[Coral-List] Indian Ocean Session - 6th European Coral Reef Conference

[Andrew Baird]

Dear Corallist

The organisers of the session "State of Indian Ocean and adjacent seas" at
the International Society for Reef Studies European meeting in Bremen (Sept
19-22nd 2006) would like to invite submission of abstracts for
consideration as part of this session.

Reefs of the Indian Ocean have recently been subjected to a series of
unprecedented cataclysmic disturbances including the Indian Ocean Dipole up
welling in 1997, the El Nino of 1998 and the Sumatra-Andaman tsunami of
2004.  These events provide a significant opportunity to determine the
effects of rare disturbances on reef ecosystems and dependent people.  In
addition, many reefs are situated in areas, such as the Persian Gulf, with
extreme fluctuations in environmental variables and studies of the biology
of the organism may provide important clues on the potential of reefs to
adapt to climate change.  Furthermore, some regions in the Indian Ocean
remain isolated either geographically or politically, and have yet to be
adequately described (e.g. reefs of the Andaman Sea, and western Sumatra).
In this session, we invite papers that explore themes including 

* Indian Ocean reef status and trends, in particular the effects of reef
degradation on reefs and associated livelihoods

* Biology and ecology of reef organisms living in extreme environments

* Biological and ecological effects of the Sumatra-Andaman tsunami, in
particular, studies addressing the putative protective role of marine and
coastal ecosystems

* Descriptive studies from previously unstudied locations

If you are interested in participating in this session, please submit your
abstract by May 15 at http://isrs2006.zmt.uni-bremen.de/regis.php

Click on 'Registration', go to 'Abstract Submission', and assign your
abstract to session 4 "State of Indian Ocean and adjacent seas-reefs".and
send a copy to Tim McClanahan tmcclanahan at wcs.org or
andrew.baird at jcu.edu.au. We look forward to your participation.