[Coral-List] meeting session: Environmental Change and Its Impact on Coral Reefs

[Curt Storlazzi]

Dear colleagues:

We would like to draw your attention to a meeting session on:

Environmental Change and Its Impact on Coral Reefs

at the 13th Ocean Sciences Meeting, which will be held 20-24 
February, 2006, in Honolulu, Hawaii.  This is a joint meeting being 
sponsored by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), The Oceanography 
Society (TOS) and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography 
(ASLO).  Please visit the conference website for more information: 
http://www.agu.org/meetings/os06/

Aim and Scope of this Session, OS-015:

Over the past few decades the coral reef community has witnessed a 
decline in the health of reefs worldwide due to both natural and 
anthropogenic factors influencing the environment.  Natural 
variability in the ocean-atmosphere system (El Nino events, North 
Atlantic Oscillation) can cause large-scale changes in storm tracks, 
sea-surface height, water temperatures and rainfall.  At the same 
time, human activities in the coastal zone (e.g. overgrazing and 
coastal development) have increased the delivery of sediment, 
nutrients and contaminants to coral reef ecosystems.  Understanding 
the impact of environmental change, driven both by nature and 
humankind, on coral reefs is critical for assessing how these 
ecosystems function and will help us to better manage them as a 
resource.  This session focuses on advancements in understanding the 
natural environmental controls on coral reefs and how human 
activities in the coastal zone have impacted these ecosystems.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the influence of 
storms, waves, floods, water temperature, sea level, sediment, 
nutrients and contaminants on coral reefs.  We also hope to gain some 
perspective on the global distribution of these different impacts. 
Summaries of current regional investigations, site-specific studies 
and modeling results are all encouraged.

Co-conveners:
Curt Storlazzi, United States Geological Survey, Pacific Science 
Center, Santa Cruz, CA (cstorlazzi at usgs.gov)
Eric Brown, National Park Service, Kalaupapa National Historical 
Park, Kalaupapa, HI (eric_brown at nps.gov)
Greg Piniak, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Center 
for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, Beaufort, NC 
(greg.piniak at noaa.gov)

To assist the organizing committee in assigning your abstract to our 
session, please use the session code: OS015. Abstracts are due by 13 
October (postal mail abstract deadline) or 20 October (electronic 
submissions abstract deadline) at http://www.agu.org/meetings/os06/. 
Registration is open until January 20, 2006.

If you know of anyone who might be interested who might not receive 
this notice, please feel free to pass it along.  We are very excited 
about this session, and look forward to your participation.  If you 
have any questions, please feel free to contact us.  We hope to see 
you in Honolulu!

Curt, Eric and Greg

-- 

ciao.....
_______________________
Curt Storlazzi, Ph.D.
Research Oceanographer
U.S.G.S. Pacific Science Center
400 Natural Bridges Drive
Santa Cruz, CA  95060
(831) 427-4721 phone
(831) 427-4748 fax

Staff Webpage:
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/staff/cstorlazzi/

USGS Coral Reef Project Webpage:
http://coralreefs.wr.usgs.gov