Hello All, NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research are organizing several symposia at the upcoming annual AFS conference in August. They are soliciting abstracts and presentations for the symposia listed below, and ask that you consider submitting abstracts to the sessions. Please note that abstract submission closes on March 17, 2017, and can be submitted via the website (https://afsannualmeeting.fisheries.org/). Also, please share this information with any colleagues who may be interested.
1.Session Title: Pelagic fish seascapes: Integration of new technology and modeling Organizers: Stephen Brandt (OSU) and Doran Mason (NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) Description: Pelagic habitats are characteristically complex, patchy and difficult to observe. Advances in technological, such as in underwater acoustics, optics, and other sensors, combined with innovative deployment systems has greatly expanded the time and space scales that we can observe dynamic pelagic ecosystems. Coupling such high-resolution and expansive data with models can provide keen insights into how fishes respond to the pelagic habitat, multiple environmental stressors and predator-prey interactions. Here we provide a forum to discuss new and innovative applications of coupled observing systems and modeling to improve our understanding and forecasting of fish responses to changing habitats. 2. Session Title: Have Anthropogenic Stressors Changed Relationships Between Nutrients and Fish Production? Organizers: Ed Rutherford, Hongyan Zhang, Doran Mason Description: Historical relationships between nutrients and fish production may have changed due to anthropogenic stressor including climate change, invasive species, fishing and land use practices. For example, phosphorus is recognized as a predictor of fish biomass and production in freshwater. However, in the Great Lakes, invasive dreissenid mussels have caused changes in phosphorus cycling and lake productivity, and have altered the historical dependence of fish production on phosphorus. Further, changes in land use practices and climate (e.g. precipitation) have affected the quantity and timing of nutrient delivery to the lakes. The purpose of this session is to understand the influence of stressors on the relationship between nutrients and fish across multiple ecosystems spanning from freshwater to coastal marine. We invite presentations using empirical, experimental or modeling approaches to examine how stressors affect the relationship between nutrients and fish production and community structure.
