***********************Announcement and Call for Abstracts********************
*Fall 2006 Meeting* *Southeastern Estuarine Research Society* *19 October - 21 October 2006* *Savannah, GA* * * *Pre-registration and abstracts due 19 September 2006* * * The Fall 2006 Meeting of the Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (SEERS) will be held in historic downtown Savannah, Georgia. The meeting will convene at the Coastal Georgia Center Thursday October 19 though Saturday October 21, 2006. The official hotel, the Hampton Inn and Suites, is immediately adjacent to the Coastal GA Center. The meeting is being arranged by local SEERS board members, Peter Verity ([EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>_), Chandra Franklin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), and Carla Curran ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). It is being co-sponsored by the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and Savannah State University. The Coastal Georgia Center (Internet: _http://cgc.georgiasouthern.edu/_) is operated by Georgia Southern University and is thus subsidized and affiliated with the University System of Georgia. It is specifically designed for hosting meetings, facilitating business/university relations, and teaching classes. The lecture halls and meeting rooms have state-of-the-art equipment, and a computer room will be available without charge for conference attendees to check email etc. We will have a social and poster session on Thursday evening (6-9PM) at the Coastal GA Center; posters will remain up throughout the meeting. Contributed oral sessions will occupy the full day on Friday. A special session is planned on the ecology of tidal freshwater areas. Friday evening we will do a bus tour of Savannah State University and then visit the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, where we will have a famous regional dinner (Low Country Boil) prepared by locally renowned cooks, and which includes an oyster roast! Tours of the new R/V Savannah and the campus will be available. Transportation will be provided. Saturday morning will be the final oral contributed sessions. Walking and canoe tours with expert local naturalists will be available at your own expense for Saturday afternoon and Sunday through personal arrangements with Wilderness Southeast (internet: http://wilderness-southeast.org; email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; phone: 912-897-5108). The Saturday afternoon trip option is a Blackwater River Paddle trip on canoes, and Sunday morning is Salt Marsh by land and Sea. Please mention the SEERS meeting or Peter Verity when making reservations. This is THE premier tourist month in Savannah: the weather is typically delightful during the transition to lower temperatures and humidity in the fall. Accordingly there are many options for self-entertainment, from jazz clubs to beaches to paddlewheel riverboat dinner trips. But it also means that planning ahead will be rewarded. The Hampton Inn and Suites is located at 201 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (912-721-1600, http://www.historicsavannahhamptom.com), which is a 3-minute walk from the Coastal GA Center. A block of rooms have been reserved under the name Skidaway Institute. Two types of rooms are available: regular (1 king or 2 queens) and suites, with respective block prices of $159 and $209. Prices include hot breakfast, hi-speed internet in rooms, and free wireless elsewhere in the hotel. It is a new hotel done in Southern charm. The prices may seem high but they are actually very reasonable for downtown Savannah at this time. THE BLOCK PRICES ARE ONLY IN EFFECT UNTIL SEPTEMBER19. After this date, remaining rooms will be released for open purchase by the public. And they will go fast, so make your plans TODAY. The Savannah/Hilton Head Airport is located ca. 15 minutes west of the city on a well-marked exit off I-95. Flights and directions are available at http://www.savannahairport.com/. Directions from the airport or the greater region to the hotel are available at the hotel website. * * *******************Registration******************* Registration fees for the SEERS Savannah meeting include the Thursday evening social, and the Friday evening Low Country Boil: $75 regular members $90 non-student non-members $55 student members $70 student non-members $50 one-day registration (does not include the social or dinner). Pre-registration greatly assists meeting planning. *A late registration fee of $10 will be charged on all registrations after September 19th Meeting registration forms are available online (http://links.baruch.sc.edu/seers/meetings.htm). Directions are provided on the form. The forms will be posted to the website very soon. ********************Student Travel Support******************* SEERS is offering up to five travel awards of $100 each to qualifying students attending the meeting in Savannah. To qualify for a student travel award, students must: -Be enrolled at a college or university for the Fall 2006 semester -Be a SEERS member in good standing for 2005/2006; Be registered for the Fall 2006 SEERS meeting; and, have submitted an abstract for presentation (oral or poster) at the meeting. Please note that only one award can be granted per presentation. Also, students receiving awards must be present to give their presentation at the published time. For posters, the official presentation time will be the time during which posters are being judged regardless of whether the poster is entered in the student competition. If more applications are received than the number of grants available, priority will be given to students who have not won an award in the past two years. To apply for travel support, send (via postal service or fax) a letter of request and a copy of your abstract to Carla Curran (address below). The letter should include your name, address, phone number, email address, title of your presentation, whether you have won the SEERS travel award within the past two years, and a statement affirming that you meet the qualifications stated above. Your letter must include your major advisor's name and signature. If advisor is not available, please obtain a signature from another university official who can verify that you are currently a student. Letter of request, with advisor's signature, must be */postmarked (or faxed to 912-356-2491) by 19th of September. If faxing, be sure to provide a fax cover page with Carla Curran's name on it. Winners of the travel awards will be notified in late September or early October, and are encouraged to attend the SEERS Business Meeting to receive their checks. Send letters to: Carla Curran Department of Biology and Life Sciences P.O. Box 20600 Savannah State University Savannah, GA 31404 You may direct any questions to Carla Curran at 912-691-7434 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> **************Abstract Submission****************** Abstracts for oral and poster presentations are due by close of Business19th of September 2006. Abstracts must be submitted in the format shown on the online abstract submittal form (http://links.baruch.sc.edu/seers/meetings.htm). Once you have clicked on the Abstract Submittal form you may be asked to "Enter Network Password", click cancel. The online abstract submittal form has an example and directions of who to email the form to. Further guidance regarding presentations will be issued after abstracts are received. * * _Session Chairs and Student Judges_ If anyone is interested in serving as a session chair or a Student Judge at the Fall meeting, please contact Craig Tobias ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). ************Special Session at the Fall 2006 SEERS Meeting************ In addition to general contributions to the Program, there will be a Special Session that focuses on low salinity regions of tidal creeks and estuaries. The description follows: *Ecology and Biogeochemistry of the Tidal Oligohaline Zone* In this session we will explore the effects of tidal hydrology on biogeochemical processes in the tidal freshwater zone of coastal waters. Low stream gradients and topographic relief create extensive tidal freshwater zones in the southeastern U.S. This zone of coastal rivers occupies an intermediate location within the river continuum from headwater stream networks to estuaries. Biogeochemical processes occurring in the tidal freshwater zone affect the delivery of terrestrial material and nutrients to estuaries and the coastal ocean. While a significant amount of research has been conducted in tidal freshwater rivers, a generalized understanding of how the ecology of tidal freshwater creeks and rivers differs from their upland (and downstream) counterparts has not emerged. Further work also remains to determine the effects of ecohydrology on materials delivered downstream to estuaries. Tidal forcing causes bi-directional flow and water level fluctuation in the tidal freshwater zone, which subsequently affects reach-scale transport time, hydrologic coupling of aquatic and riparian ecosystems, and groundwater-surface water interactions. These hydrologically-driven processes affect biogeochemical transformation of nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon, and subsequently autotrophic and heterotrophic processes along the tidal freshwater zone. Assessing the relative importance of these biologically mediated processes in this hydrologically dynamic system will advance the understanding of materials transport through the freshwater-marine continuum. Please direct inquiries about this session and send copies of abstract submissions for this session to Scott Ensign at UNC-Chapel Hill ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ***************Additional Information*************** Visit the SEERS web site for up-to-date information about the meeting. Questions or comments about the Savannah meeting should be directed to: Peter Verity Chandra Franklin [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Carla Curran [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Program Questions should be directed to: Craig Tobias [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> See you in Savannah! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- *************************************************** Paul L. Pennington, Ph.D. Research Marine Biologist / JHT, Inc. NOAA's National Ocean Service 219 Fort Johnson Road Charleston, SC 29412-9110 Voice: 843-762-8620 Fax: 843-762-8700 Mobile: 843-276-6488 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.chbr.noaa.gov/ ***************************************************
