ITRS 2025

SEA URCHIN BARRENS WORKSHOP

celine — 2025-03-13T14:23:09Z

Climate change, pollution, and overfishing—along with other human-driven disturbances—are driving the decline of kelp forests, often leading to the formation of sea urchin barrens as a dominant ecosystem state in temperate reefs. These unproductive states are reinforced by strong feedback mechanisms, making natural kelp recovery highly unlikely without extreme events (e.g., storms, disease outbreaks) or direct human intervention, such as urchin removal. As ocean conditions change, some regions are becoming increasingly vulnerable to this challenge. Striking examples are the ongoing range expansion of Centrostephanus rodgersii across Tasmania and Northern New Zealand. At the same time sea urchin mass mortalities of the genus Diadema have been registered worldwide, highlighting the urgent need for management action. In this workshop we will discuss the effects of changing climate on the impact of sea urchin barrens across temperate reefs.

Note that this workshop and the Kelp Forest Challenge workshop will be coordinated and timed to allow for interested participants to attend both.

Date: June 30th

If you are willing to attend this workshop please contact jboada@ceab.csic.es

Designing multiple driver experiments

celine — 2024-12-05T14:55:40Z

The MEDDLE resources were developed to help researchers design and carry out tractable, intercomparable multiple driver experiments. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use these resources to design multiple driver experiments in an ocean acidification context – but the principles can be used for any environmental drivers.

Topics include :

Defining the research question
Identifying relevant drivers
Identifying biological traits and responses
Experimental designs for multiple driver experiments
Statistical analysis plans
Testing your design and analysis with the MEDDLE simulator

Hosted by SCOR Working Group 149, this free workshop will be led by :

Christopher Cornwall (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Ben Harvey (Shimoda Marine Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Japan)
Steeve Comeau (Sorbonne University, France)
Gil Rilov (University of Haifa, Israel)
Christian Pansch (Åbo Akademi University, Finland)
Bayden Russell (Swire Institute of Marine Science University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China)

If you would like to attend, contact Christopher Cornwall (christopher.cornwall@vuw.ac.nz) by 15th March to register your interest. Limited to 25 people, so please register early for planning purposes.

Please include a brief (<150 words) statement outlining (a) your experience carrying out OA or multiple driver experiments (if any) and (b) how you plan to incorporate multiple driver experiments into your work.

For more information see: https://meddle-scor149.org/decision-support-tool/

KELP WORKSHOP

celine — 2024-11-26T15:51:02Z

The Kelp Forest Challenge calls for the restoration and protection of 4 million hectares of kelp forests by 2040. Following the launch of the Challenge, we collectively produced a roadmap for achieving our goals and scaling up kelp forest conservation worldwide. This roadmap provided high level advice and actions for the global community but lack specificity at the country or state level.
This workshop will bring together experts from many different fields related to kelp conservation to begin working on country-specific roadmaps or action plans for scaling up kelp forest conservation in each country. The Kelp Forest Alliance will provide an update on the amount of kelp forest protected and restored in each country, and we will organize into region specific working groups to identify the barriers and next steps for scaling up kelp conservation locally and as a result, globally.

To participate to this workshop, please register here:

Kelp Workshop Registration

Please direct all questions regarding this workshop to kfa@kelpforestalliance.com