FBA Conferences in Aquatic Biology

The Freshwater Biological Association Conferences in Aquatic Biology are prestigious international workshops, drawing together the very best in aquatic biology and its application in environmental management. Essentially ‘summits’ of the world’s pre-eminent leaders in the field, these small workshops promote the free exchange of ideas at the frontiers of aquatic research - addressing new concepts, advancing the science and analysing how it may be applied.

Second Freshwater Biology Summit
Achieving ecological outcomes: aquatic ecological responses to catchment management 12-15 April 2010, FBA Windermere, Cumbria, UK
Convenor and Guest Editor: Prof. Graham Harris, Lancaster Environment Centre

Following the success of the inaugural conference in September 2008, the second in the series will be held in 2010, at the FBA's Windermere site in the English Lake District. The conference will tackle one of the most difficult questions in catchment science today: why is it so difficult to achieve good ecological outcomes from integrated catchment management programmesω The speakers (see below) have been chosen to highlight new research approaches to understanding the complexities of linked landscapes and waterscapes and to focus discussion around how to move forward on this issue.

The conference will be of interest not only to scientists working in this field, but also those responsible for practical management. Emphasis will be placed on interaction and discussion, with a mix of lectures and workshops.

Places are limited, so early booking is recommended (see Booking Form below). Discounted fees are available for early registration and there are a small number of subsidised places for students. Participants, especially students, are invited to display a poster introducing their work. Note that the VAT rate from January 2010 is 17.5%.

Deadlines: early registration & posters 15 Jan 2010 - Now extended to 5 Feb 2010, late registration 1 March 2010.

The conference will be held at the FBA's site on the western shore lake Windermere, with the conference dinner at the Belsfield Hotel in Bowness-on-Windermere, on the eastern shore. There is a regular ferry and boat service across the lake between Bowness and the FBA. The conference is non-residential and delegates are responsible for arranging their own accommodation. For further details about the venue location and local accommodation, click here.

» Flyer / Booking Form – PDF-File, 70.7 KB

Partnership and sponsorship
Opportunities exist to support speakers’ expenses, subsidised registrations, printing costs for the subsequent publication, and for the opening reception and conference dinner. Please contact Karen Rouen (krouen@fba.org.uk) for further information.

Special Issues of Freshwater Biology
Contributions from the conference will be published online as a special issue of the leading journal Freshwater Biology. The special issue will guest-edited by Prof. Graham Harris and will be freely accessible to all.

Invited speakers

Prof. Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Princeton University, USA - River networks as ecological corridors: a complex systems perspective. SPEAKER NOW WITHDRAWN - REPLACEMENT TO BE CONFIRMED.
Prof. James Kirchner, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research, Switzerland - Catchments as simple dynamical systems. Jim Kirchner has done much innovative work on the transport of water and solutes in catchments with fractal properties. He has shown that it is possible to use high level theory to make robust predictions about catchment hydrology and effectively “do hydrology backwards”.
Prof. Emily Stanley, University of Wisconsin, USA - The influence of management activities and restoration on carbon fluxes in aquatic ecosystems. Emily Stanley works on the dynamics of riverine ecosystems and on how management actions affect nutrient dynamics. We have asked her to speak about her latest work on land use and carbon cycling in streams.
Dr Stephen Hamilton, Michigan State University, USA - Nitrogen uptake and retention in fresh waters. Stephen Hamilton's research focuses on ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry, with particular attention to aquatic environments and the movement of water through landscapes. Working on systems in the USA, South America and Australia, he is especially interested in running waters, wetlands and floodplains, and the interface they represent between aquatic and terrestrial ecosyetems. (Dr Hamilton replaces Patrick Mulholland, who unfortunately can no longer attend.)
Profs Louise Heathwaite and Phil Haygarth, Lancaster Environment Centre, UK - Phosphorus dynamics in catchments: sources, sinks and impacts across scales. Louise Heathwaite and Phil Haygarth have led or participated in much of the recent work on phosphorus dynamics in the UK; working particularly on sources, transports and sinks of P in agricultural catchments and the potential for control through management actions.
Prof. Peter Davies, University of Tasmania, Australia - Land use, catchments and the ecological condition of rivers. Peter Davies chairs the Sustainable Rivers Audit for the Murray Darling Basin Authority in Australia and leads a major retrospective study of the effects of land use on stream ecology in Tasmania.
Prof. Colin Reynolds, Freshwater Biological Association and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK - Complexity and emergence in aquatic ecosystems: predictability in aquatic ecosystem responses. Colin Reynolds has published a significant body of work on the responses of algal communities to environmental drivers and has begun to analyse how complex outcomes can arise from simple physiological underpinnings.
Prof. Graham Harris, Lancaster Environment Centre, UK - Uncertain catchment impacts on complex entities. Graham Harris has worked for many years on the properties of aquatic ecosystems and the problems of linking management impacts to outcomes in these complex entities. He has also worked on the links complex between socio-economic and ecological systems.
Prof. David Allan, University of Michigan, USA - Scenario modelling and Bayesian Decision Networks to evaluate relationships between stressors and stream health. Prof. Allan heads an active research programme into the effects of landscape and land use on stream health. He leads collaborative activities that are directed at the translation of aquatic science into useful products for management, conservation and restoration of running waters.
Prof. Kevin Rogers, University of Witswatersrand, South Africa - Thresholds of potential concern and the adaptive management of rivers in Kruger Park. Kevin Rogers is Director of the Centre for Water in the Environment (CWE) at the University of the Witwatersrand and leads a group working on the development of adaptive management systems that integrate science, stakeholder needs and management to meet South Africa's innovative water and environmental legislation.
Prof. Keith Beven, Lancaster Environment Centre, UK - Modelling everything everywhere: new approaches to Water Framework Directive compliance. Prof. Beven has an international reputation for his work on hydrological modelling and on uncertainty estimation. He has also written about the concept of “modelling everything everywhere”; the use of new kinds of distributed environmental models that learn from data and incorporate uncertainty into their predictions.

Previous conferences

The Inaugural Freshwater Biology Summit
Multiple Stressors in Freshwater Ecosystems
1–4 September 2008, FBA Windermere, Cumbria, UK.

The inaugural conference focused on multiple stressors in freshwater ecosystems: how they combine/interact, the consequences, and the implications to water managers who need to be able to predict outcomes and prioritise responses in highly complex circumstances. Contributions from the conference have now been published online in a special issue of the leading journal Freshwater Biology. Guest-edited by Prof. Steve Ormerod, the special issue is be freely accessible to all: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123243237/issue

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Freshwater Biology and the Environment Agency of England and Wales.

» Programme – PDF-File, 465.5 KB