CMCC DCC-CR hybrid seminar
9 October 2026, 12:00 CEST | Online and in person – University of Bologna – Aula A, Via Irnerio 46, Bologna
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CMCC Foundation together with the Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience and University of Bologna will co-organise this hybrid seminar with Professor Daniel H. Rothman, Professor of Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and member of the Lorenz Center in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Speaker: Daniel H. Rothman, Lorenz Center
Moderator: Nadia Pinardi, CMCC, DCC-CR, UNIBO

The seminar, titled “Kinetic Organization of Marine Microbial Respiration,” will explore the fundamental role of microbes in the marine carbon cycle. Microbial respiration is responsible for the conversion to CO₂ of nearly all marine organic carbon beneath the photic zone, making microbial activity a key process in understanding how carbon is transformed and stored in the ocean.

During the seminar, Prof. Rothman will present a theoretical framework showing how respiration rates and microbial abundances in the water column and marine sediments can be quantitatively predicted. The theory examines how fluctuations in microbial metabolic capacity can overcome barriers to organic carbon degradation, providing new insights into the organization of microbial respiration in marine environments.