ENHG Lecture:  Hawksbill turtles in UAE, when Genetics meets conservation

Hosted by Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas

Room : Emerald B Meeting Room 

Tuesday, Feb 5th, 7:30pm

(Membership sign up, Tea & Coffee available from 7:00pm)

We welcome all ENHG members and friends back with our first lecture of 2019 ! 

About the speaker: Dr. Ada Natoli  is a molecular ecologist with primary interest in utilizing genetics markers to investigate population structure and the evolutionary mechanisms that shape populations in order to support conservation of species. She has a broad background covering plant genetics, chemistry, microbiology and general ecology and graduated in Biology from the University of Milan, Italy, after completing a two years research project on gene mapping on maize, and afterwards worked as researcher at the University of Piacenza on Sorgum genetics. Ada's particular interest in the marine environment brought her to spent a number of years conducting field research on several projects monitoring the cetacean population in the Mediterranean Sea and Canary Islands for Tethys Research Institute. Dr. Natoli obtained her PhD from the University of Durham, UK, which focused on the molecular ecology of bottlenose and common dolphins, comparing on a worldwide scale their population structure to clarifying their taxonomy and evolution, and analysing in Mediterranean, Black Sea and South Africa their fine scale population structure to help the formulation of conservation measures for their protection. She is a member of the IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group and involved in the conservation of cetaceans in the ACCOBAMS area. Dr. Natoli  is also involved in the International Whaling Commission, Small Cetacean Sub-committee, where she is currently coordinating the reassessment of the taxonomy of bottlenose dolphin worldwide.  Her scientific work is published in peer review journals. When Dr, Natoli  moved to the UAE, she joined UAE University where she directed a research project on the population structure of UAE hawksbill turtles in collaboration with EMEG and University of East Anglia, UK. She founded the UAE Dolphin Project initiative (www.uaedolphinproject.org) that is currently focused on gathering scientific information on dolphins in UAE through dedicated research surveys and citizen science, to support the formulation of conservation measures. In 2016 she joined Zayed University as Adjunct Assistant Professor where she currently teaches Biology. ​

About the talk : All marine turtles are globally threatened. We will talk about turtles in general, their status world wide and current conservation concerns at global level. We then focus on the hawksbill turtle in the Gulf and in UAE waters, review current knowledge and explore what latest genetic studies can tell us about this species in our waters and how these findings help supporting conservation measures

All ENHG lectures are free and open to the public. Please do register online so that we can get an idea of attendance. 

Hosting and catering of this talk is being generously sponsored by Saadiyat Rotana Resort and Villas, Saadiyat Island