Second Announcement and Call for Abstracts
The Organising Committee of the 2nd International Symposium on Nematodes as Environmental Bioindicators (2ISNEB) are delighted to invite you to participate in this event which will take place on the
5th and 6th of July 2012 at Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
This will be the second conference of its kind at an international level, after the success of its predecessor event in June 2007 in Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, and it will happen under the auspices of the Association of Applied Biologists (http://www.aab.org.uk/).
Many anthropogenic factors have a negative impact on the quality of soil, air and water leading to detrimental environmental changes. This conference will bring together experts working to understand the response of key food web organisms to these changes. Scientists from across the world using a common platform, the phylum Nematoda, will present their studies on these environmentally important organisms to address questions of habitat and ecosystem changes at community, individual organism and molecular levels in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Furthermore, this event will aid towards the dissemination of information by ecologists who aim to understand the underlying mechanisms leading to community change. It is envisaged that it will disseminate high impact science that could influence not only other scientists, but also regulators and policy makers.
Themes for this symposium will include, but will not be limited to:
- Role of nematodes in ecosystems
- Nematode biodiversity
- Nematode community analyses: classical
- Nematode community analyses: molecular
- Nematode ecotoxicology and genotoxicity
- Transgenic nematode biosensors
- Environmental change and nematode gene expression
- Commercialisationpotential of nematodes as bio-indicators
- Environmental monitoring and risk assessment using nematodes
- Sentinel nematode species
- Nematodes in terrestrial and aquatic (fresh water and marine) habitats
- Nematodes and sustainability
- Various land use effects on nematode communities and/or individual taxa
Participants are invited to contribute platform and poster presentations under (but not limited only to) the above themes; abstract submissions should take place by 31st of March 2012.
Keynote addresses:
Dr . Phillip L. Williams,Dean and Georgia Power Professor, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, USA
Dr. Sebastian Höss,Founder and CEO, ECOSSA, Germany
Prof. J. (Hans) Helder, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Prof. Deborah Neher, University of Vermont, USA
We would therefore like to ask you to book these dates in your diaries and come to this meeting and also to encourage your colleagues to attend. The success of this symposium will depend on your participation. Delegates will be given a great opportunity to present their work in this unique niche event, meet peer experts in the field and be updated on current development in this pertinent field.
Updates on important dates, instructions to contributors and registration will follow.
Warmest regards
The Organising Committee of 2nd ISNEB
Contact: 2isneb@UGent.be
