[Coral-List] call for abstracts European ISRS Meeting 2010

[Jens Zinke]

Dear colleagues,

We like to draw your attention to the session 'Reefs and global change:
present-day impacts of global change on a global and regional scale, and
historical perspectives from paleoclimatological, paleoecological,
paleoenvironmental and geomorphological studies' at the Euro ISRS
symposium in Wageningen (Netherlands) from 13-17th December 2010.

You can submit an abstract for an oral presentation or a poster
presentation until the 1st of July 2010.

Conference website: http://www.isrs2010.org/home/

Summary Thematic session: Reefs and global change

Coral reef ecosystems are increasingly under threat due to climate change,
warming oceans, and anthropogenic influences, such as sedimentation and
eutrophication. Another emerging and potentially major concern of future
climate change is the acidification of the oceans and its influence on
coral calcification. Any reductions in reef building potential, that arise
from these changes, would have major implications for the coastal
protection of low-lying coastal regions in light of future sea level rise
projections. The adaptive capacity of corals and the response of coral
reefs as landform structures to synergistic multiple stressors is highly
uncertain but can be useful informed by the historical context of reef and
coral responses to past changes. There is, in particular, an urgent need
to improve understanding of: 1) the causal relationships between changes
in climate and environmental modification over historical timescales, and
the adaptation and persistence of coral reefs at both site-specific and
regional spatial scales, and 2) the geomorphological to geological
timescale controls on coral reef development and how these interact to
control contemporary reef ecological states and their future adaptive
potential. This session therefore invites contributions from the
disciplines of coral reef palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology and
geomorphology that address these issues. In particular, we encourage
submissions that deal with: 1) ‘proxy’ environmental records, based on
geochemical and growth parameters studies, that provide historical time
scale data on marine environmental conditions and coral responses; 2)
palaeoecological and sedimentological records of reef community responses
to environmental changes; and 3) geomorphological records of coral reef
and reef landform (e.g., reef island) responses to past and present
environmental changes.

For further information please contact one of the session convenors:

Jens Zinke (Royal NIOZ, The Netherlands) E-mail: Jens.Zinke at nioz.nl
Chris Perry (Manchester, UK) E-mail. c.t.perry at mmu.ac.uk