[Coral-List] Coral Communities in Extrem Environments

[Wiedenmann J.]

Dear colleagues,

Please allow me to draw your attention to our minisymposium “9b - Coral Communities in Extreme Environments” under the “Climate Change and Bleaching” theme scheduled for the 2012 International Coral Reef Symposium in Australia.
This minisymposium aims to improve the understanding of various aspects of the biology and ecology of coral communities existing in extreme environmental conditions in all parts of the world and discuss resulting implications for reefs in the oceans of the future (see full call below). We invite the submission of abstracts via the conference webpage (http://www.icrs2012.com/AbstractSubmission.htm).

With best wishes,
Joerg Wiedenmann

on behalf of the session chairs:

John Burt, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE (John.Burt at nyu.edu)
Steve Coles, Bishopmuseum Honolulu Hawai'i, USA (slcoles at bishopmuseum.org)
Charles Sheppard, University of Warwick, UK (Charles.Sheppard at warwick.ac.uk)
Berhard Riegl, Nova Southeastern University, USA (rieglb at nova.edu)


PD Dr. Joerg Wiedenmann
University of Southampton
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
European Way
SOUTHAMPTON, SO14 3ZH
U.K.
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/corals/
http://www.carnuk.org/about.aspx
email: joerg.wiedenmann at noc.soton.ac.uk
Mobile: +44 (0)7912564356
Fax: +44 (0)23 8059 3059

Coral Communities In Extreme Environments
The vulnerability coral reefs results from the limited tolerance to fluctuations of environmental parameters. However, in several regions corals thrive under exceptionally harsh conditions, including temperature maxima of up to 34ºC. The existence of coral communities in these extreme habitats implies that at least some species can survive under environmental conditions predicted to occur in other regions as a result of global warming within the next century. Therefore, coral assemblages from extreme habitats offer excellent models to explore the capability of reefs to adapt to climate change. This minisymposium aims to improve the understanding of various aspects of the biology and ecology of coral communities existing in extreme environmental conditions in all parts of the world and discuss resulting implications for reefs in the oceans of the future.