective enforcement, and disregard for scientific advice on fishing quotas have contributed to this. IIASA has been at the forefront of research revealing that fishing not only reduces fish abundance, but also changes genetic composition. This previously overlooked evolutionary dimension of fishing has unexpected consequences for economic yields and for the ecological stability and recovery potential of exploited fish stocks. The 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development stipulated that by 2015 all fish stocks should be restored to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield. Dr. Ulf Dieckmann of IIASA's Evolution and Ecology Program will argue that achieving this goal requires rapid progress on multiple fronts, including a transition to ecosystem-based and evolutionarily enlightened management. We need to act now, or livelihoods will perish and seafood will be in jeopardy.

Short biography:

Ulf Dieckmann is the Program Leader of the Evolution and Ecology Program. He is working on the theory of adaptive dynamics, fisheries-induced evolution, speciation theory, spatial ecology, life-history theory, evolutionary algorithms, and on problems in theoretical evolutionary ecology.

Dr. Dieckmann received his bachelor's degree in physics and his master's degree in theoretical physics from the University of Aachen, Germany. He completed his Ph.D. research on theoretical biology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and obtained his Habilitation (venia legendi) in biomathematics from the University of Vienna. He has worked at Stanford University and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, California, USA, the Research Center Jülich, Germany, the University of York, UK, Leiden University, the Netherlands, and the University of Vienna, Austria. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Montpellier, France, and a research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Germany.

Curriculum vitae and list of publications

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Last updated: 18 Dec 2007