[Coral-List] Fall AGU session B27: Frontiers in Biomineralization Research: Processes, Geochemical Signatures and Responses to Global Change

[Anne Cohen]

Dear Colleagues,

The following session at the AGU fall meeting in San Francisco will 
focus on all aspects of Biomineralization: the fundamental processes 
involved in shell building, the implications of these processes for 
interpreting paleoclimate proxies, and the vulnerability of shells and 
skeletons to global climate changes, particularly ocean temperatures and 
saturation state.  We encourage you to submit your abstract for the
Sept. 6 deadline.

Anne Cohen
Jess Adkins
Dan McCorkle
David Gillikin

B27: Frontiers in Biomineralization Research: Processes, Geochemical 
Signatures and Responses to Global Change 
<http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=394>
Description: The composition and mineralogy of biominerals reflect the 
chemical and physical environments from which they formed. However, 
interpreting these signatures is not straightforward because conditions 
within the mineralization environment are influenced by biological 
processes, and usually differ from external conditions. Unraveling these 
biological effects requires an understanding of fundamental pathways and 
processes of biomineralization. Such insights are also key to 
understanding and predicting the response of shelled organisms to past 
and future changes in global climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide. 
Much of our current knowledge of biomineralization stems from analyses 
of field specimens, but complementary insights into biomineral formation 
are now being gained through laboratory precipitation studies of 
inorganic analogs, culturing studies of biomineralizing organisms, and 
modeling studies. With this multi-pronged approach, the physical basis 
of biomineralization may be elucidated, the superimposed effects of 
biological processes on environmental proxies quantified, and the 
response of biomineralizers to global change and ocean acidification 
better understood. We invite papers from field, laboratory, and 
theoretical studies of biogenic and abiogenic systems related to this 
rapidly developing research arena.

Note that our session is formally linked to, and will run in conjunction 
with, session PP24:  Chemical and Isotopic Composition of Marine 
Carbonate Skeletons: Physiological Versus Environmental Control 
<http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=618>, 
chaired by Anders Meibom and Anton Eisenhauer.

-- 

Anne L. Cohen					
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Mailstop 23		
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, MA, 02543
USA

office 508 289 2958   lab 508 289 4836
fax:  508 289 2183
email:  acohen at whoi.edu