BES Symposium 2009
Facilitation in Plant Communities
University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
20 - 22 April 2009
This will be the first ever international meeting dedicated to the rapidly expanding field of facilitation (positive plant-plant interactions) in plant communities. The Symposium will provide an excellent opportunity to assess the current “state-of-play”, but importantly it will also look outwards from our usual research areas to expand this field and break new ground.
The list of invited speakers for the Symposium is now complete, and we have some excellent talks lined up:
Lorena Gomez Aparicio - Department of Geoecology, Biochemistry and Environmental Microbiology (IRNAS - CSIC), Spain
The use of facilitation in ecosystem restoration
Judith Bronstein - Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, The University of Arizona, USA
The evolution of facilitative interactions: lessons from the study of mutualism
Fabio Bulleri - Università di Pisa; Dipartimento di Scienze dell 'Uomo e dell 'Ambiente
The role of facilitative interactions in coastal environments: moving from patterns to processes
Ray Callaway – University of Montana, USA
Facilitation in plant communities – the current state of play and challenges for the future (provisional title)
Lohengrin Cavieres - Universidad de Concepcion and Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Chile
Community level consequences of facilitation in high elevation habitats of the southern Andes
Phil Grime - University of Sheffield, UK
Facilitation in Calcareous Grasslands
Marcel van der Heijden - Sustainable Agriculture Research Station ART, Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Switzerland
Facilitation in plant communities: the role of mycorrhizal fungi (provisional title)
Wim van der Putten NIOO-KNAW, Centre for Terrestrial Ecology, The Netherlands
Who is facilitating: plants, or their natural enemies?
Alfonso Valiente-Banuet - Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM, Mexico
Phylogenetic community ecology and plant facilitation
Sessions during the Symposium will cover: Facilitation in communities – the current state of play and future challenges; Facilitation and mutualism – a comparison of mechanisms, concepts and approaches; Facilitation: biodiversity impacts and conservation implications; Facilitation in a changing world.
The Symposium will not only provide a chance for the growing international body of plant facilitation researchers to meet and discuss some of the current fundamental questions of facilitation ecology, but will also be of relevance to anyone with an interest in plant community or population ecology. Facilitation has become one of the topics in plant ecology in the last 10 years, and this is a chance for all ecologists to learn more about these fundamental and vital processes. It will also be a great opportunity to hear about the ecology of a wide range of ecosystems from around the world.
One of our main aims is to make this a genuinely international meeting, with lots of opportunity to meet fellow researchers with common interests and to discuss new (or even old) ideas. Importantly, not all talks during the Symposium will be from invited speakers. There will be a chance to offer abstracts for talks and posters although, because of limited time during the meeting, we will only be including a small number of the very best offered abstracts as talks.
Associated training course
As a bit of “added value” for those of you thinking about spending hard-won travel money on a trip to Scotland, we will be running a training course on Biodiversity Conservation in the Scottish Highlands immediately after the Symposium.
The Scottish Highlands are a unique environment. Not only do they include key areas for biodiversity conservation, they are also a living landscape utilised in a wide number of ways by a wide range of stakeholder groups, from deer stalkers to bird watchers, salmon fishermen to rock climbers. They are also of immense cultural and historical significance. Reconciling the different demands of such a wide range of stakeholder groups with biodiversity conservation represents a unique challenge for land managers and ecologists.
The course will consider the problems of conserving biodiversity in the Scottish Highlands. It will explore some of the key habitats for Highland biodiversity and conservation activity, look at some of the problems that can arise from trying to conserve biodiversity in this unique cultural setting, and explore methods by which conflicts can be overcome.
Registration and booking for the Symposium and training course
For those of you keen to offer posters and talks, abstract submissions will open along with registration for the Symposium after the 2008 BES Annual Meeting – probably towards the end of September 2008.
Booking for the training course will open at the same time as registration for the meeting.
In addition, Scotland is a beautiful place to visit, and Aberdeen is a great stepping-off point for a spring-time holiday in the Highlands. If you want further proof, all you need to do is click here.
As details for the meeting are finalised we will be posting them on the BES website and publicising the meeting via a number of routes including future notes in the Bulletin.
Rob Brooker will be at both the ESA and BES 2008 Annual Meetings and would be happy to discuss the Symposium further with anyone who would like more information.
Alternatively, if you would like to be included in the circulation list for e-mail updates, please e-mail him via Rob Brooker .
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