[Coral-List] ICRS 2022 workshop WS13 “Reimagining future reefs based on clues from the past”

[Jens Zinke]

Dear colleagues,

We have organised a workshop *“Reimagining future reefs based on clues from
the past**” at ICRS 2022 in Bremen.*

*The workshop WS13 has now been scheduled for Wednesday July 6th, 9.50am -
1pm (*under former title: Which characteristics define coral reefs in the
Anthropocene?).

You can either come to the venue *in person or join the workshop online* via
the Zoom link provided below.

*Zoom:*
Topic: ICRS Workshop: Which characteristics define coral reefs in the
Anthropocene?
Time: 6.July 2022 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rom, Stockholm, Wien

Zoom-Meeting:
https://uni-bremen.zoom.us/j/93832156446?pwd=OFVYMUpyVlNCSndPaU40YUlpbnRVQT09

Meeting-ID: 938 3215 6446
Code: 826714

We are currently working on an agenda for the workshop and will circulate
that before the Wednesday session. There will be a mix of short
presentations with discussions followed by breakout groups and a summary
session to develop ideas for a White paper.

See below the goals of the workshop.

*ICRS 2022 workshop “Reimagining future reefs based on clues from the past*
*”*



*Organizers:* Jens Zinke (University of Leicester); Nicolas Duprey (MPI
Mainz); Reinhold Leinfelder (FU Berlin), Georg Heiss (FU Berlin)



*Goal: *

The goal of the workshop is to brainstorm ideas for a joint *White paper*
(later an article) about what can be learned from the geological record
about the future of coral reefs given current trajectories agreed at COP26
by 2100 and beyond. It could be a warning shot for humanity that coral
reefs may become functionally extinct in the coming century. While there
have been regional attempts to use the geological reef record to infer
future reef trajectories, here we aim for a near global analysis, or a
region-by-region analysis. For a review paper, we could select those
regions where we have identified best suited fossil analogues.

There are several papers already published on predicted habitat changes for
coral reefs under RCP8.5, frequency of bleaching, changes in coral
assemblages, migration of species under warming, calcification potential to
keep up with sea level rise etc. But from a geological perspective, we
could add novel perspectives around the fossil record to be expected should
warming exceed 2°C or even overshoot it. Learning from past reef demises to
warming and acidification must rely on a proper identification of past reef
locations with excellent preservation of reef communities, presence of
extant species or equivalent traits to facilitate optimal comparison to
present and near future conditions. Certainly, we also have to define what
a good fossil analogue would be for the present reef crisis. And most
importantly, can fossil reefs still give us relevant answers for reef
survival in a future 2-3 degree warmer world with a myriad of synergistic
stressors or have tropical corals long passed their historical experience
envelope?

The workshop would discuss a number of ideas and questions (see below),
define datasets and methodologies to be used for analysis and identify gaps
in research and understanding. We like to invite experts in coral reef
hydrodynamics, sea-level change, reef morphology, reef complexity and
rugosity, reef biotic assemblages, climate change impacts on coral reefs
(warming, acidification), climate model studies including seawater
chemistry, coral reef evolution, island evolution and coral reef modelling.
We also encourage highly skilled statisticians to join the discussion in
order to identify the most suitable methodologies for data analysis and
interpretation, especially from the sparse fossil reef network. We
encourage on-site or online participation of the workshop by a diversity of
coral reef geologists and biologists from all continents and gender
interested in unravelling the consequences of anthropogenic climate change
on future coral reef evolution.


We are looking forward to your participation and lovely discussion.

best wishes,
Reinhold, Nicolas, Georg and Jens


*Jens Zinke    Professor in Palaeobiology*

*Royal Society Wolfson Fellow*

School of Geography, Geology and the Environment

Bennett Building

University of Leicester,
University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

*E: jz262*@le.ac.uk <ga16 at le.ac.uk>