[Coral-List] ICRS2020 Session on "Creating Coral Reefs in Waiting"

[Kuffner, Ilsa]

Dear Colleagues,

International Coral Reef Symposium 2020 abstracts are due in about *two
weeks* (Aug 31)!

Please consider submission to our session from Theme 13 (Interventions and
Restoration) titled:

"Creating coral reefs in waiting: Can we harness heterogeneity in
phenotypic-stress response to optimize coral reef restoration?"
http://www.icrs2020.de/program/session-program/#c245

Chairs:

Ilsa B. Kuffner (U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, FL, USA)

Joanie A. Kleypas (National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO,
USA)

Les Kaufman (Boston University, Boston, MA, USA)

Lisa J. Rodrigues (Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA)


Abstract:

Coral reef ecosystems exist across a wide range of biophysical settings.
Most reef environments can be well characterized by mean, variance,
maximum, and minimum water temperature, water clarity, level of nutrients
and pollutants, wave energy, exposure to major storms, proximity to land
effects (e.g., sedimentation), and exposure to human settlements and
coastal development. The biophysical setting, as so characterized, is a
large consideration when deciding if, where, and how to restore coral reefs
using a rapidly increasing array of gardening and out-planting techniques
and other direct interventions. For this session, we invite talks that
inform on how we might leverage environmental gradients in biophysical
parameters to increase the likelihood of restoration success or natural
reef recovery. We seek to draw participation from a wide range of
scientific disciplines to foster collaboration among people that do not
typically interconnect, including physiologists, geneticists, ecologists,
restoration practitioners, resource managers, and more. We welcome
observations of phenotypic variance in variables such as coral growth,
calcification rates, colony morphology, symbiont assemblages, microbiomes,
etc., along any environmental or stress gradient in the field or in the
laboratory. Studies that link genetic characterization with phenotypic
expression are particularly of value to this session topic. The ability to
harness morphological plasticity and stress response in a heterogeneous
environment is at the core of creating "coral reefs in waiting," i.e., the
collection of pieces required for natural reef reassembly and persistence
into the Anthropocene.


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Ilsa B. Kuffner, Ph.D.
U.S. Geological Survey
St. Petersburg Coastal & Marine Science Center
600 4th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Email: ikuffner at usgs.gov
Tel: (727) 502-8048
Fax: (727) 502-8001
http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/crest/
https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/ilsa-b-kuffner
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8804-7847
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