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Census of Marine Life US National Committee hosts 2006 Marine Biodiversity Workshop

Approaches for researching the roles of marine and coastal biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services

US Census of Marine Life National Committee Hosts Its 2006 Biodiversity Workshop "Approaches for Researching the Roles of Marine and Coastal Biodiversity in Maintaining Ecosystem Services" September 11-12, 2006, 1:30 p.m. EDT

WHAT The U.S. National Committee of the Census of Marine Life (CoML) is holding a workshop to improve understanding of marine and coastal biodiversity and the application of this knowledge to support sustainable and adaptive ecosystem-based management of living and non-living resources. This undertaking requires the best of academic research, as well as policy-relevant thinking and management expertise. The workshop will bring together experts from a variety of scientific disciplines, academia, and management agencies to share information with regard to three central questions:

• How does biodiversity at genetic, species, and community levels contribute to ecosystem function, resilience, or adaptability and what are likely consequences of loss of biodiversity in marine systems?

• How might increased knowledge of biodiversity at all levels be used to improve management of marine systems over the next decade? That is, what can we conclude, infer or reasonably anticipate about the functional roles and values of biodiversity, and what do we know, what do we not know, and what do we need to know in order to inform robust ecosystem-based management approaches to marine resources?

• What pragmatic but revealing metrics of biodiversity and/or ecosystem function should be considered for inclusion in ocean observing and assessment systems to provide continuing information flow for enhanced ecosystem-based management approaches? [e.g., keystone species, proxies, indices, genetic barcode analysis, etc.

WHO Scientific experts from academia and management agencies

WHEN Monday, September 11 through Tuesday, September 12, 2006, 1:30 p.m. (EDT)

Monday, September 11 The Roles of Biodiversity in Marine Ecosystem Function, Resilience and Adaptability
Speaker: Dr. John Stachowicz, University of California
1:30 – 2:20 p.m.

Tuesday, September 12 Essential Measures of Biodiversity for Ocean Observing
Speaker: Dr. Michael Beck, The Nature Conservancy
1:30 – 2:20 p.m.

WHERE The Latham Hotel, 3000 M Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20007.

CONTACT For more information, contact Tomeka Rawlings at 301-807-8655. Please RSVP.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS INFORMATIVE WORKSHOP.

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