[Coral-List] Thinking outside the reef! - Session Highlight for ICRS 2020

Kristen Davis davis at uci.edu
Mon Jul 29 21:06:20 UTC 2019


We would like to highlight our session, Thinking outside the reef: how do open-ocean processes influence coral reefs now and in the future? (ICRS20-048), at the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS 2020) which will take place 5-10 July, 2020 in Bremen, Germany. This session will apply to a broad and interdisciplinary audience interested in the interactions between coral reefs and adjacent open ocean waters. This session will include observational, laboratory, and modeling studies from a wide range of fields including biological, chemical, physical, and geological oceanography; coral reef ecology; climate change; remote sensing; and forecasting.

Abstracts must be submitted no later than September 1, 2019 through the conference website. The session description (below) and instructions for abstract submission can be found here: http://www.icrs2020.de/ <http://www.icrs2020.de/>

We look forward to your contributions to this interdisciplinary session! 

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Thinking outside the reef: how do open-ocean processes influence coral reefs now and in the future?

Session Description:
Open-ocean waters flow onto coral reefs, supplying reef ecosystems with food, nutrients, heat, energy, and the chemical components that fuel calcification. The initial conditions of adjacent open-ocean surface waters strongly influence coral reef ecosystem health and functioning. For example, rising temperatures and declining pH in the open ocean are sparking mass coral bleaching events and driving reductions in ecosystem calcification rates. Circulation patterns on and off reefs influence larval dispersal and recruitment, thereby playing a key role in population connectivity and reef recovery following major disturbances. Upwelling of deep, cool waters via internal waves or the interaction of currents with topography can provide intermittent refuge to help mitigate thermal stress. Offshore biological productivity impacts the delivery of inorganic and organic nutrients that serve as critical energy sources for biological processes within coral reef ecosystems. Yet, once on shallow reefs, the open-ocean source waters can be dramatically altered by physical, chemical, and biological processes. Therefore, understanding coral reef ecosystem sensitivity and resilience to climate change requires studies focused on the large-scale oceanography outside the reef, small-scale dynamics within the reef, and interactions between the two. This interdisciplinary session invites observational, laboratory, and modeling-based studies investigating connections between coral-reef and open-ocean processes now and in the future. These processes may include, but are not limited to, ocean acidification and warming; open-ocean productivity and nutrient cycling; and regional and local circulation and physical phenomena. We also encourage submissions aimed at identifying coral reefs whose oceanographic setting provides inherent resilience to climate change, and are therefore top candidates for conservation efforts.

Session Chairs: Katie Shamberger (Texas A&M), Thomas DeCarlo (Univ. Western Aus.), Kristen Davis (UC Irvine), Andrea Kealoha (Texas A&M), Andrew King (Univ. of Melbourne)


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Kristen Davis, Associate Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering &
Earth System Science
4130E Engineering Gateway
University of California, Irvine
Phone: (650) 704-0859
http://davis.eng.uci.edu
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