Abstract:
KAUST has the distinct honor of formally joining an international partnership with the Smithsonian's Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) monitoring network. This effort, led by Profs. Maggie Johnson and Susana Carvalho and supported by the VPR's office, brings KAUST and the Red Sea into a renowned international monitoring program. The primary objectives of MarineGEO are to support and facilitate standardized experimentation and monitoring efforts across nearshore marine habitats. 
In the coming months, MarineGEO Red Sea will begin implementing additional monitoring practices at new sites adjacent to KAUST (coral reef and seagrass habitats). A goal of our involvement in this project is to build on the existing monitoring capabilities already established by all of us in the RSRC and to grow our network of international collaborators. Our contributions towards these MarineGEO goals align well with national priorities for marine conservation and monitoring and provide an opportunity to facilitate collaboration among all with interest in the topic. In this seminar, Prof. Johnson will discuss MarineGEO and the plan for integrating and involving Red Sea researchers.