A University of Arkansas at Little Rock assistant professor will lecture Sept. 18 on changes in ocean reefs through time, the implications of human impacts on modern reef systems, and actions being taken across the world to protect reefs from terminal decline. 

Dr. René Shroat-Lewis, U.S. Navy veteran and assistant professor of Earth sciences, will give the talk, “Diving Deeper: Exploring the Changes in Reefs Through Time” at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the College of Engineering and Information Technology building auditorium. The talk is part of the Department of Earth Sciences EARTHtalk! series.

“In the last 540 million years, reefs have diversified, undergone extinctions, and diversified again,” said Shroat-Lewis. “Changes in climate have played a role in this process, with rising greenhouse gases and ocean acidification causing the decline of organisms and the reefs they built.”

According to Shroat-Lewis, pollution, sedimentation, physical damage, tourism, and global warming are the principle threats to modern reef ecosystems. 

“Evidence suggests that coral reefs will pass a point of no return around 2040 and go into terminal decline, eventually disappearing at the end of this century. Based upon evidence from the fossil record, it may be millions of years before they return,” Shroat-Lewis said. 

Shroat-Lewis currently researches coral reef diversity on San Salvador Island, the Bahamas. She contributes paleoecology presentations at geology conferences and publishes research findings in the PALAIOS journal.