2018 Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems Gordon Research Conference

Gordon Research Conferences, East Greenwich RI

Investigators

Abstract

This award will provide support to conduct a newly approved Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled; Mesophotic Coral reef Ecosystems. The funds will be used to provide partial support for the registration and travel costs of conference attendees with special emphasis on conference speakers, junior scientists, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The 2018 Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems GRC will provide a significant scientific and educational forum for this rapidly emerging field of coral reef science. This conference will be able to foster a diverse interdisciplinary meeting that brings many of the world's current scientists working in this field while also providing a dynamic forum to recruit new investigators and broaden diversity in the field. Climate change will continue to affect shallow coral reefs for decades to come but we know very little about the role(s) of MCEs in the resilience of their shallow water counterparts. The physical and biological connectivity between shallow and mesophotic reefs is essential to understand at a time when we do not even have a grasp of the extent and biodiversity of MCEs around the world. The support will help this growing field of researchers to coalesce behind some central questions and diversify in terms of discipline, gender and race. The GRC organizers anticipate this will result in an improved global network of mesophotic coral reef scientists that will be able to engage in interdisciplinary studies to answer critical questions on MCEs in a collaborative way. Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems (MCEs) are unique and understudied ecosystems characterized as low-light adapted deep reef communities that occur from ~30-150m. These reefs are typically further offshore from anthropogenic stressors and are below the depth limits of most natural disturbances. The habitat available for the development of MCEs has been variably estimated at three to ten times the known areal extent of shallow coral reefs (<30 m). As a result, MCEs are increasingly recognized as potentially important refugia for a variety of shallow reef species currently impacted by climate change related stressors. Therefore, there is a critical need to address many questions regarding the structure and function of MCE communities in their own right, but also in the broadest sense that includes their role in the resilience of shallow coral reef communities to environmental insults. The group of scientists studying MCEs is growing rapidly and includes coral reef ecologists, molecular biologists, oceanographers, physiologists, biogeochemists, paleo-climatologists, fisheries biologists, microbiologists, chemical ecologists, population geneticists and managers interested in resource conservation. This GRC will assemble experts from around the world, as well as students and post-doctoral researchers, to present new data and evaluate the evidence supporting the multiple factors controlling the structure and function of MCE communities worldwide. Given the increasing number of investigators devoting research time to this new field of coral reef ecology and biology, and the increasing number of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers involved, the GRC expect to attract a minimum of 150 participants from around the world. Moreover, MCEs represent a unique biophysical gradient that is attracting researchers from other fields to address issues of adaptation at the genetic, biochemical, and physiological levels in these natural laboratories.