Keynote speaker: Dr Donna Roberts

Dr Donna Roberts is a postdoctoral fellow with the ocean acidification team at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Hobart.

Donna received her PhD from the University of Tasmania in 1998 for linking changes in fossil phytoplankton assemblages in Antarctic Lakes to climate, and for over a decade, Donna has focused on the microscopic world in and around Antarctica – the plants and animals at the very bottom of the food chain that underpin entire ecosystems.

Recently, Donna's research has been at the forefront of discovering just how vulnerable the Southern Ocean ecosystem is to acidification and how strongly even small changes in ocean pH will affect marine life, particularly those most at risk: the shelled zooplankton.

Donna's career highlights to date include discovering two new species of Antarctic diatom, leading research teams on two Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions in the Southern Ocean, discussing her ocean acidification research with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Oceans in a High–CO₂ World Symposium in Monaco, October 2008, and, most recently, contributing to the Ocean Acidification Guide for policy advisors and decision makers launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 2009.

Donna's keen eye for the little things is helping focus the world's attention on some of the biggest issues facing the planet, particularly the increasingly worrying picture of ocean health in a changing climate.