ORAL AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS

The MIT Sea Grant Program, ICES, and PICES invite you submit abstracts for oral or poster presentations. After peer review, selected papers and posters will be assigned to appropriate sessions based upon the information provided in the abstracts. You are encouraged to indicate preference for oral or poster presentation format. Although conference organizers expect to honor all of these preferences, they reserve the right to assign a format on the basis of agenda requirements.

CONFERENCE TOPICS

Ecological and Genetic Consequences of Bioinvasions: Alteration (directly or indirectly) of ecosystems and food webs through habitat modification, parasitism, predation, mutualistic facilitation, competition, and genetic alteration by marine bioinvaders along with approaches to monitoring or documenting such changes are topics of interest. Studies in microevolution. morphological changes, and biological and genetic variability are of particular interest.

Transport Vectors: The role of intentional and unintentional releases leading to invasions, relative risks of various vectors, actual and prospective management methods, and technologies are of interest. We encourage papers on shipping and non-shipping vectors that provide new insights on successful invasions that may lead to prevention and improved management of new invasions.

Patterns of Invasions in Time and Space: As we learn more about regional diversity of patterns of invasions, we can focus on developing approaches to predict susceptibility, and changes to biodiversity. Of particular interest are studies on harmful algal blooms and introductions of pathogens, microbes, and other small under-represented organisms.

Economic Impacts: Marine invasions may have far-reaching economic impacts, but the data are not available. We are encouraging papers that identify direct and indirect effects and discuss how externalized costs are, or should be accounted for in developing economic impact estimates.

Biosecurity: Management of marine bioinvasions relies on individual countries to prevent new invasions. Marine policy and law as it relates to marine bioinvasions, issues relating to illicit and intentional introduction, impacts to trade, sharing of data and information, and adoption of international laws are among topics of interest.

Environmental Management and Assessment: Once established, marine invasions rarely disappear. Application of predictive models and improved ways of assessing risk that examine adaptive management approaches to manage or control introductions are particularly appropriate.

Innovative Education and Outreach Programs: Direct or indirect public action is often imperative in nonindigenous species prevention, detection, and control. Presentations on successful innovative education and outreach activities that increase public understanding of invasion biology are encouraged. We encourage papers that develop assessment approaches and provide quantitative insights into the effectiveness of the activity

Research on topics related to marine bioinvasions not specifically identified above will be considered.

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