The SIL Working Group on Aquatic Birds
The working group convened the IInd International Symposium on Limnology and Aquatic Birds which was held at Mérida, Yucatán, México on 24-27 November 1997. It was attended by 40 people from 15 different countries. The smooth running of the meeting was assisted by 8 people of the local organising committee who included members of Ducks Unlimited of Mexico (DUMAC) who were able to assist delegates by organising cheap rates.
The papers ranged from “Factors affecting habitat selection by wintering Ring-necked ducks in Florida USA” (Jeske) and “Waterfowl as a monitoring tool at Myvatn, Iceland” (Gardarsson) through “The management and sustainable use of ducks and geese in North America” (Thompson) to “Effect of fishpond management on water bird breeding populations” (Musil). There were also keynote reviews for each session. The atmosphere of the congress was excellent, with long and interesting discussions in workshop sessions after the formal presentations and we hope to continue these meetings in three years time. This will be discussed during the congress in Dublin. The proceedings of the symposium will be published by Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan (Mexico) and maybe in some publications of Wetlands International.
On the Wednesday there was an excursion to visit the DUMAC field station and see the Celestun Lagoon following a presentation by DUMAC.
Anyone attending the congress in Dublin who has an interest in the interplay of limnology and waterfowl should keep a look out for the meeting of this Working Group. Those unable to come to Dublin who wish to join the Working Group should contact me.
Dr Francisco A. Comin
Departament d’Ecologia
Facultat de Biologia
Universitat de Barcelona
Av Diagonal 645
08028 Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: comin@porthos.bio.ub.es
SIL Working Group on the Conservation and Management of Running Waters
The 9th newsletter – Meanders – of this group was circulated in December 1997. It lists the names and addresses of members, including e-mail where given. There will be a meeting of the group during the congress in Dublin at which the subject for discussion will be Opportunities and Constraints in Protecting Rivers of Conservation Importance. Anyone who is not already in touch with this group who is attending the congress and wishes to participate in this discussion should get in touch beforehand with:
Dr Philip J Boon
Scottish Natural Heritage
2 Anderson Place
Edinburgh EH6 5NP
E-mail: phil.boon@snh.gov.uk
SIL Working Group on International Projects on Deep Coring Operations on Lake Biwa and Paleolimnological Work on Relict Lakes of the World
The eleventh newsletter of this group (International Project on Paleolimnology and Late Cenozoic Climate No 11 edited by Shoji Horie), runs to 160 pages and contains 19 papers of varying length grouped into two sections. The first is on Pole-Equator-Pole Longitudinal Paleolimnology which contains four papers on Baikal geochronology plus four others ranging from Antarctica, through Australia and Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk. The second section contains papers from the International Symposium: Pleistocene Glacio-Climatic, Crustal Deformation Process in Biwa Relict Lake.
This symposium took place at Doshisha University in Japan and, with its pre- and post excursions, occupied the period 24 September to 22 October 1997. Before the symposium itself, participants attended a discussion at the annual congress of the Japanese Seismological Society and made observations of the Nojima Fault related to the Kobe earthquake. After two introductory days of papers (most of which are in this volume), including those by invited scholars from Europe, the symposium became a travelling field trip during which participants observed and discussed the relationships of various thick terrestrial gravel deposits to a similar thick gravel layer which has been found 200-250 m below the bottom surface of Lake Biwa. In addition the post symposium excursion visited Mt Taeyama, Mida-ga-hara to study plant succession processes just after the deglaciation.
All the papers are in English except two which are in German. All except one have abstracts in English, and many also in Russian.
A restricted number of copies are available for those who send a money order (for 3,300 Japanese Yen or 25$US including postage) to:
Prof Shoji Horie
GeoForschungs Zentrum Potsdam
Aufgabenbereich 3, Telegrafenberg
14473 Potsdam
Germany
Group on Aquatic Primary Productivity – GAP
GAP VII will be held from 9 to 17 September 1999 at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Peter Bossard and Reinhard Bachofen will co-chair the local organizing committee. The objectives of the workshop are directed towards a better understanding of the dynamics of primary production in spatially and temporally heterogeneous aquatic environments. The following working group topics will be available:
Dynamics of primary production and biological diversity in different aquatic environments and at different time scales.
Effect of UV radiation (UV-A, UV-B) on primary productivity in different aquatic environments.
Role of nutrients (including trace metals) for the primary productivity and phytoplankton community structure.
Infochemicals (e.g. allelochemicals) and chemical interactions between organisms in primary production.
Approaches and methods to estimate daily primary productivity.
The first circular is available (after 4 May) on the web-site: http://www.sghl.ch/SGHL/Pages/gap99.htm
Dr. Peter Bossard
EAWAG, Hydrobiology/Limnology
Tel. +41 – 41 – 349 21 20
Fax +41 – 41 – 349 21 68
E-mail: peter.bossard@eawag.ch