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How Red Tide Impacts Biodiversity

Dead Puffer Fish on a Southwest Florida Beach
WGCU / Julie Glenn
Dead Puffer Fish on a Southwest Florida Beach

The word ‘biodiversity’ refers to the variety of life on Earth, in all its forms and the ways it all interacts. First coined in the mid 80s, biodiversity is a contraction of “biological diversity.” It’s basically all of the life, from genes all the way up to plants and animals and the ecosystems they’re a part of. Florida Gulf Coast University has what’s called a ‘Biodiversity Group’ that brings together experts from different disciplines to assess and address threats to biodiversity here in Florida -- often focusing on things like habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change. During its next conference, this Thursday, March 14th, it will focus on the impacts Red Tide has had on southwest Florida’s species and ecosystems. We're getting a preview of the conference from three FGCU professors: Dr. Darren Rumbold is a Professor of Marine Science; Dr. Win Everham is a Professor of Environmental Studies; and Dr. Heather Skaza-Acosta is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Education here at FGCU, and Director of Environmental Education at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Copyright 2019 WGCU

Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.