World Conference on Marine BiodiversityAberdeen, Scotland
The World Conference on Marine Biodiversity has the overall aim of bringing together scientists, practitioners and the public to discuss and advance our understanding of the issues surrounding the importance of biodiversity in the marine environment.
Members of the DNA barcoding community will be particularly interested in the workshop Beyond 2010: Building a new international science program beyond the first Census of Marine Life, to be held September 30 (beginning at 2 pm) and October 1 (beginning at 9 am) at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, Crombie Suite A (tentative).
The Census of Marine Life was a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10‐year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans – past, present, and future. In 2010, the Census program concluded, having collected the world’s first comprehensive baseline of information on marine life across all taxa and in all ocean realms, against which future change can be measured.
The Census was particularly successful in creating a global network of marine biologists, ecologists, biogeographers, taxonomists, technologists, and other professionals with a common goal of better understanding marine biodiversity. Members of the Census community and a Science Planning Committee have been preparing a scientific strategy to catalyze a new program of integrated international research in marine biodiversity in the spirit of the first Census but addressing new questions and emerging themes of importance to the scientific community and society as a whole.
The aim of the “Beyond 2010” workshop is to present and discuss this strategy, with a focus on engagement of the broader scientific community and plans and actions for implementation.
Registration is free but space is limited so preregistration is strongly encouraged.
