What awaits us at Baltictech 2017? - Steel reefs of the Baltic...

The Baltictech 2017 conference is fast approaching and the excitement is growing. What exactly will be waiting for us at the thresholds of the Science and Technology Park in Gdynia on the weekend of 25-26 November? This question arises repeatedly, so we decided to prepare an answer to it. We hope that our mini-cycle presenting the invited speakers and the topics they discuss will help you plan your time at the conference better and more efficiently!

Biologist, oceanographer and the steel ‘reefs’ of the southern Baltic…

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At this year’s Baltic Tech meeting we will hear, among other things, the story of tonnes of metal deposited on the bottom of the Baltic Sea from numerous shipwrecks. The speakers, Piotr Bałazy and Piotr Kukliński, will show during their presentation the ecological effects of the deposition of large hard substrates on the surrounding bottom of such a specific ecosystem as our sea. During their lecture, they will focus on the wrecks of the Puck Bay

Piotr Bazy is an oceanographer with a specialisation in marine biology, assistant professor and person responsible for scientific diving at the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IO PAS) in Sopot. He specialises in marine ecology, and his professional interests revolve around the shallow hard bottom and the organisms that inhabit it – mainly epifauna, so-called environmental engineers and factors controlling biodiversity.

Although most of his work so far has focused on the rapidly changing polar regions (Arctic and Antarctic), he doesn’t forget about the Baltic Sea, its green waters and specific rocky “reefs”. He is particularly interested in shipwrecks, treated as steel islands and hot-spots for biodiversity, and their role in ecosystem functioning. Fascinated from the outset by diving, which in fact led him to study oceanology, he has been developing his photographic skills over the last few years, using underwater photography as one of his main research tools – most recently the post-frame technique, the results of which can be seen on his website PolarTimeLapse.net.

Piotr Kuklinski is a marine ecologist at the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and an associate scientist at the Natural History Museum in London. His professional interests include the taxonomy and systematics of bryophytes from polar waters, understanding factors affecting biodiversity, and the geochemistry of invertebrate skeletons. His research interests lead him mainly to sites in the polar and temperate zones.

In addition to his scientific work, he is passionate about diving and underwater photography. In addition to the Arctic, his dive logbook includes such remote places as Antarctica, the Aleutian Islands and many uninhabited tropical atolls of the Pacific. At many of these pristine sites he was probably the first human to go underwater.

All information can also be found on the official conference website baltictech.com

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