Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life Workshop: Abstract Submission Open

Waterville Valley, NH, USA October 5-8, 2015

Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life

Waterville Valley, NH, USA

October 5-8, 2015



Dear friends and colleagues,



Applications may now be submitted for the "Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life" workshop, to be held October 5-8, 2015 at Waterville Valley, NH, USA. In addition to oral presentation and poster abstracts, we are also soliciting ideas for more informal discussion and working groups. Please visit the online application page at: http://www.whoi.edu/workshop/traitworkshop2015/apply. The application deadline is May 31, 2015.



Following on the successful first meeting in Copenhagen in August 2013, this Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB)-sponsored scoping workshop will bring together biologists, ecologists, chemists, mathematicians, and physicists working on different aspects of trait-based descriptions of life in the oceans across all trophic levels and scales, from viruses to top predators and from fine-scale turbulence to global climate change.



The meeting program will feature keynote addresses by leaders in the field, but also substantial time for more informal presentations, discussions, and posters. We anticipate ~100 attendees, and aim to support travel and meeting costs for many participants. Priority for support will be given to early career researchers.



The workshop is made possible by generous support from the US Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) program, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Simons Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.



We hope that you will join us in Waterville Valley in autumn of 2015.



Thank you and best regards,



Andrew Barton, on behalf of the scientific steering committee:



Ken Andersen (Technical University of Denmark)

Neil Banas (University of Washington)

Andrew Barton (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton University)

Stephanie Dutkiewicz (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Øyvind Fiksen (University of Bergen)

Mick Follows (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Ursula Gaedke (University of Potsdam)

Colleen Mouw (Michigan Technological University)

Nicholas Record (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science)

Tatiana Rynearson (University of Rhode Island)









Marine ecosystems are incredibly rich and biodiverse, often comprised of many thousands of competing and interacting species with a vast range of behaviors, forms, and life histories. This great ecological complexity presents a formidable barrier to understanding how marine ecosystems respond to natural and anthropogenic change, and the cascading global repercussions of these changes to global biogeochemical cycles, climate, and society.

The trait-based approach to ocean life is emerging as a novel framework for understanding the complexity of marine ecosystems. Rather than considering species individually, organisms are characterized by essential traits that capture key aspects of functional diversity. Trait distributions in the ocean emerge through evolution and natural selection, and are mediated by the environment, biological interactions, and organism behavior.

Following on a successful first meeting in Copenhagen in 2013, we will convene an Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) program scoping workshop in New England in autumn of 2015. The workshop will bring together biologists, chemists, mathematicians, and physicists working on different aspect of trait-based descriptions of life in the oceans across all trophic levels and scales, from viruses to top predators and from fine-scale turbulence to global climate change. The aim is to stimulate discussions, forge new collaborations, and develop novel ideas on four principal themes:

Individuals -- What are the key traits and trait trade-offs of marine organisms?

Scaling -- How do we scale up from individuals to populations and ecosystems?

Emergent patterns -- How are biogeography, phenology, community structure, and the character of the biological pump linked to traits?

Adaptive Capacity -- What are the implications for biological responses to global change?



The focused four-day meeting will feature a variety of presentation and discussion formats, including selected daily keynote addresses by leaders in the field, tutorials, informal chalk board-style talks, discussion groups, and posters.



Keynote speakers:

Hans Cornelissen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Sonya Dyhrman (Columbia University)

Simon Jennings (University of East Anglia)

Elena Litchman (Michigan State University)

Thomas Kiørboe (Technical University of Denmark)

Published May 4, 2015 9:48 AM