Eco-DAS VIII Symposium Agenda

Friday, 10 October 2008

Participants arrive in Honolulu throughout the day
 
Welcome Reception at New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel
 

Saturday, 11 October

Welcoming remarks, introductions
 
Paul Kemp
The thinking box: we know what our methods tell us [to think]
 

Land-Sea Interactions

Tessa Francis
Dynamics at the aquatic-terrestrial interface of lakes and coastal oceans
 
Ylva Olsen and Sophia Fox
The ecological effects of nitrogen loading to estuaries: macrophyte and macroinvertebrate communities
 
Daniel Sobota
Controls on nitrogen removal in stream and river ecosystems: realized and potential insights from an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach
 
Betsy Bancroft and Laura Petes
Working towards a new understanding of environmental stress and community regulation in freshwater and marine systems
 
Invited speaker: Margaret McManus, UH-SOEST
Group activity, and presentation: The message box
 
Brian Reid
The limnology of alluvial ground water basins
 

Biophysical Processes

Julie Keister
Bio-physical coupling in a coastal upwelling ecosystem
 
Tamara Harms
Contrasting biogeochemical reaction and hydrologic transport as mechanisms determining flux of essential elements from ecosystems
 
Daniel Dombrowski
Hydrodynamics and chemical coupling: A unified approach to understanding life in the aquatic benthic environment
 
Kelly Dorgan
An individual-based approach to aquatic ecology: applying burrowing mechanics to benthic ecology
 

Sunday, 12 October

Models and Theory

Blaine Griffen and Andrew Kramer
The Allee effect, community resiliency and species recovery, and genetic implications
 
Alison Derry
Evolutionary responses of plankton communities to natural and human-induced stress
 
Daniel Spooner
Role of stress and catabolism in emergent ecological theory
 
Noreen Kelly
Use of matrix* models in the study of aquatic populations
 
Laurel Larsen
Simulating and predicting the evolution of the aquatic eco-scape
 
Open discussion: Modeling and ecological research
 

Biogeochemistry

Dana Hunt
Aquatic microbiology at the microscale
 
Craig Nelson
Scales of influence of microbial communities on pelagic biogeochemistry: from molecular interactions to ecosystem processes
 
Amy Burgin
Microbial interactions between the sulfur, carbon and nitrogen cycles in aquatic ecosystems
 
Maria Vila Costa
Sulfur cycle in the ocean: from microbes to climate
 
Eva Ortega-Retuerta
New insights into the ocean carbon cycle: the role of microbes on CDOM and the interface DOM-POM
 
Dreux Chappell and Annette Hynes
Diversity and iron ecology of Trichodesmium
 

Diversity, Genetics, Genomics

Chris Dupont
Physiological and ecological ramifications of the usage of trace metals by marine phytoplankton
 

Monday, 13 October

Alyson Santoro
Understanding patterns of marine microbial diversity and their relevance to global nutrient cycling
 
Adam Reitzel
Developing and deploying genomic markers for detection of ecological and evolutionary responses in aquatic ecosystems
 
Ramiro Logares
Evolutionary diversification patterns in aquatic microbes: new molecular technologies for studying population genetics
 
Panel Discussion
Agency Presentations and Perspectives on Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research (NSF, ONR)
 

Organization of aquatic ecosystems

Jessica Clasen
Fundamental differences in the virioplankton of lakes and oceans, and the potential ecological implications
 
Denise Lani Pascual
How does the timing and speciation of nitrogen and phosphorus delivery to small, urban reservoirs affect phytoplankton community structure and successional patterns?
 
Carrie Scheele Kissman
Understanding the Indirect Effects of Exotic Invaders and Climate Change on Aquatic Ecosystems
 
Serena Moseman
Function or failure of marine ecosystems? Macro-and micro-organism interactions mediate environmental change
 
Joel Llopiz
Trophic linkages in marine planktonic ecosystems: a comparative approach
 
Jennifer Howeth
Metacommunity and invasion dynamics in aquatic systems
 
Daniel Marshalonis
Predator-prey interactions and trophodynamics: gelatinous zooplankton as a model
 

Tuesday, 14 October

Amanda Spivak
Resource availability and community composition in seagrass beds
 
George Waldbusser
The importance of benthic infauna to coastal biogeochemistry and ecosystem dynamics
 
Kristine Hopfensperger
Linking community spatiotemporal patterns to ecosystem processes in aquatic ecosystems
 

Collaborative Chapters

Open discussion:
Ground rules for collaborative chapters
What we need from author teams by end of Wednesday
 

Working Group Discussions

The symposium then turned to a consideration of cross-cutting themes observed in the presentations. Six topics were selected by the participants for further discussion in working groups, during two breakout sessions:
  1. How do we best address issues of scale? What data/methods are needed to connect scales? How often is the scale of the question/methods/theory appropriate? What can we learn from the lab tell about the real world? Theory in aquatic sciences: is there a data vs theory mismatch? (2 working groups)
  2. Climate and anthropogenic effects: can we make consistent predictions across aquatic systems? (2 working groups)
  3. Crossing borders (salinity, pelagic-benthic, taxonomic, etc.): what are they and how do we do it? Common language. (1 working group)
  4. Rarity, redundancy and diversity: how do we measure it? (1 working group)
  5. Community structure and ecosystem function. Function vs form as a paradigm for understanding (eco)system behaviour. (1 working group)
  6. Alternative Stable States/regime shifts: do they exist in aquatic systems beyond shallow lakes? Complexity and feedbacks. (1 working group)
After each breakout session, one working group member from each group offered a brief presentation of their discussion and principal conclusions. For all working groups, the following were offered as possible questions to be considered.
 
Status
Has it been described well in the open literature?
Is it covered well in proposed chapters?
Consider the possibility that it might merit a chapter.
If so, who would write it?
Opportunities
Where will the breakthroughs come from?
Why is this exciting?
What hasn't been done but might be possible?
What resources are available?
Challenges
What are the main obstacles to this work?
What partnerships need to exist?
What funding investments need to be made?
What training is needed?

Wednesday, 15 October

Panel on Career Choices and Alternatives

Invited speaker: Robin Anderson, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Three important I's in government science: interdisciplinarity, initiative and integrity
 
Invited speaker: Jana Davis, Chesapeake Bay Trust
Alternative careers: science policy and the NGO
 
Invited speaker: Carla Caceres, University of Illinois- Urbana
Early career initiatives by professional societies
 
Open discussion with career panel (Anderson, Caceres, Davis and Cynthia Suchman, NSF)
Do you have what you need to succeed? Do you know where your career is headed? Have you thought about alternatives?
 

Author Teams

Following lunch, the afternoon was devoted to a breakout session for author teams to work on developing their ideas for collaborative chapters to be proposed for the symposium proceedings volume. Author teams were given the following guidance:
Author teams, your goals for the afternoon are to decide:
AUTHORS and their respective contributions,
TITLE
OUTLINE
ESTIMATED TIME to 1st DRAFT
AND prepare a brief (10 min) presentation for tomorrow.
 
Sign up for a presentation time slot! Please explain:
How your research interests are complementary
What you intend to write (chapter outline)
What each of you will contribute
Why this chapter NEEDS to be written
Whether you have plans for future collaboration
 
A total of 12 author teams signed up to present chapter proposals on the final day.
 

Thursday, 16 October

The symposium concluded with presentations by author teams and open discussion of each proposed chapter. Following the presentations, an discussion was held to establish the timeline for submission and review of chapter manuscripts. The formal symposium was then adjourned and authors were given time to collaborate and develop chapter outlines. The day ended with a farewell celebration for all participants, mentors and agency representatives.