[Coral-List] Call for abstracts on coral reefs and environmental/climatic change at ASLO 2011 (Puerto Rico)

Andrea Grottoli grottoli.1 at osu.edu
Thu Aug 19 13:38:56 EDT 2010


CALL FOR ABSTRACTS ON CORAL REEFS AND 
ENVIRONMENTAL / CLIMATIC CHANGE AT ASLO 2011 (PUERTO RICO)

The 2011 Aquatic Sciences Meeting for the 
American Society for Limnology & oceanography 
(ASLO) will take place in Puerto Rico next 
February (13-18 February 2011) and focus on 
limnology and oceanography in a changing world 
(<http://www.aslo.org/meetings/sanjuan2011>www.aslo.org/meetings/sanjuan2011). 
As part of 6 sessions proposed on corals and 
coral reefs, two will be dedicated to coral reefs 
and environmental/climatic change (S31 and S36, 
described in more detail below). Together these 
two sessions aim to explore the most recent 
developments in our understanding of how the 
environment (including anthropogenic activity and 
climate) regulates reef form and function, and 
consequently the likely future for coral reefs 
given predicted environmental and climatic 
change. Abstract submission is now open 
(<http://www.aslo.org/meetings/sanjuan2011>www.aslo.org/meetings/sanjuan2011) 
and we welcome contributions from across the 
coral reef research, conservation & management 
communities. CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF 
ABSTRACTS IS 11 OCTOBER 2010.  Please do not 
hesitate to contact the session conveners for more details.

S36: INTERACTIVE AND REPEAT EXPOSURE EFFECTS OF 
ENVIRONMENTAL PERTURBATIONS UPON CORALS AND CORAL 
REEF PROCESSES (David J Suggett, 
<mailto:dsuggett at essex.ac.uk>dsuggett at essex.ac.uk; 
Andrea G Grottoli, 
<mailto:grottoli.1 at osu.edu>grottoli.1 at osu.edu; 
Mark E. Warner, <mailto:mwarner at udel.edu>mwarner at udel.edu).

Coral reefs are considered flagship aquatic 
ecosystems given their disproportionately high 
diversity and productivity but also their 
apparent extreme sensitivity to environmental 
change. Intensive research efforts in recent 
years have largely focused on how reefs and reef 
organisms respond to broad scale (regional to 
global) changes in climate or smaller scale 
(local) changes in eutrophication, sedimentation, 
and over- exploitation. Most experimentally based 
studies have targeted the influence of individual 
environmental factors in isolation (e.g. light, 
temperature, pH, or nutrients). However, 
observationally based studies implicitly account 
for the influence of multiple environmental 
perturbations acting simultaneously and/or 
repeatedly. As such, our ability to effectively 
predict future reef form and function remain 
fundamentally limited. It is increasingly 
recognized that interactive or repeat exposure 
effects of environmental perturbations can (i) 
cumulatively lower net reef resilience by acting 
synergistically at any one time or repeatedly 
over time; and/or (ii) maintain or even promote 
net reef resilience by acting antagonistically by 
dampening the gross influence of each factor. 
Such key multivariate effects remain poorly 
understood. Therefore, this session will consider 
the net influence of multiple and/or repeat 
exposure to environmental perturbations upon reef 
process, at scales from individual organisms (the 
molecular to holobiont) to entire reef systems.

S31: CORAL REEFS IN A CRYSTAL BALL:  WHAT WILL BE 
THEIR FUTURE? (Pamela Hallock, 
<mailto:pmuller at marine.usf.edu>pmuller at marine.usf.edu; 
Bernhard Riegl, 
<mailto:rieglb at nova.edu>rieglb at nova.edu; Edwin A. 
Hernández-Delgado, <mailto:coral_giac at yahoo.com>coral_giac at yahoo.com)

In the mid-20th Century, coral reefs were best 
known where clear ocean waters bathed tropical 
shorelines.  Today roughly half of the world’s 
shallow-water reefs have been lost or seriously 
degraded. Human activities are sending 
agricultural, industrial and urban wastes and 
chemicals, along with increased sediment loads, 
into coastal waters.  As a result, waters have 
become more turbid and fringing reefs have been 
buried in sediment or overgrown by 
algae.  Rapidly rising human populations have 
increasingly exploited fisheries, in some places 
with Malthusian overfishing.  Beginning in the 
1970s, even corals in clear-water offshore reefs 
began to decline – from diseases and bleaching. 
More recently, increasing sea-surface temperature 
and ocean acidification have emerged as critical 
threats to the potential of corals to even build 
reefs.  Do shallow-water coral reefs have a 
future?  Will future coral populations be limited 
to shallow hardbottom or deeper mesophotic 
communities? Can ecological functions be 
sustained in changing coral reefs?  We invite 
scientists dealing with any aspect of the 
response of coral reefs to environmental change, 
whether to local, regional or global change 
processes, to participate in this session.  We 
invite not only coral researchers, but also 
others working with reef-related species, 
populations or communities, or environmental 
factors that may impact these communities.

*******************************************************
Andrea G. Grottoli, Associate Professor
Ohio State University
School of Earth Sciences
125 South Oval Mall
Columbus, OH 43210

office:  614-292-5782
lab: 614-292-7415
cell: 215-990-9736
fax: 614-292-7688
email: grottoli.1 at osu.edu

Grottoli webpage: www.earthsciences.osu.edu/~grottoli.1/
Fieldwork Micro-blog: www.twitter.com/CoralResearch
Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory (SIB 
Lab): www.earthsciences.osu.edu/~grottoli.1/SIB_Lab.html
SES seminars: www.earthsciences.osu.edu/seminars.php

Office location: 329 Mendenhall Labs
******************************************************* 




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