Have your say: present on top predators in the Southern Ocean at SCAR’s Open Science Conference next year

A session dedicated to top-predator research in the Southern Ocean will be held during the SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Open Science Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over 22-26 August 2016.

The session entitled “From the top: higher trophic predators as ecosystem sentinels” is to be co-hosted by Dan Costa (USA), Yan Ropert-Coudert (France), Mercedes Santos (Argentina), Andrew Lowther (Norway) and Jaimie Cleeland (Australia).

Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses, photograph by Aleks Terauds

The session outline follows:

“The recognition of the utility and importance of predators as indicators of the marine ecosystem is such that it is a recurrent topic in SCAR conferences.  Natural (oceanographic, terrestrial, atmospheric, climatic) and anthropogenic forcing (fisheries, pollution...) are taking place at an accelerated pace in the Southern Ocean.  Session 29 will address issues surrounding the responses of higher trophic level predators to these modifications and consequently their appropriateness as sentinels of the ecosystem.  Topics welcome in this session include but are not limited to:

• Animals as a sensor platforms in the marine environment
• Changes in predator-prey relationships and trophic interactions
• Polar species population/ community responses to changes in the Antarctic and/or other latitudes
• Effects of natural (including extreme) and anthropogenic forcing on top predators
• Marine predator conservation policies in a changing environment
• Epidemiology in the Antarctic in response to growing human activities and warming
• Advances in marine predator research methods and technology.

Abstract submission is now open and ends on 4 February next year (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 October 2015