IMBER IMBIZO III (28-31 Jan. 2013, Goa, India)

Overall theme of IMBIZO lll

The future of marine biogeochemistry, ecosystems and societies.

Multi-dimensional approaches to the challenges of global change in continental margins and open ocean systems 

 Summary

Marine ecosystems are essential to life as we know it on this planet, yet the oceans are undergoing fundamental change. More than 20% of the global population resides within 100km of the coast, leading to increasing pressure on the ecosystems in continental margins; more than 90% of natural and farmed fish production is supported by the continental margin ecosystems, thus serving as an important food source. Meanwhile, global change has added a new set of threats, such as increased acidification and warming of the oceans. Humans are both a driver and a recipient of this change and it has become increasingly critical to understand, at multiple scales from the local to the global, how biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, societies, governments and people, might respond to these changes and threats. The objective of IMBIZO lll is to explore the linkages and interactions between humans and marine systems to create understanding of the possible futures of the interrelated ecological and biogeochemical systems in the continental margins and in the open ocean and their societal implications.

Meeting format

We will follow the proven IMBIZO format of three concurrent but interacting workshops, and joint plenary and poster sessions. This has been found to provide a forum for stimulating discussion between interdisciplinary experts and also linkages between biogeochemistry, ecosystem and social science research. To facilitate effective discussion, each workshop will be limited to 40 participants, so participation will be selective. The participants, coming from communities with active interests in the topics, will be chosen to provide balance in scientific disciplines as well as geographic distribution

Workshops

Each of the three workshops will include oral and poster presentations to showcase the current state of knowledge in each area and discussion sessions to identify key questions to be addressed by IMBER.