Leaders: James Pinckney

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Benthic Ecology

Leaders: Ray Valente , Robert Diaz

To address living resource (particularly fisheries) management objectives, there has been a virtual explosion of benthic habitat mapping (BHM) efforts in recent years. A common challenge is the need to integrate geological and biological perspectives in defining/mapping habitat. The goal of this session is to provide a critical examination of BHM applications and highlight cutting edge methods for integration of substrate, geology and biology needed to produce habitat maps.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Innovative Technological Applications

Leaders: William Precht

Coral systems are among the most biologically diverse habitats on earth and have been impacted by numerous natural and anthropogenic processes. This session examines the biology of these diverse organisms and the ecology of these ecosystems with a focus on applying new knowledge to the application of management strategies towards preserving coral systems.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Tropical Systems

Leaders: To be determined

Hard bottom systems provide essential habitat for numerous estuarine and coastal species and have been the source of landmark studies of species interaction and behavior. This session focuses on broad aspects of the biology, ecology and habitat/ecosystem processes of hard bottom habitats and the essential roles that these habitats play in the health of our estuarine and coastal systems.

Categories: Benthic Ecology

Leaders: Rick Greene , Alan Lewitus , Jim Hagy

Eutrophication has resulted in large regions of bottom water hypoxia in coastal ecosystems around the world (e.g., northern Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, Baltic Sea). This session provides a forum for communication between modelers working on the problem of hypoxia in coastal ecosystems, scientists investigating ecosystem processes related to hypoxia, and managers who will ultimately base policy decisions in part on the results of model forecasts. The session will explore recent and newly developing modeling efforts that address limitations and uncertainties of past efforts (e.g., multiple nutrient limitation; spatial dynamics; seasonality; physical processes; sediment transport; recycling, transport, and fate of nutrients; benthic primary production; sediment-water nutrient exchange; organic matter diagenesis), and their application to coastal resource management. Technical issues associated with data assimilation, nested models, and the challenges associated with the open boundary conditions will be addressed as well.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Eutrophication/Water Quality, Modeling

Leaders: Robert Murphy , Bill Rodney

Habitat restoration projects in coastal and estuarine ecosystems have been increasing in scope and number over the last 20 years. However, our understanding of how these created habitats function ecologically is still in its infancy. The establishment of biological reference points, assessments of ecosystem function, and comparisons to "natural" systems will be explored in this session as managers, scientists and funding authorities work to more clearly define habitat restoration success.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Estuarine Restoration

Leaders: To be determined

Soft bottom benthic systems provide essential habitat for numerous estuarine and coastal species and serve critical roles in the production of estuarine and near-coastal systems. This session focuses on broad aspects of the biology, ecology and habitat/ecosystem processes of soft bottom habitats and the essential roles that these habitats play in the health of our estuarine and coastal systems.

Categories: Benthic Ecology

Leaders: Tamara Pease

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Biogeochemistry - Organic and Inorganic

Leaders: Scott Nixon , Robinson Fulweiler

Changes in incident solar radiation, wind speed and direction, temperature, rainfall, and evapotranspiration all have the potential to produce changes in coastal ecology, including biogeochemical cycles. This session focuses on studies linking climate change to changes in the cycling of major biogenic elements through changes in physics (e.g., stratification), species composition, energy flow, phenology, top down effects, trophic cascades, etc.

Categories: Biogeochemistry - Organic and Inorganic, Climate Change

Leaders: Jennifer Bowen , Jude Apple , Byron Crump

Recent studies provide compelling evidence that microbial communities change dramatically along environmental gradients, yet the mechanisms and patterns remain poorly understood. This session brings together researchers focusing on all aspects of microbial ecology, with an emphasis on relationships between environmental gradients and the structure and function of microbial communities. Topics will include metabolic activity, functionality and phylogenetic diversity. We are particularly interested in research that focuses on gradients that are created or modified by microbes, as well as research that investigates the microbial response to physical and/or chemical features of the estuary (e.g., salinity, temperature, circulation). Papers focusing on microbial communities unique to estuaries or actively involved in biogeochemical processes, including nutrient cycling, oxygen consumption, and degradation of terrestrial and aquatic organic matter, will be given priority.

Categories: Biogeochemistry - Organic and Inorganic, Genetics, Trophic Dynamics and Food Webs

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Carbon, Nutrient and other Material Budgets

Leaders: Dennis Swaney

Nutrient budgets have been fundamental tools for the analysis of estuarine ecosystems for many years, and for a variety of purposes. While at least one major international project, Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) has used a budget approach to try to infer the global distribution and regional variation of coastal ecosystem metabolism, the application of nutrient budgets to address coastal ecosystem management has been less common. This session aims to bring together scientists and managers to report on current approaches to nutrient budgeting, new methodologies, and applications to management questions.

Categories: Carbon, Nutrient and other Material Budgets, Innovative Technological Applications, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: Robert Howarth , Dennis Swaney

Methods for accounting for the contributions of nutrients from various sources in watersheds can be useful in managing their loads to coastal waters from watersheds. This session discusses such methods and their potential management implications.

Categories: Carbon, Nutrient and other Material Budgets, Eutrophication/Water Quality, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Climate Change

Leaders: Britt Argow , Zoe Hughes

Uncertainty over the direction and magnitude of future climate change and its impact on coastal ecosystems complicates efforts at effective coastal management. This session highlights the impact of climate effects on the sedimentation, hydrology, chemistry and bioproductivity of salt marshes, mangroves and tidal freshwater marshes on a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Presentations that address wetland response to seasonal change or climatic forcing via observational, experimental or modeling studies are encouraged.

Categories: Climate Change, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: Alexander Kolker , Candace Oviatt

Many climate records have similar components: a long term trend, short term variability and punctuated events. These common characteristics provoke similar questions: what are the magnitudes of these trends, variations and events, and what are their significances to the functioning of estuaries and coasts? This session brings together scientists and managers to discuss the environmental significance of these climate records, which may vary across disciplines as well as spatial and temporal scales.

Categories: Climate Change, Large Scale Natural Events, Regional Science and Management

Leaders: Michael Kennish , Hans Paerl

This session focuses on the escalating eutrophication problems in coastal lagoons and microtidal estuaries, the indicators of eutrophic conditions in these shallow waterbodies, the influences of natural factors, and the resulting biotic and ecosystem impairments. Biogeochemical and ecological responses to nutrient enrichment in lagoonal and microtidal estuaries will be compared to those observed in other estuarine types. A synthesis component will also examine how anthropogenic nutrient loading and natural influences cause change in the coastal zone.

Categories: Climate Change, Eutrophication/Water Quality

Leaders: Scott Nixon , Robinson Fulweiler

Changes in incident solar radiation, wind speed and direction, temperature, rainfall, and evapotranspiration all have the potential to produce changes in coastal ecology, including biogeochemical cycles. This session focuses on studies linking climate change to changes in the cycling of major biogenic elements through changes in physics (e.g., stratification), species composition, energy flow, phenology, top down effects, trophic cascades, etc.

Categories: Biogeochemistry - Organic and Inorganic, Climate Change

Leaders: John Day , Carles Ibanez

There is a strong scientific consensus that global climate change is taking place and growing evidence that maximum oil production will take place within a couple of decades. Because of the high value of ecosystem services of coastal systems, they will become relatively more important in an energy scarce world. However, climate change will strongly impact coastal ecosystem functioning, and energy scarcity will limit options for coastal management.

Categories: Climate Change, Management

Leaders: Rodney Rountree , Francis Juanes

The faunal and floral assemblages of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems in many areas of the world have undergone rapid shifts over recent decades. This session brings scientists from throughout the eastern U.S. together to compare decadal patterns in plankton, invertebrate and fish assemblages from different geographic areas and to correlate their trends with temporal patterns of climate change, eutrophication, fishing and other anthropogenic impacts. Synthesis and analysis of data and findings from these diverse studies will be used to search for commonalities in an effort to distinguish local effects from regional and global effects, and to look for the most likely candidates for cause and effect relationships.

Categories: Climate Change, Fish Ecology, Regional Science and Management

Leaders: Ron Rozsa , Stephen Smith, Susan Adamowicz

This session explores sudden wetland dieback (SWD). SWD, first observed in the panhandle of Florida in 1990, has since occurred in Connecticut and Rhode Island (1999), and Georgia, South Carolina and Massachusetts (2002). SWD begins with the onset of drought and is characterized by the rapid loss of tidal marsh vegetation within several months. Most perplexing are new diebacks in Massachusetts in non-drought years. Various hypotheses have been proposed implicating severe drought, various abiotic edaphic factors and pathogens.

Categories: Climate Change, Large Scale Natural Events, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Contaminants and Pathogens

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation

Leaders: Robert Brumbaugh , Danielle Kreeger , Michael Beck

Many of the world's native bivalve populations have declined precipitously in the past two centuries from excessive fishing pressure, direct habitat loss and effects of coastal eutrophication. After more than a century of basic research on their physiology and ecology, bivalves have been dubbed "ecosystem engineers" for their provision of biogenic reef habitat for other species, as well as their regulation of water quality through filtration and nutrient cycling. An ability to characterize and quantify these services in the field across various spatial scales is likely a prerequisite to economic valuation of ecosystem services and, in turn, improved overall management. This session provides an opportunity to present new methods and monitoring results and synthesize existing knowledge to help guide future scientific and management efforts at various spatial scales.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Management, Shellfish Ecology and Management

Leaders: Suzanne Bricker , Jesper Andersen

Nutrient related eutrophication is a serious problem in coastal waters of the U.S. and other nations. Inputs of nutrients, especially nitrogen, from watershed point and non-point sources lead to excessive algal growth, low dissolved oxygen, loss of submerged grasses, and occurrences of nuisance and toxic algal blooms. Without timely and appropriate management measures, longer-term impacts include potential loss of fish diversity and population, as well as declines in fish catch and loss of other human uses of coastal waterbodies. This session highlights efforts to address eutrophication within the U.S. and internationally in order to encourage exchange of information and methods for the advancement of understanding and success in addressing this issue on a global basis. In particular, the focus is on improvements to methods for more accurate assessment and identification of management targets, development of indicators to evaluate human use and socioeconomic costs of eutrophication, and development of models and tools for mangers to forecast scenarios to facilitate implementation of successful management measures.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Eutrophication/Water Quality, Management

Leaders: Robert Johnston , Eric Schultz , Kathleen Segerson , Elena Besedin

Methods for evaluating restoration actions that consider both public values and ecological goals can help policy makers choose ecologically beneficial restoration sites, and actions that are more likely to receive broad public support and generate the greatest social benefit. This session presents methods integrating economic and ecological information to estimate non-market values associated with aquatic habitat restoration. Presentations are encouraged that illustrate work that extends the frontier of valuation applied to aquatic ecosystem restoration, and discusses the use of such work to inform policy at the federal, state and local levels.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Estuarine Restoration, Human Ecology/Dimensions

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration

Leaders: Drew Talley , Shara Fisler

Ecologists have become increasingly aware of the importance of having a pluralistic view of the world in order to better understand and restore ecosystems. Thus, there is an increased acknowledgment of the importance of including other fields of science (interdisciplinary studies), increasing the spatial extent of attention (landscape ecology and habitat connectivity), and including land managers in science and restoration (adaptive management). This session focuses on how restoring and effectively managing the integrity of estuarine habitats is facilitated by communication and interaction between a variety of sectors including science, policy and the community.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Chris Miller

This session explores some of the latest projects in beach replenishment and estuary creation. The session includes new advances in coastal plant sciences and presentations from some of the experts in gene pool flow.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Genetics, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: Ron Thom , Kay McGraw , Jenni Wallace , Perry Gayaldo

As we progress in our knowledge of restoration science, questions concerning efficiency and effectiveness, or "success" of our efforts and outcomes are increasingly voiced. These sessions address the questions, "Are we having an effect?" and "What steps are necessary in the immediate future to achieve greater effectiveness in restoring habitats?" Sessions will cover these basic questions about "success" from several aspects of restoration science, including technical, socio-economic (human dimensions), political, cost effectiveness, consequences of invasive species, and the challenge of continued loss and degradation of coastal and estuarine habitats.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Management

Leaders: Robert Murphy , Bill Rodney

Habitat restoration projects in coastal and estuarine ecosystems have been increasing in scope and number over the last 20 years. However, our understanding of how these created habitats function ecologically is still in its infancy. The establishment of biological reference points, assessments of ecosystem function, and comparisons to "natural" systems will be explored in this session as managers, scientists and funding authorities work to more clearly define habitat restoration success.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Estuarine Restoration

Leaders: Megan LaPeyre , Lawrence Rozas

Determining appropriate metrics to evaluate restoration success continues to be a major challenge in restoration ecology. In particular, few restoration projects are monitored to assess habitat function, and where this function is assessed, nekton abundance is usually the metric of choice. This session presents examples and provides a forum for discussing different metrics and ways to measure nekton response to restoration and habitat impacts.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Fish Ecology

Leaders: Robert Johnston , Eric Schultz , Kathleen Segerson , Elena Besedin

Methods for evaluating restoration actions that consider both public values and ecological goals can help policy makers choose ecologically beneficial restoration sites, and actions that are more likely to receive broad public support and generate the greatest social benefit. This session presents methods integrating economic and ecological information to estimate non-market values associated with aquatic habitat restoration. Presentations are encouraged that illustrate work that extends the frontier of valuation applied to aquatic ecosystem restoration, and discusses the use of such work to inform policy at the federal, state and local levels.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Estuarine Restoration, Human Ecology/Dimensions

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality

Leaders: Carlton Hunt , Candace Oviatt

This session addresses recent advances in our understanding of the environmental impact ocean outfalls have at local to regional scales and informs coastal scientists and managers of these advances. Understanding can be gained from the perspectives of environmental deterioration or recovery from past discharge practices. Papers that address within discipline (e.g., planktonic and benthic community structure, primary production, and living resources such as flounder or lobster) level understanding as well as multiple disciplinary/ecological assessments are welcome, as are papers that integrate large scale physical factors such as climate and weather, the value of long-term data sets, and water quality, ecological, and transport and modeling. International perspectives are encouraged.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Management

Leaders: Joao Ferreira

Aquaculture is expanding rapidly in coastal areas, and potentially plays significant (and contrasting) roles in eutrophication. Fish culture has well-known effects on bottom-water dissolved oxygen and sediment organic content, whereas extensive cultivation of shellfish may act to reduce primary eutrophication symptoms. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA, e.g., of fish, shellfish and seaweeds), which is widely practiced in Southeast Asia, promises integrated solutions for food production that optimize environmental sustainability. This session welcomes contributions on interactions between aquaculture and eutrophication, both at the farm and ecosystem scale, preferably integrating these with catchment management. We actively encourage an exchange of international experiences.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Shellfish Ecology and Management

Leaders: Michael Kennish , Hans Paerl

This session focuses on the escalating eutrophication problems in coastal lagoons and microtidal estuaries, the indicators of eutrophic conditions in these shallow waterbodies, the influences of natural factors, and the resulting biotic and ecosystem impairments. Biogeochemical and ecological responses to nutrient enrichment in lagoonal and microtidal estuaries will be compared to those observed in other estuarine types. A synthesis component will also examine how anthropogenic nutrient loading and natural influences cause change in the coastal zone.

Categories: Climate Change, Eutrophication/Water Quality

Leaders: Rick Greene , Alan Lewitus , Jim Hagy

Eutrophication has resulted in large regions of bottom water hypoxia in coastal ecosystems around the world (e.g., northern Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, Baltic Sea). This session provides a forum for communication between modelers working on the problem of hypoxia in coastal ecosystems, scientists investigating ecosystem processes related to hypoxia, and managers who will ultimately base policy decisions in part on the results of model forecasts. The session will explore recent and newly developing modeling efforts that address limitations and uncertainties of past efforts (e.g., multiple nutrient limitation; spatial dynamics; seasonality; physical processes; sediment transport; recycling, transport, and fate of nutrients; benthic primary production; sediment-water nutrient exchange; organic matter diagenesis), and their application to coastal resource management. Technical issues associated with data assimilation, nested models, and the challenges associated with the open boundary conditions will be addressed as well.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Eutrophication/Water Quality, Modeling

Leaders: James Hagy , Janis Kurtz, Ifeyinwa Davis

The session brings together academic, government and private sector scientists and water quality managers whose work relates to the process of determining and implementing nutrient criteria in accordance with the U.S. Clean Water Act. It will also draw on the experience of scientists and managers involved in areas where eutrophication-related criteria have already been established and examine how these experiences compare to, or may inform, the broader U.S. national effort. It seeks international participants whose unique perspective on the technical, legal and political challenges involved in managing coastal eutrophication may be different from those in the U.S.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Management

Leaders: Margaret Kerchner

As population continues to increase in coastal counties across the United States, so will the production of more reactive nitrogen emissions in those areas via automobiles and energy consumption. These increased emissions lead to increased nitrogen deposition on top of greater impervious cover. This session seeks to open up discussion on this pressing issue with presentations on the nitrogen pollution problem as it relates to energy and food production; the environmental laws that drive reductions in nitrogen emissions; the science behind understanding nitrogen emissions, deposition and effects to coastal waters; the importance of forest ecosystems; and future projections.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Human Ecology/Dimensions

Leaders: Suzanne Bricker , Jesper Andersen

Nutrient related eutrophication is a serious problem in coastal waters of the U.S. and other nations. Inputs of nutrients, especially nitrogen, from watershed point and non-point sources lead to excessive algal growth, low dissolved oxygen, loss of submerged grasses, and occurrences of nuisance and toxic algal blooms. Without timely and appropriate management measures, longer-term impacts include potential loss of fish diversity and population, as well as declines in fish catch and loss of other human uses of coastal waterbodies. This session highlights efforts to address eutrophication within the U.S. and internationally in order to encourage exchange of information and methods for the advancement of understanding and success in addressing this issue on a global basis. In particular, the focus is on improvements to methods for more accurate assessment and identification of management targets, development of indicators to evaluate human use and socioeconomic costs of eutrophication, and development of models and tools for mangers to forecast scenarios to facilitate implementation of successful management measures.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Eutrophication/Water Quality, Management

Leaders: Jane Caffrey

The National Water Quality Monitoring Network has been designed by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council to monitor and assess water quality in U.S. Coastal Waters and their tributaries. Presentations are welcome on how existing programs integrate with the Network, such as local and regional monitoring or ongoing federal monitoring. Other countries have long established national water quality monitoring programs and this session would be enhanced by hearing successes and challenges associated with those programs.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Monitoring and Indicators

Leaders: Robert Howarth , Dennis Swaney

Methods for accounting for the contributions of nutrients from various sources in watersheds can be useful in managing their loads to coastal waters from watersheds. This session discusses such methods and their potential management implications.

Categories: Carbon, Nutrient and other Material Budgets, Eutrophication/Water Quality, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Fish Ecology

Leaders: David Secor , Claire Paris

What are the consequences of diverse patterns of habitat use and migration in estuarine and coastal ecosystems? This session reviews progress on understanding the consequences of life cycle diversity in population dynamics. Topics include spatially explicit models of fish production across life history stages, connectivity between coastal and estuarine essential fish habitats, and contingent/metapopulation dynamics in estuarine and coastal fish and invertebrates.

Categories: Fish Ecology, Trophic Dynamics and Food Webs

Leaders: Diane Nacci , Marta Gomez-Chiarri

Fundulus heteroclitus (Atlantic killifish) has become an important biological model for diverse fields such as physiology, toxicology, ecology and evolutionary genetics. Importantly, this foundation of research supports the role of F. heteroclitus as a model organism well-suited to take advantage of genomic tools to test hypotheses linking responses from laboratory to field environments, and across levels of biological organization, from molecular to population/community levels. In this session, participants will present novel research relying on traditional ecological, but also developing molecular, tools using Fundulus to address a variety of research questions.

Categories: Fish Ecology, Genetics

Leaders: Joel Hoffman , Jack Kelly

Although methodological advances have increased our ability to connect landscape-driven processes and fluxes of materials to coastal food webs, much work remains. The goal of this session is to identify landscape influences on coastal food webs, including physical (e.g., hydrography, tides, waves), chemical (e.g., material fluxes, water quality), and biological processes (e.g., movement, habitat quality and quantity, food web interactions), in order to develop a perspective on the types of information needed for placing coastal food webs and fisheries in an ecosystem framework. We invite case-studies that either link landscapes to coastal food webs and fisheries or identify intermediate processes. We encourage participation from a variety of coastal ecosystems, including coastal wetlands, coastal tributaries and estuaries.

Categories: Fish Ecology, Trophic Dynamics and Food Webs, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: Rodney Rountree , Francis Juanes

The faunal and floral assemblages of estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems in many areas of the world have undergone rapid shifts over recent decades. This session brings scientists from throughout the eastern U.S. together to compare decadal patterns in plankton, invertebrate and fish assemblages from different geographic areas and to correlate their trends with temporal patterns of climate change, eutrophication, fishing and other anthropogenic impacts. Synthesis and analysis of data and findings from these diverse studies will be used to search for commonalities in an effort to distinguish local effects from regional and global effects, and to look for the most likely candidates for cause and effect relationships.

Categories: Climate Change, Fish Ecology, Regional Science and Management

Leaders: Edward Houde , Lawrence Sanford

River-Estuary Transition Zones (RETZs) are dynamic regions characterized by their complex physical processes and high sediment delivery, accumulation and retention. Features such as estuarine turbidity maxima (ETM) support high biological productivity, including high microbial activity and elevated zooplankton production, and serve as important nurseries for anadromous fishes. This session includes observational, theoretical and modeling contributions on physical, chemical and biological aspects of RETZ dynamics and processes. In particular, contributions emphasizing synthesis, solutions and science that serves management needs are invited.

Categories: Fish Ecology, Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes, Trophic Dynamics and Food Webs

Leaders: Megan LaPeyre , Lawrence Rozas

Determining appropriate metrics to evaluate restoration success continues to be a major challenge in restoration ecology. In particular, few restoration projects are monitored to assess habitat function, and where this function is assessed, nekton abundance is usually the metric of choice. This session presents examples and provides a forum for discussing different metrics and ways to measure nekton response to restoration and habitat impacts.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Fish Ecology

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Fisheries and Aquaculture

Leaders: Joao Ferreira

Aquaculture is expanding rapidly in coastal areas, and potentially plays significant (and contrasting) roles in eutrophication. Fish culture has well-known effects on bottom-water dissolved oxygen and sediment organic content, whereas extensive cultivation of shellfish may act to reduce primary eutrophication symptoms. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA, e.g., of fish, shellfish and seaweeds), which is widely practiced in Southeast Asia, promises integrated solutions for food production that optimize environmental sustainability. This session welcomes contributions on interactions between aquaculture and eutrophication, both at the farm and ecosystem scale, preferably integrating these with catchment management. We actively encourage an exchange of international experiences.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Shellfish Ecology and Management

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Genetics

Leaders: Christina Richards , Josh Mackie

Many studies have examined the effect of environmental gradients on community level patterns in estuarine habitats, however relatively little is known about the role of genetically based adaptation in these organisms. This session is an important acknowledgement of the need to do more studies addressing evolutionary concepts in estuarine habitats and the genetic make-up of populations. These studies are rare and will be showcased so they can have the most impact on researchers, managers and policy makers. This session covers a wide range of study approaches, and organisms including salt marsh plants, intertidal algae and freshwater and marine invertebrates.

Categories: Genetics

Leaders: Diane Nacci , Marta Gomez-Chiarri

Fundulus heteroclitus (Atlantic killifish) has become an important biological model for diverse fields such as physiology, toxicology, ecology and evolutionary genetics. Importantly, this foundation of research supports the role of F. heteroclitus as a model organism well-suited to take advantage of genomic tools to test hypotheses linking responses from laboratory to field environments, and across levels of biological organization, from molecular to population/community levels. In this session, participants will present novel research relying on traditional ecological, but also developing molecular, tools using Fundulus to address a variety of research questions.

Categories: Fish Ecology, Genetics

Leaders: Jennifer Bowen , Jude Apple , Byron Crump

Recent studies provide compelling evidence that microbial communities change dramatically along environmental gradients, yet the mechanisms and patterns remain poorly understood. This session brings together researchers focusing on all aspects of microbial ecology, with an emphasis on relationships between environmental gradients and the structure and function of microbial communities. Topics will include metabolic activity, functionality and phylogenetic diversity. We are particularly interested in research that focuses on gradients that are created or modified by microbes, as well as research that investigates the microbial response to physical and/or chemical features of the estuary (e.g., salinity, temperature, circulation). Papers focusing on microbial communities unique to estuaries or actively involved in biogeochemical processes, including nutrient cycling, oxygen consumption, and degradation of terrestrial and aquatic organic matter, will be given priority.

Categories: Biogeochemistry - Organic and Inorganic, Genetics, Trophic Dynamics and Food Webs

Leaders: Chris Miller

This session explores some of the latest projects in beach replenishment and estuary creation. The session includes new advances in coastal plant sciences and presentations from some of the experts in gene pool flow.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Genetics, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: Maureen Corcoran

Geomorphology and sediment processes contributing to morphodynamics play an integral role in characterizing regional ecosystems, including estuarine and coastal environments. Understanding the interaction between geomorphology and sediment processes is crucial in assessing restoration, mitigation and management techniques used in ecosystem evaluation. These critical issues are vital components of estuarine, fluvial, and marine environmental analyses and characterization. This session reviews and discusses recent research advances in assessing geomorphology and associated sedimentological features, sensitivity of morphology to environmental change, and the impact of sediment processes on environmental stability.

Categories: Geologic Morphology and Sedimentary Processes

Leaders: Bruce Jaffe , Carl Friedrichs

This session explores the morphologic evolution of the tidal wetland system. Presentations of field, laboratory and modeling studies are invited. Long term evolution and the relation between hydrodynamic forcing (e.g., tides, waves, wind-driven currents) and morphological response of tidal marsh, tidal flats and other components of the sediment morphology system are especially encouraged.

Categories: Geologic Morphology and Sedimentary Processes, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: Anne Sigleo

The dynamics of suspended and bedded sediment play a critical role in the biology and chemistry of estuarine habitats and are of particular importance to contaminant transport/bioavailability and material transport from the terrestrial system to the sea. This session focuses on recent advances in the study of suspended and bedded sediments and the impact they have on the ecology, biogeochemistry and management policies in estuarine and near-coastal ecosystems.

Categories: Geologic Morphology and Sedimentary Processes

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Harmful Algal Blooms

Leaders: John Kraeuter , V. Monica Bricelj

This session brings current issues and methodologies being applied to shellfisheries to the attention of the broader scientific community. Currently, disease and harmful algal blooms and global warming have caused significant reductions in the harvest of molluscs from New England to Texas. There is worry about declining populations of molluscs and crustaceans due to fishing and habitat alterations. Models have been and are being developed to assess the importance of fishing and environmental factors on these ecologically and economically important populations.

Categories: Harmful Algal Blooms, Management, Shellfish Ecology and Management

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions

Leaders: Pamela Neubert , Katie Barnicle , Don Schall , Gregor McGregor

Estuarine ecosystems face constant developmental pressures. This session recognizes the important role of permitting in the management of estuarine ecosystems. Those interested in land use, coastal planning, resource management, legal issues, environmental law, and the overall process of permitting coastal projects are highly encouraged to submit an abstract to present at this session.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Becky Allee , Sandy Eslinger

Coastal communities are continuously evolving in response to changes in the environment (e.g., natural, social, economic). As communities react to these changes over time, they rarely address cumulative ecosystem impacts from the perspective of overall hazard resilience. Scientists and policy analysts are now exploring the concept of developing a Community Resilience Index (CRI) to demonstrate the current level of resilience to coastal communities. The CRI would provide a framework for communities to assess and improve their resilience to hazards. Through definition of key factors, communities will identify interdependencies and implement adaptive management techniques. This session addresses critical factors and discusses ongoing CRI development.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Robert Muth , Martha Mather , John Finn , Rodney Zwick

Sustainable management of complex estuarine and coastal ecosystems requires integration and application of information from a variety of disciplines in the biophysical, socioeconomic and policy sciences. Approaches that fail to integrate across disciplines often meet with limited success. This session explores conceptual and case-study approaches for integrating across scientific disciplines to achieve sustainable management of complex ecosystems.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Christine Feurt

The synthesis and application of scientific findings to problem solving and management is emerging as a distinct practice and discipline. Translation of science to management requires bridging institutional, cultural and disciplinary barriers. This session presents interdisciplinary strategies for successfully bridging the science to management divide. Researchers and practitioners from the National Estuarine Research Reserve system will present work focusing on understanding barriers, linking science to management and motivating coastal stewardship.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions, Management

Leaders: Margaret Kerchner

As population continues to increase in coastal counties across the United States, so will the production of more reactive nitrogen emissions in those areas via automobiles and energy consumption. These increased emissions lead to increased nitrogen deposition on top of greater impervious cover. This session seeks to open up discussion on this pressing issue with presentations on the nitrogen pollution problem as it relates to energy and food production; the environmental laws that drive reductions in nitrogen emissions; the science behind understanding nitrogen emissions, deposition and effects to coastal waters; the importance of forest ecosystems; and future projections.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Human Ecology/Dimensions

Leaders: Robert Johnston , Eric Schultz , Kathleen Segerson , Elena Besedin

Methods for evaluating restoration actions that consider both public values and ecological goals can help policy makers choose ecologically beneficial restoration sites, and actions that are more likely to receive broad public support and generate the greatest social benefit. This session presents methods integrating economic and ecological information to estimate non-market values associated with aquatic habitat restoration. Presentations are encouraged that illustrate work that extends the frontier of valuation applied to aquatic ecosystem restoration, and discusses the use of such work to inform policy at the federal, state and local levels.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Estuarine Restoration, Human Ecology/Dimensions

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes

Leaders: Arnoldo Valle-Levinson , Alejandro Souza

Few studies in low latitude or intratropical systems have revealed that some aspects of the temperate and high latitude dynamical framework are applicable but some are not. This session highlights recent findings on the hydrodynamics of low latitude systems in order to begin to draw some generalities with respect to their dynamical framework.

Categories: Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes, Tropical Systems

Leaders: Jaye Cable , William Nuttle

Estuarine and coastal hydrologic topics are welcome dealing with the quantity of freshwater flow--surface water, groundwater and atmospheric fluxes--moving along the river-estuary-bay gradient and into/out of adjacent wetlands. These topics include the significant variations in these fluxes and in the coupled estuarine processes that occur on seasonal and interannual time scales, and as they encompass the effects of climatic processes such as El Nino. The session will be composed of invited and contributed talks and end with a synthesis presentation and discussion drawing from the breadth of presented topics.

Categories: Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: Edward Houde , Lawrence Sanford

River-Estuary Transition Zones (RETZs) are dynamic regions characterized by their complex physical processes and high sediment delivery, accumulation and retention. Features such as estuarine turbidity maxima (ETM) support high biological productivity, including high microbial activity and elevated zooplankton production, and serve as important nurseries for anadromous fishes. This session includes observational, theoretical and modeling contributions on physical, chemical and biological aspects of RETZ dynamics and processes. In particular, contributions emphasizing synthesis, solutions and science that serves management needs are invited.

Categories: Fish Ecology, Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes, Trophic Dynamics and Food Webs

Leaders: Michael Murrell , John Lehrter

This session explores the role of physically and biologically mediated exchange processes in delivery of nutrients and organic matter to the continental shelf waters from adjacent estuarine and wetland habitats. The core idea is to examine the role of cross-shelf exchange of these materials in providing the fuel for coastal eutrophication.

Categories: Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: Paul Montagna , Carla Guthrie

Science and policy decisions related to freshwater flow currently fall into two categories: instream flows within rivers and streams and freshwater inflows to bays and estuaries. Water managers require sound science for methodologies to link instream and inflows, to estimate environmental flow needs, and to adaptively manage water resources. This session focuses on science characterizing environmental flows, ecological responses, sustainability, and methodologies for guiding environmental flow recommendations within instream and coastal ecosystems.

Categories: Hydrodynamics and Physical Processes, Management, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications

Leaders: Ray Valente , Robert Diaz

To address living resource (particularly fisheries) management objectives, there has been a virtual explosion of benthic habitat mapping (BHM) efforts in recent years. A common challenge is the need to integrate geological and biological perspectives in defining/mapping habitat. The goal of this session is to provide a critical examination of BHM applications and highlight cutting edge methods for integration of substrate, geology and biology needed to produce habitat maps.

Categories: Benthic Ecology , Innovative Technological Applications

Leaders: Krista Kamer , Geno Olmi , Josie Quintrell , Jan Newton

This session highlights the contributions of coastal observing systems to the management of coastal and estuarine systems, with emphasis on the application of observational data to management decisions. Topics of specific interest are water quality and public health; coastal processes, inundation and storm surge; habitat management and restoration; and ecosystem and fisheries management, but submissions from all areas are encouraged. Submissions for posters describing methods and technologies employed and recent advances are also encouraged.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Management, Monitoring and Indicators

Leaders: Dwight Trueblood , Richard Langan

By working collaboratively, scientists and mangers can advance scientific research and maximize the impact of scientific discoveries on coastal management and related policy. This session features case study presentations by technology program managers, technology developers, and coastal resource managers familiar with closing the gap between science and management. Presentations will be followed by a panel discussion focusing on key strategies to overcome technology development and application barriers that are informed by scientific knowledge, the needs of coastal management, and the social, cultural, economic, political and regulatory contexts in which these tools are used.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Management

Leaders: Naomi Detenbeck , Peg Pelletier , Dan Campbell

With the maturation of national coastal monitoring programs and the evolution of coastal observing systems capable of generating and transmitting real-time data, there is a need to synthesize data and create interpretive tools to facilitate the use of data to support management solutions. This session explores new and existing methods for developing and communicating scientific tools for the management of estuaries and other coastal water bodies. Presentations will include an overview of existing decision-support systems for ecosystem-based management, tools to set transparency and loading targets for estuaries, habitat-evaluation tools, a proposed national geo-referenced relational database and decision-support system for estuaries (e-Estuaries), an overview of user needs, and discussions of estuary-specific, regional, national, and international approaches to delivering data and interpretive tools to end-users. The session will conclude with a panel discussion to evaluate the state of information delivery systems and emerging needs.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Monitoring and Indicators, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: Ping Wang , Jon Anderson , Richard Batiuk , Lewis Linker

This session discusses the implications for future estuarine monitoring as the result of innovative data collection, interpretation and management applications. Any contributions on methods or lessons learned from monitoring data interpretation and management applications, as well as monitoring and modeling integration, are welcome, including but not limited to the following topics: dissolved oxygen, nutrients, sediment, phytoplankton, submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster and other living resources, water clarity, salinity and pycnocline, shallow water versus mid-channel monitoring, and environmental indicators.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Monitoring and Indicators

Leaders: Dennis Swaney

Nutrient budgets have been fundamental tools for the analysis of estuarine ecosystems for many years, and for a variety of purposes. While at least one major international project, Land Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) has used a budget approach to try to infer the global distribution and regional variation of coastal ecosystem metabolism, the application of nutrient budgets to address coastal ecosystem management has been less common. This session aims to bring together scientists and managers to report on current approaches to nutrient budgeting, new methodologies, and applications to management questions.

Categories: Carbon, Nutrient and other Material Budgets, Innovative Technological Applications, Watershed Interactions and Coupling

Leaders: Lora Harris , Mark Brush , Lisa Lucas , W. Michael Kemp , James Kremer

This session seeks to promote a broader discussion of how modelers, and the managers who use models or model results, can achieve or improve confidence in their application. We invite papers on innovative modeling approaches, predictability, novel validation/evaluation techniques, and examples of current uses of models in the coastal environment. The first part of the session will focus on predictability from the perspective of theory, innovative approaches and validation, while the second half will focus on specific uses of models (e.g., ecosystem-based management, nutrient control, food web dynamics, biological-physical coupling), with an emphasis on the approach used and how model skill was or could be evaluated. Please see the session's wiki site for further discussion: http://www.editthis.info/erf_prediction/Main_Page.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Management, Modeling

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Invasive Species

Leaders: Liz Fairey , Thomas Therriault , Michelle Harmon

Aquatic invasive species can alter the ecological balance in coastal marine and estuarine environments, often to the detriment of native species in these environments. This session explores recent research on the role of marine aquatic invasive species within the new, evolving paradigm of marine ecosystem management in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. Preference will be given to papers that link scientific tools/research to ecosystem management of invasive species or their ecosystems. This includes papers that consider the impacts on native species or ecosystems.

Categories: Invasive Species, Management

Leaders: Randy Chambers , Laura Meyerson

Common reed Phragmites australis occurs in aquatic habitats throughout the world, but its recent, ongoing spread into estuarine/coastal habitat in North America has scientists and managers scrambling to consider where Phragmites is headed and the long-term positive and negative changes to coastal systems. This session includes the latest papers to promote discussion on the research and management of both native and introduced Phragmites australis including wetland restoration, conservation of native populations, and ecosystem services provided by Phragmites.

Categories: Invasive Species, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: Just Cebrian , Sean Powers

The year 2005 produced both the most active and most devastating Atlantic hurricane season on record. Five major tropical systems (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma) produced significant damage to all states and countries bordering the Gulf of Mexico (including Mexico and Cuba). This session provides an opportunity for oceanographers, marine biologists and ecologists, and social scientists to report on findings specific to estuaries and coasts of the Gulf of Mexico impacted by the 2005 hurricane season.

Categories: Large Scale Natural Events

Leaders: Alexander Kolker , Candace Oviatt

Many climate records have similar components: a long term trend, short term variability and punctuated events. These common characteristics provoke similar questions: what are the magnitudes of these trends, variations and events, and what are their significances to the functioning of estuaries and coasts? This session brings together scientists and managers to discuss the environmental significance of these climate records, which may vary across disciplines as well as spatial and temporal scales.

Categories: Climate Change, Large Scale Natural Events, Regional Science and Management

Leaders: Ron Rozsa , Stephen Smith, Susan Adamowicz

This session explores sudden wetland dieback (SWD). SWD, first observed in the panhandle of Florida in 1990, has since occurred in Connecticut and Rhode Island (1999), and Georgia, South Carolina and Massachusetts (2002). SWD begins with the onset of drought and is characterized by the rapid loss of tidal marsh vegetation within several months. Most perplexing are new diebacks in Massachusetts in non-drought years. Various hypotheses have been proposed implicating severe drought, various abiotic edaphic factors and pathogens.

Categories: Climate Change, Large Scale Natural Events, Tidal Emergent Wetlands

Leaders: To be determined

We anticipate that this session will arise as abstracts are submitted.

Categories: Management

Leaders: To be determined

The application of adaptive management strategies to estuarine and coastal environments has proven successful in addressing many critical needs. In the future, even more complex applications, such as ecosystem-based approaches, will require significant new scientific information and understanding to be effective. This session explores recent successes in adaptive management solutions and explores the new scientific knowledge that will be required to support future management approaches.

Categories: Management

Leaders: Krista Kamer , Geno Olmi , Josie Quintrell , Jan Newton

This session highlights the contributions of coastal observing systems to the management of coastal and estuarine systems, with emphasis on the application of observational data to management decisions. Topics of specific interest are water quality and public health; coastal processes, inundation and storm surge; habitat management and restoration; and ecosystem and fisheries management, but submissions from all areas are encouraged. Submissions for posters describing methods and technologies employed and recent advances are also encouraged.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Management, Monitoring and Indicators

Leaders: Dwight Trueblood , Richard Langan

By working collaboratively, scientists and mangers can advance scientific research and maximize the impact of scientific discoveries on coastal management and related policy. This session features case study presentations by technology program managers, technology developers, and coastal resource managers familiar with closing the gap between science and management. Presentations will be followed by a panel discussion focusing on key strategies to overcome technology development and application barriers that are informed by scientific knowledge, the needs of coastal management, and the social, cultural, economic, political and regulatory contexts in which these tools are used.

Categories: Innovative Technological Applications, Management

Leaders: Drew Talley , Shara Fisler

Ecologists have become increasingly aware of the importance of having a pluralistic view of the world in order to better understand and restore ecosystems. Thus, there is an increased acknowledgment of the importance of including other fields of science (interdisciplinary studies), increasing the spatial extent of attention (landscape ecology and habitat connectivity), and including land managers in science and restoration (adaptive management). This session focuses on how restoring and effectively managing the integrity of estuarine habitats is facilitated by communication and interaction between a variety of sectors including science, policy and the community.

Categories: Estuarine Restoration, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Mark Bain

Prominent ecosystem restoration programs in the U.S. have been faulted for failing to develop plans that encompass the whole ecosystem, consider interest groups and local communities, develop a comprehensive context for site-specific actions, and integrate scientific knowledge. Consequently, large scale restorations are increasingly being planned with interdisciplinary expert teams, large scale perspectives and local community interests. Methods for broad scope ecosystem planning are forming through practice; this session presents contrasting ways to develop holistic, science-based, coastal enhancement programs. Methods for coastal ecosystem planning will be described and illustrated through clearly different application examples centered on coastal areas.

Categories: Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Pamela Neubert , Katie Barnicle , Don Schall , Gregor McGregor

Estuarine ecosystems face constant developmental pressures. This session recognizes the important role of permitting in the management of estuarine ecosystems. Those interested in land use, coastal planning, resource management, legal issues, environmental law, and the overall process of permitting coastal projects are highly encouraged to submit an abstract to present at this session.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Carlton Hunt , Candace Oviatt

This session addresses recent advances in our understanding of the environmental impact ocean outfalls have at local to regional scales and informs coastal scientists and managers of these advances. Understanding can be gained from the perspectives of environmental deterioration or recovery from past discharge practices. Papers that address within discipline (e.g., planktonic and benthic community structure, primary production, and living resources such as flounder or lobster) level understanding as well as multiple disciplinary/ecological assessments are welcome, as are papers that integrate large scale physical factors such as climate and weather, the value of long-term data sets, and water quality, ecological, and transport and modeling. International perspectives are encouraged.

Categories: Eutrophication/Water Quality, Management

Leaders: Becky Allee , Sandy Eslinger

Coastal communities are continuously evolving in response to changes in the environment (e.g., natural, social, economic). As communities react to these changes over time, they rarely address cumulative ecosystem impacts from the perspective of overall hazard resilience. Scientists and policy analysts are now exploring the concept of developing a Community Resilience Index (CRI) to demonstrate the current level of resilience to coastal communities. The CRI would provide a framework for communities to assess and improve their resilience to hazards. Through definition of key factors, communities will identify interdependencies and implement adaptive management techniques. This session addresses critical factors and discusses ongoing CRI development.

Categories: Human Ecology/Dimensions, Management, Policy and Planning

Leaders: Brian Williams , Andrea Copping

This session provides a forum to bring together ecologists, engineer/modelers and natural resource managers to describe and explore ways of combining ecological understanding and estuarine models to develop effective management measures in complex estuaries whose behavior cannot be predicted with certainty. In particular, we hope to draw up a project framework that will require ecologists, modelers and managers to continuously interact in decision focused investigations that are explicitly cognizant of uncertainty.

Categories: Management, Modeling

Leaders: Robert Brumbaugh , Danielle Kreeger , Michael Beck

Many of the world's native bivalve populations have declined precipitously in the past two centuries from excessive fishing pressure, direct habitat loss and effects of coastal eutrophication. After more than a century of basic research on their physiology and ecology, bivalves have been dubbed "ecosystem engineers" for their provision of biogenic reef habitat for other species, as well as their regulation of water quality through filtration and nutrient cycling. An ability to characterize and quantify these services in the field across various spatial scales is likely a prerequisite to economic valuation of ecosystem services and, in turn, improved overall management. This session provides an opportunity to present new methods and monitoring results and synthesize existing knowledge to help guide future scientific and management efforts at various spatial scales.

Categories: Ecosystem Services and Valuation, Management, Shellfish Ecology and Management

Leaders: Jamie King , Roger Newell , Mark Luckenback

State and federal agencies in the Chesapeake region are nearing completion of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the proposed introduction of a non-native species of oyster from Asia, Crassostrea ariakensis. Research has been underway since 2004 to fill priority information needs identified by the National Research Council and the Chesapeake Bay Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. This session provides the opportunity to share new research results, synthesize major findings, and understand how the information from this extensive body of recent work is being used to inform decisions on the proposed oyster introduction.

Categories: Management, Shellfish Ecology and Management

Leaders: John Day , Carles Ibanez

There is a strong scientific consensus that global climate change is taking place and growing evidence that maximum oil production will take place within a couple of decades. Because of the high value of ecosystem services of coastal systems, they will become relatively more important in an energy scarce world. However, climate change will strongly impact coastal ecosystem functioning, and energy scarcity will limit options for coastal management.

Categories: Climate Change, Management

Leaders: Robert Muth