Sessions

LFC 2017 Theme Sessions and Early Career Event

 

Four theme sessions are planned:

 

The Effects of Climate Change on Marine Fish Early Life Stages: Which Stressors are Most Important and How Do They Interact?

Conveners: Hannes Baumann, University of Connecticut-Avery Point ([email protected]) and Marta Moyano, University of Hamburg ([email protected])

Early life stages of fishes are particularly susceptible to the suite of ongoing, simultaneous changes in marine and freshwater environments, from rising temperatures and increasing acidification, to hypoxia, chemical pollution, and habitat alteration. While the concurrent nature of many of these stressors has been robustly documented, research on the combined effects of multiple stressors on important life history traits and their implications for future fish stock productivity and resiliency is still in its infancy. Here we invite contributions that address this knowledge gap. This session welcomes experimental, field, and modeling studies that explore the broad spectrum of potential responses to, and consequences of multiple stressors impacting larval fish ecology, physiology, and adaptive capacity.

 

Complexity and Performance Change During Physiological Development of Larval Fishes

Conveners: Warren W. Burggren, University of North Texas ([email protected]) and Prescilla Perrichon, University of North Texas ([email protected])

The physiology of adult fishes has been studied for centuries, but investigations of physiological processes in larval stages have only recently been a focus of study, even though these biological processes are crucial to our overall understanding of evolutionary history. Failure in development or homeostasis during these critical stages could lead to detrimental consequences for fish welfare/fitness in later stages. Furthermore, fish early life stages are now recognized as indispensable components in various world regulatory settings, as alternative animal models for understanding vertebrate development, and as effective for assessment of pharmaceutical substances and/or environmental conditions. Study of physiological processes in larval fishes can be highly challenging due to their extremely small sizes and often an extremely rapid developmental progression. Methods and strategies of evaluation have to be constantly rethought and reinvented. The purpose of this session is to bring together expertise with foundational knowledge in the comparative and integrative physiology of larval fishes. A series of key physiological processes will be highlighted, including development and plasticity; regulation/osmoregulation, transport and gas exchange; genomic and DNA integrity; immuno/pathophysiology, respiration and homeostasis; sensory physiology and neuromechanisms; and control and defense of organisms. This session will provide an overview of abilities of larval fishes to face the physical and chemical challenges imposed by an often highly variable aquatic environment.

 

Nutrition and Feeding of Fish Early Life Stages

Convener: Kenneth A. Webb, University of Texas Marine Science Institute ([email protected])

Beginning with maternally deposited nutrients and ending with metamorphosis into juvenile forms, nutrition and feeding of early life stages are critical to successful growth and recruitment of all fishes. It is also imperative that we understand how the smallest changes in nutrient availability or timing can affect the physiology of fish larvae with effects possibly lasting into adulthood. This session invites contributions who seek a better understand how early life stages acquire and utilize food, deal with variations in nutrient availability, and respond to nutrients later in life following “programming” by diets consumed during early ages.

 

Assessing and Evaluating Phenotypic Variation in Fish Early Life History Stages: Field Studies, Experiments, and Modeling

Conveners: Klaus Huebert, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory ([email protected]), Tom Miller, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory ([email protected]), and Chris Chambers, NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center ([email protected])

Phenotypic variation of early life history stages influences all aspects of fish biology from taxonomic definitions, to the fitness and fate of individuals, and to population dynamics. This session invites contributions that go beyond characterizing “average” individuals to explore ecological trade-offs among different morphological, physiological, behavioral, and other phenotypic traits of fish eggs, larvae, and juveniles. This includes research on causes (e.g., genetic or environmental) and consequences (e.g., condition or survival) of phenotypic variation as well as insights into the relationships among different traits (e.g., from modeling hypothetical phenotypes or comparing morphometrics of individuals observed in nature).

 

A special Early Career Event is planned:

 

ELHS’s Early Career Workshop: How to Find the Right Scientific Career for You

Do you wonder how and when to start planning your next career move? Are you aware of alternative career paths? This year, the EHLS Early Career (EC) Committee is organizing a 2-part workshop on Career Planning. Part 1 consists of a speed networking event (ca. 2 hours), during which each of 12 senior scientists will chat with 2 EC participants (students, young scientists) for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the EC participants will rotate to the next mentor. This pattern continues through the cycle of all 12 mentors. At the end of the event, attendees will gather to continue the discussion. In Part 2 (ca. 1 hour), the EC participants without senior scientists will discuss in small groups how their pre-conceived ideas about their career aspirations may have changed. This event is open to all ELHS members but with limited capacity (24 EC participants and 12 senior scientists). Please sign up early and participate!
For further details and questions about this EC Workshop, contact event organizers, Marta Moyano, University of Hamburg ([email protected]) and Alison Deary, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center ([email protected]).