Here you find the ZAC2 booklet and here the ZAC2 program.
On January 21st you found the ZAC2 Lobby here.
Foto: Achim Meyer at the coffee break during the virtual ZAC2
Please find below the list of session titles a detailed description of each session content
Session 1: Aquaculture food systems and sustainability: multiple methods and perspectives
Session 2: Navigating uncertain waters: tackling noise, errors, uncertainty and variability in data collection, analysis, modelling and management
Session 3: Understanding and protecting tropical diversity
Session 4: Coastal Development and Hinterland Dynamics; PA3
Session 5: Managing small scale fisheries, interdisciplinary perspectives
Session 6: Coral reefs and their response to anthropogenic disturbances in the past, present, and future
Session 7: Tropical climate and coastal change: Learning from physical data and models
Session 8: Open session
ZAC2 organisation team: Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Achim Meyer, Gary Murphy1, Mirco Wölfelschneider and Nils Moosdorf
1 Gary Murphy passed away on March 23rd 2022; he will be greatly missed by colleagues and friends.
Session 1: Aquaculture food systems and sustainability: multiple methods and perspectives
Chairs: Holger Kühnhold (Experimental Aquaculture), Stefan Partelow (Institutional and Behavioral Economics) & Aisa O. Manlosa (Institutional and Behavioral Economics)
Aquaculture can provide reliable access to nutrients, proteins, and a consistent livelihood, due to overexploited capture fisheries. Fish presently contributes more than one-third of total animal protein supply in 34 countries. Aquaculture can meet the projected increases in global seafood consumption. This makes the development of sustainable aquaculture practices a key measure to enhance global food systems resilience. However, not all aquaculture impacts are positive and numerous studies suggest a large heterogeneity in social systems linked to aquaculture, making generalizations difficult.
Drawing on multiple perspectives and methods to understand aquaculture sustainability is essential to generate both fundamental and applied knowledge. We aim for a balanced representation of perspectives from the natural and social sciences to highlight synergies.
Our session focuses on: How can aquaculture contribute to feeding the world through the provision of proteins, without harming the environment and vulnerable social groups? Potential subtopics are: resource efficient forms of aquaculture, such as unfed and low trophic-level species, promising species in terms of robustness towards environmental change (e.g., temperature and acidity), nutritional content and environmental impacts of novel biomasses, and insights from aquaculture stakeholders as well as system, target or transformative knowledge research on aquaculture social-ecological systems. Other topics welcome.
Session 2: Navigating uncertain waters: tackling noise, errors, uncertainty and variability in data collection, analysis, modelling and management
Chairs: Fridolin Haag (Data Science & Prediction), Tim Dudeck (Fisheries Biology) & Seth Mensah Abobi (Resource Management & University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana)
Variance is the spice of science. No matter our discipline, we aim to make sense of phenomena that we cannot observe closely, model exhaustively, or control perfectly. Instead, we are confronted with error, bias, and noise in our observations, with assumptions in our analysis, and researcher degrees of freedom.
As scientists we use an array of informal and formal practices to tackle these challenges, for instance experimental design, data collection and analysis protocols, statistical procedures, or sensitivity analysis.
The goal of this session is to bring together your perspectives on how such “uncertain waters” can be navigated. Which observation errors do you find difficult to address? How do you decide about data collection schemes and protocols? How do you tackle noise and variability in data? What can support communication about uncertainties? We want to hear your stories of success, learn from your failures, think about your problems, and discuss your ideas.
As such questions arise in any field, we seek contributions from any discipline, working group, and research topic. We would like to learn about the content and results of your projects, but invite a focus on the methodic and methodological issues you encountered, such as those sketched above.
Session 3: Understanding and protecting tropical diversity
Chairs: Oscar Puebla (Fish Ecology and Evolution) and Sonia Bejarano (Reef Systems)
One of the most prominent characteristics of the tropics is their high level of diversity. This is not just true of biological diversity but also of cultural diversity, diversity of biogeochemical and ecological processes, of resources, … Furthermore, this diversity is often multifaceted. For example, biological diversity includes genetic diversity, biochemical diversity, taxonomic and functional diversity, and the same may apply to other types of diversity. Quantifying patterns of diversity is absolutely fundamental to understanding how the tropics function and respond to ongoing and future environmental changes. Nevertheless, this can be a complex task that often requires an expertise per se and the use of fast-evolving tools and approaches. We invite contributions covering the understanding and protection of all aspects of marine tropical diversity.
Session 4: Coastal Development and Hinterland Dynamics; PA3
Chairs: Tim Jennerjahn (Ecological Biogeochemistry) & Marion Glaser (Social-Ecological Systems Analysis)
The ZMT programme areas are relatively new and still in development. In Programme Area 3 we address the causes and consequences of human interventions in the coastal zone and its hinterland on matter fluxes, eutrophication, pollution, habitat and ecosystem distribution, diversity and wellbeing of organisms and people, ecosystem services, socioeconomic conditions and governance (for details: here).
An intensive exchange of what we have so far and what may define the way forward will help to further sharpen PA3 and the PAs as such, as well as the overall ZMT profile.
We ask for contributions that are relevant to PA3. These may be reports on ongoing research, plans for research projects, recent own publications and ideas for PA3-relevant synergy activities at ZMT.
Session 5: Managing small scale fisheries, interdisciplinary perspectives
Chairs: Achim Schlüter (Institutional and Behavioural Economics) and Matthias Wolff (Resource Management)
Small scale fisheries still are one of the most important livelihoods for poor inhabitants along tropical coasts. Among marine resources, fisheries have been investigated the longest from a natural and social science perspective. This is also true for small scale fisheries, the focus of this session. Therefore, we can build on a broad fundament of theoretical and empirical knowledge. Nevertheless, there remain many challenges, so that those fisheries can cope with the ongoing changes. This is particularly true, if we are thinking of social ecological perspectives, so those, which are cooperating deeply between the social and the natural sciences. The session aims for contributions looking at local fisheries from all different kinds of perspectives. We want to catch the diversity at ZMT. Due to the expected diversity, we are planning to give, on the one hand, room for each presentation on its own right. We ask for a presentation of 15 minutes, followed by a discussion of 15 minutes. On the other hand, we close the session or series of sessions with a discussion on synergies and cooperation potential. Contributions from all steps of research are welcome: proposals, concrete paper plans, draft papers, submitted papers, or anything else, you believe is interesting for you to share.
Session 6: Coral reefs and their response to anthropogenic disturbances in the past, present, and future
Chairs: Lisa Röpke (Experimental Aquaculture), Sonia Bejarano (Reef Systems), Henry Wu (Coral Climatology), Gary Murphy (Carbonate Sedimentology) and Steve Doo (Carbonate Sedimentology)
Tropical coral reefs have changed substantially over Earth’s history, being subjected to a broad spectrum of increasing pressures due to anthropogenic disturbances. Increasing anthropogenic impacts such as riverine discharge, nutrient loading, pollution, and thermal or acidification stress present issues for coral reef environments with unforeseen consequences from the local to the regional and global scales. In this session we invite opinions, ideas, and/or studies focused on the dynamics, processes and responses of coral reef ecosystems to changing anthropogenic impacts. Contributions may pertain to the use and protection of food resources available for humans on coral reefs (PA1) as well as to organism- to ecosystem-level responses to global-scale impacts (PA2).
Session 7: Tropical climate and coastal change: Learning from physical data and models
Chairs: Henry Wu (Coral Climatology) and Jan Härter (Complexity and Climate)
Preserved in the geological records and instrumental measurements, a wealth of data provides insight into climatic and geological processes such as the history of climate, sea-level, or weather-related extremes of the past. These records and climate models are contrasting but yet complementary sources of information on the evolution of our Earth and how it will evolve in the near future. The aim of this session is to share progress amongst colleagues in our understanding of global changes based on geochemical, paleoenvironmental, sedimentological techniques and numerical studies that use climate model outputs to understand the physical controls of climate variability. Another important topic of this session is the socio-economic responses on extremes or catastrophic events as well as long-term sea-level change. As an integral part of socio-economic response, the perception and social representation of weather and hydrological hazards and extremes (e.g. floods, droughts) are also valuable topics of discussion in the session.
Session 8: Open session
Chairs: Mirco Wölfelschneider (Mangrove Ecology), Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa (Development and Knowledge Sociology) and Nils Moosdorf (Submarine Groundwater Discharge)
ZMT is a diverse research institute and not always does all work fits into pre-set categories. This session invites contributions from everyone to any topic they feel is relevant in the context of ZAC2.