[Coral-List] ICRS Session 62: A Critical Examination of Ecosystem Response to Herbivore Management

[Emily Kelly]

Hi all,

My co-hosts and I would like to invite you to submit an abstract to *Session
62: A Critical Examination of Ecosystem Response to Herbivore Management *of
the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium-- see the session description
below.  Please forward to other interested colleagues and feel free to
contact us if you have any questions.  We look forward to a great session
and surrounding discussions of the impact of herbivore management.

*Session description: *
The impact of herbivorous fish and urchins on reef benthic community
composition has been studied through experimental approaches, observation,
and modeling. Results from some but not all studies indicate herbivores can
mediate coral-algal interactions, reduce fleshy algal cover, and promote
crustose coralline algae. In the last decade in particular there has been
implementation of numerous types of herbivore management on reefs either
through full no-take zones, herbivore no-take zones, and fisheries
management and restocking of herbivorous fish and urchins. As new studies
promote herbivore management for reef health, we must critically examine
how herbivore management has influenced reef structure and function to
date. Talks in this session will examine ecosystem response to different
types of management on herbivore communities to understand how herbivore
management has or has not impacted reef communities. In cases where the
ecosystem response differs from modeled or expected results, environmental
and other conditions associated with these deviations can be explored.
Through sharing monitoring, experimental, observational, and modeling data
across regions and management strategies, we aim to gain a better
understanding of the utility of herbivore management and to build a
cross-disciplinary community of managers, researchers, and stakeholders
amongst ICRS participants who are engaged in herbivore management.

We're also planning to set up an open lunch session the following day to
include but not limited to confirmed key participants. We will advertise
this lunch during the proposed session. An informal but structured lunch
will allow for additional discussion to build on session talks and discuss
lessons learned in herbivore management.

Happy New Year,
Emily

Emily Kelly, Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Inst.
of Oceanography, UCSD
elkelly at ucsd.edu

Melanie McField, Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative / Smithsonian
Institution
mcfield at healthyreefs.org

Megan Ross, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii - Manoa
mcolvin at hawaii.edu

Alison Green, Global Marine Team and Indo-Pacific Division, The Nature
Conservancy
agreen at tnc.org


-- 

Emily Kelly, Ph.D.
Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
cell: (919) 949-7399