On 26 June, Thammasat University students are cordially invited to join an online celebration by Zoom of the contributions of the researcher in marine biology and marine environmental conservation Professor Brian Morton of Hong Kong University (HKU)
Celebration of Life for Professor Brian Morton (1942-2021) is organized by the Faculty of Science, HKU.
As the HKU website states,
Event Details
We mourn with profound sorrow the loss of Professor Brian MORTON who passed away on March 28, 2021 in his sleep, at the age of 78. To honour this pioneer’s paramount contributions to teaching, research and marine conservation in Hong Kong, a Celebration of Life for Professor Morton will be coorganised by HKU Faculty of Science and Professor Morton’s past students in June. At the remembrance event, several generations of Professor Morton’s student lineage will share in celebration of his fruitful life of service and dedication.
The Thammasat University Library collection includes many books on different aspects of marine conservation.
The event will start at 3:30pm Bangkok time.
The following Zoom link is provided:
https://hku.zoom.us/j/94533368469
Students are requested to register at this link:
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=75133
For any further information or questions, kindly write to
The Faculty of Science, HKU at the email address
scialum@hku.hk
As the HKU website explains, Doctor of Science and Emeritus Professor Brian Morton had an international reputation for his
significant contributions in teaching and research in marine biology as well as in pioneering the marine environmental conservation in Hong Kong.
Professor Morton obtained his degrees from King’s College, the University of London, and almost immediately joined The University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Lecturer. He remained in Hong Kong for almost 34 years and, on retirement, was appointed Professor Emeritus of Marine Ecology.
He published extensively on the marine biology and ecology of Hong Kong, China, the Azores and the Gulf of Mexico. On retirement in 2003, he returned to his childhood home on the south coast of England and wrote his book (2008) entitled “The historical ecology of the River Arun and its beaches at Littlehampton, West Sussex: 1,000 years of change”, and later in 2018 he published another book “The Story of a Mute Swan on the River Arun at Littlehampton in West Sussex, England”.
As a student essay posted online points out, Professor Morton helped Hong Kong biologists by providing expert views on how marine biologists were a vital part of maintaining regional ecosystems, to reduce the effect of destructive buildings.
Even after retirement, Professor Morton helped inform and educate students with such presentations as a 2018 public lecture at HKU,
The Wonderful and Weird World of Biodiversity by Emeritus Professor Brian Morton
With a career in freshwater and marine biology extending over the last 50 years and beyond, Brian has researched numerous plants and animals of the sea’s shores in many parts of the world but, especially, Hong Kong where he lived for 34 years. And illustrated them in drawings and paintings, which will form the basis of this lecture. Plus, Brian has now started illustrating our terrestrial domain and this will also be examined. To celebrate the HKSAR Government’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, therefore, the Croucher Foundation has sponsored a visit to Hong Kong by Brian to give a public lecture on some of the amazing marine (and terrestrial) plants and animals he has researched and personally illustrated. From the tiniest creatures to the largest. From the ordinary to the strange and from the mundane to the weird. All, nevertheless, being important elements of the biodiversity we share this planet with. And which are, thus, deserving of our protection and, thereby, illustrating the importance of our Government’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
One example of his prolific research publications is a 2016 article available in the JSTOR research database at the TU Library, A 62-year analysis of historical aerial images showing human impacts on beach topography in Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park, Hong Kong. Implications for marine park management and sustainability with a changing global climate.
The article was published in the Journal of Coastal Conservation,
a scientific journal for the dissemination of both theoretical and applied research on integrated and sustainable management of the terrestrial, coastal and marine environmental interface. A thorough understanding of both the physical and the human sciences is important to the study of the spatial patterns and processes observed in terrestrial, coastal and marine systems set in the context of past, present and future social and economic developments. This includes multidisciplinary and integrated knowledge and understanding of: physical geography, coastal geomorphology, sediment dynamics, hydrodynamics, soil science, hydrology, plant and animal ecology, vegetation science, biogeography, landscape ecology, recreation and tourism studies, urban and human ecology, coastal engineering and spatial planning, coastal zone management, and marine resource management.
The article’s abstract follows:
The marine park of Hoi Ha Wan was established in 1996 and functions as a public leisure and educational facility that also protects a rich marine biodiversity. This study exam- ines a sequence of historical aerial images dating back to the 1950s as Hong Kong recovered from World War II. These expose an hitherto unrecognised 60 year-long pattern of environmental change and, ultimately, decline in head-of- bay beach form related to a variety of long- and short-term anthropogenic-induced impacts upon the village of Hoi Ha and its bay – Hoi Ha Wan. How these perturbations have collectively impacted beach form in Hoi Ha Wan to reduce it to, probably, something like its pre-human and post ice age form is described. The long term consequences of this reduction in beach size will have implications with regard to the sustainability of the marine park itself in the light of continuing infra-structural changes to the surrounding village and country park and in relation to climate change resulting in locally higher temperatures, higher volumes of rainfall and raised sea levels.
Among its conclusions:
1 . Prior to the human colonization of Hong Kong between 3000 and 4000 years ago, the beach at Hoi Ha Wan was pristine.
- With human arrival(s) at Hoi Ha between 200 and 300 years ago, areas surrounding the Hoi Ha stream were agriculturalised and the hillsides progressively cleared for fuel and lime burning. 3. Periodic hillside fires following ancestral grave-sweeping festivals would have exacerbated the problem of hillside erosion.
- The invasion of Hong Kong during the Second World War by the Japanese resulted in virtually complete hillside denudation.
- These factors resulted in increased levels of sedimentation within Hoi Ha Wan creating an expanded and enlarged head-of-bay beach.
- Postwar reafforestation programmes alleviated the hillside erosion process.
- Designation of Hong Kong’s country parks in 1976 resulted in enhanced reafforestation programmes and the curbing of hillside fire incidents. This, in conjunction with the decline in agriculture in the New Territories reduced the input of soil into streams and their bays, including Hoi Ha Wan. Beach decline here began.
- The building of a pumping station at Pak Sha O Ha Yeung, between the villages of Pak Sha and Hoi Ha, and diversion of the Hoi Ha stream and its sediments into the High Island Reservoir in 1979 and onwards, completed the process of beach decline.
- Today, the sandy beach at the head of Hoi Ha Wan has, it is argued, returned to something approximating its pre-human size and form.
- In the short term, to maintain the public amenability of the sandy beach at Hoi Ha, the Hong Kong SAR Government may consider closing the Pak Sha O Ha Yeung pumping station thereby allowing the Hoi Ha stream to flow unimpeded once again.
- Climate change may, in the longer-term, however, result in further beach form adjustments not only in Hoi Ha but elsewhere in Hong Kong and, thereby, in the former case altering the sustainability of the Hoi Ha Marine Park.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)