[Coral-List] How to make Conservation Paleobiology useful for conservation - Mini-plenary by Jeremy Jackson at IPC5, Paris

O'Dea, Aaron ODeaA at si.edu
Thu Feb 8 23:21:35 EST 2018


Excuse any cross-posting.

Dear Colleagues,

Dr. Jeremy Jackson will present the mini-plenary How to make conservation paleobiology useful for conservation in the Conservation Paleobiology session at the International Palaeontology Congress this July in Paris.

You are invited to submit your abstract (deadline 15th February) to this session. We look forward to a rich and lively discussion on recent developments in this field of research.

Further information about the session below and about the congress here: https://ipc5.sciencesconf.org/

Best regards,

Paolo G. Albano (University of Vienna)
Aaron O'Dea (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama)
Martin Zuschin (University of Vienna)


Session abstract: Conservation palaeobiology and historical ecology of marine ecosystems

Paolo G. Albano, Aaron O'Dea, Martin Zuschin

Humans have altered marine ecosystems for millennia, a process that has intensified in the last few centuries and rapidly accelerated in the last 40 years. In contrast, even the most extensive systematic monitoring of marine ecosystems rarely encompasses more than the past few decades. Consequently, meaningful benchmarks are hard to define quantitatively and we face challenges to separate anthropogenic impacts from the natural dynamics of ecosystems. Palaeoecological data can provide high-resolution records of ecosystem change and variation spanning the whole of human history, enabling the reconstruction of ecological baselines (albeit for incomplete parts of marine communities) and the trajectories of ecosystem states on timescales well beyond the limits of ecological monitoring. Indeed, there is now consensus amongst conservation biologists that to give proper context to modern day conditions we must include historical perspectives. The onus is now on paleontologists, archeologists and historians to provide neontologists with rigorous, replicated and constructive data on past ecosystems in light of present day and predicted future changes. This session is intended to provide a platform for the presentation and discussion of novel approaches and insightful data in the rapidly expanding fields of conservation palaeobiology and historical ecology.


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