International Symbiosis Society Congress Support, August 17-23, 2003, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

The International Symbiosis Society based at Boston University requests support for the planning and convening of its next scientific research Congress set for August 17 - 23, 2003 at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Five hundred participants are expected, most working in specific symbiotic systems such as mycorrhizae-plant interactions, endophytic fungi and grasses, nitrogen fixing bacteria/cyanobacteria and their hosts, hermatypic corals and dinoflagellates, lichens, insect and rumen gut microfauna, Azolla/Oryza sativa growth enhancement, and orchid ecology. Keynote speakers/leaders for the symposia include David Read, U. of Sussex, UK; Birgitta Bergman, Stockholm U.; Margaret McFall-Ngai, U. of Hawaii; Angela Douglas,York U., UK; Jan Sapp, U. of Montreal; Lynn Margulis, U. of Massachusetts; and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Queensland U., Australia, among others. Congress organizers are Society President Douglas Zook biologist and science educator at Boston University and who is the P.I., and David Richardson, Dean of Science and lichenologist at Saint Mary's University, Halifax. The Society is particularly unique in that it by its very nature it builds bridges among biologists/ecologists who would otherwise remain separated. Therefore, the main objective of the Congress is to provide a special world forum where symbiologists can optimally exchange knowledge and ideas. Also, its dialogue and outcomes will contribute to a greater understanding of global ecology, regional ecosystem function, and cell biology; encourage involvement in ecology in general and symbiosis in particular by students; and, actively promote content and curriculum enhancement in symbiosis for both pre-college and university teachers. A focus theme of the Congress will be global threats to keystone symbionts, such as bleaching of zooxanthellae, lichen susceptibility to sulfur dioxide and related emissions, and the demise of larger symbiont-containing foraminifera. This theme further emphasizes the deep but often ignored role symbiosis plays in earth systems and human society. Agriculture, forestry, biome establishment, restoration ecology, coral reef existence, and fundamental understandings of the eukarya cell are all substantiually dependent on symbiosis. More then fifty per cent of the funds for the Congress will be covered by registrant fees and some projected private corporate support. The ISS seeks additional support from the NSF to help defray travel costs for graduate students; to provide travel and related support for featured speakers; to assist teacher attendance and support a symbiosis teacher workshop at the Congress; and to cover costs of key publications, such as special editions of the ISS newsletter, Symbiosis International, which will highlight Congress announcements, conference schedule booklet, and the Congress abstract book. Ongoing post-Congress contact will be mainained through a web exchange network on the ISS web sites (Congress web site is http://people.bu.edu/dzook/), and selected papers from the Congress will be published during 2004 in a special issue of the ISS affiliated journal, Symbiosis, published out of Tel Aviv.