[Coral-List] ISRS 2006 European Meeting Bremen: Session 3 Announcement

[ISRS 2006 Bremen]

Dear coral-list

Please find below the session abstract and announcement for "Session 3:
Temperate, deep and cold water reef communities" at the ISRS 2006 European
Meeting Bremen which we are posting on behalf of Jan Helge Fosså (chair of this
session).

Best regards,

ISRS 2006 Bremen
---


Dear colleagues,

The organiser of session 3 “Temperate, deep and cold water reef communities” at
the International Society for Reef Studies European meeting in Bremen (Sept
19-22nd 2006) would like to invite submission of abstracts for consideration.


Traditionally the ISRS European Conference has been a venue for tropical coral
reef scientists, but in Cambridge 2002, a session on deep-cold-water corals was
included for the first time. The session was very successful and it is now
hoped for a worthy follow-up. Research on tropical reefs represents a long and
strong tradition and cold-water coral scientists may benefit from interacting
with their “tropical” colleagues, and vice versa.

The interest in cold-water coral research has increased in recent years. This is
reflected in the growing number of participants from the “1st International
Symposium on Deep-Sea corals” in 2000 in Halifax to the 3rd in 2005 in Florida.
It is an exciting research field, but also there is a huge demand for knowledge
from marine managers and society in general because coral species and habitats
are threatened by human use of the sea. In various regions of the world the
deep coral communities are so extensive that they are likely to play a major
role in the local/regional ecosystem. This is one of the reasons why it is
important to describe the ecological significance (importance as fish habitat,
biodiversity hot spots) of the corals and to understand their role in the
marine food web. Along these lines papers on the following themes are invited:


* Distributions and explanatory factors (present and past)

* Reef development and morphology (present and past)

* Significance of corals as habitat for species

* The role of cold-water corals in the marine food web

* Ecological consequences of damage or impact to coral communities

* Management – useful practices, design and effectiveness of MPAs

These topics include many aspects of ongoing research, but please feel free not
to be limited by these suggestions.

If you are interested in participating in this session, please submit your
abstract by May 15 at: http://isrs2006.zmt.uni-bremen.de/regis.php

Click on “Registration” and assign your abstract to session “3”. Please send an
electronic copy to the session chair (jhf at imr.no).

We look forward to your participation.
ISRS2006 homepage: http://isrs2006.zmt.uni-bremen.de/


Best wishes
Jan Helge Fosså


Jan Helge Fosså
Head Benthic Habitat Research Group
Institute of Marine Research
Bergen, Norway

www.imr.no

jhf at imr.no
Phone: + 47 55 23 85 33

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Local Organising Committee
ISRS 2006 European Meeting Bremen
Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT)
Fahrenheitstr. 6
D-28359 Bremen
Germany
Fax +49-421-2380030
http://isrs2006.zmt-bremen.de
mailto: isrs2006 at zmt-bremen.de