This symposium is organised by Estuarine Ecosystem and Diadromous Fish research unit from Cemagref and the Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Association ECSA Thematic: “Ecosystem Trajectories”. Cemagref, Bordeaux - France 24-28 October 2011.
	contact@ecsa-bordeaux2011.fr

This international symposium will focus on :
Estuarine and Lagoon Ecosystem Trajectories.

Throughout the world, estuaries and lagoons are among the most intensely modified and threatened aquatic ecosystems. Moreover, these systems are vulnerable to the consequences of global change.
From a management point of view, there is a tremendous and concrete lack of knowledge regarding the functioning of estuarine ecosystems and the socio-economic relations that bind the various actors to these environments.

In that context, suitable management and restoration approaches should address both ecological and societal aspects. Medium and long term investigations seem to be suitable to draw the ecosystem trajectories and to explore in an useful way their prospective evolution under different scenarios. This leads to a situation where we may question the concept of « Good Ecological Status/ GES » and « Good Ecological Potential/ GEP ». As estuaries and lagoons are irreversibly affected by human activity, the good ecological status becomes mainly a societal choice, asking the question « Which nature do we want for tomorrow ? »

Apart from tools, models and methodologies to assess ecosystem trajectories, example of management for preservation, restoration and compensation measures are welcome.

This ECSA symposium will contribute to provide sound science on past and future estuarine and lagoon ecosystem evolution. A special session will be dedicated to the concept of good ecological status (GES) in the context of the Water Framework Directive.

Topics

1- Preservation, Rehabilitation and Restoration of ecosystems
2- Methods, Tools and Models for ecosystem monitoring and evolution analysis
3- What is « Good ecological status » and « Good ecological potential » ?
4- Ecosystem trajectories, prospective scenarios and adaptation

We would like to take the opportunity of this symposium to strengthen the transdisciplinary links between Life Science and Human Science on each of the above-mentioned topics.

Scientific Speed Dating

A Scientific Speed Dating session will be organize in order to facilitate exchange/meeting between researchers, student, post doc (read more)

Friends link :

You can visit the website of the symposium on "Coastal ecosystems vulnerability to global change and extreme events"
http://wwz.ifremer.fr/biarritz_2011_eng to be held in France in October 2011. This symposium does not take into account estuaries and lagoons.