4th CESAMIR is back!!!
The COVID pandemic and the more challenging post-Covid period are thankfully behind us, so it is high time to continue the series of wonderful CESAMIR conferences. Preparations are in full swing, soon the updated site will be launched, all important information will be published and of course registration will be opened.
Please stay tuned.
(Please excuse the previous message sent with the old template) 🙂
4th CESAMIR postponed to 2022
Dear colleagues, dear CESAMIRers,
despite slight improvement of the COVID situation, the epidemic affected our daily lives and unfortunately also organizing the 4th CESAMIR conference. As you might know, we decided to wait to see if the situation can improve so that we could organize the conference safely. Unfortunately, despite the improvement, the situation remains uncertain. In such a state, the organization of the conference is really complicated and persistent restrictions or concerns about the second wave of the epidemic could negatively affect the conference if it takes place later this year.
Therefore, after discussion with the Scientific Committee, we decided to definitively cancel the organization of the 4th CESAMIR conference in 2020. We came to the conclusion that the postponement of the event to 2021 is also out of the question, especially given the likely high concentration of other (planned and postponed) scientific events and therefore 4th CESAMIR moves to 2022.
Although we are very sorry, we believe that this is the right decision. We were very looking forward to organize an high quality event for you and introduce our country to you. But, we hope that you will not forget CESAMIR, the summer of 2022 will come quickly and we will be able to welcome you to the conference, as we had planned for this year.
In connection with the solution of organizational matters all important information for those who have already registered or paid registration fees will be distributed soon.
We thank you very much for your interest in the CESAMIR conference as well as for understanding.
With best wishes,
Sincerely yours,
4thCESAMIR organizing team
CORONA virus news
Dear CESAMIR2020 participants, dear friends,
whereas today’s no. 1 theme worldwide is Corona virus, we would like to assure you, that we monitor the situation closely. According to the information from the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Congress center Academia, the actions planned in July are not canceled yet, an so at this point CESAMIR2020 is going ahead.
We will keep you updated, because the safety and well-being of our attendants, speakers and staff is of utmost importance for us.
CESAMIR2020 Workshop and Special Session
Within 4th CESAMIR conference one Workshop and one Special Session will be held:
WORKSHOP title: Carpathian freshwater biodiversity mapping through DNA barcoding – CarpAqBOL?
Carpathian region, including both the Carpathian Arch and the Carpathian Basin, is recognised as a biodiversity and endemism hotspot of global importance. However, so far, most of the studies focus on terrestrial organisms. The aquatic biota is relatively poorly recognised to this day. This is surprising, taking into account that freshwater resources are of critical importance, their biota is highly threatened, and its management is regulated through the EU Water Framework Directive. Besides the low level of awareness and low level of support for science, one of the reasons behind the lack of sufficient knowledge of the aquatic biodiversity in this region is insufficient cooperation between countries of the Carpathian region. This fragmentation results in uneven distribution of specialists and funding as well as limiting the knowledge transfer. Another problem is the putatively high number of difficult to recognise or even cryptic taxa. To overcome these problems a new approach is required that could consolidate efforts of specialists from different Carpathian countries and employ DNA barcoding as an unbiased tool of biodiversity recognition. Creation of such network of taxonomists, field biologists, molecular biologists and bioinformaticians would allow for proper recognition of gaps in knowledge and facilitate collaborations that would help in obtaining funds for filling such gaps.
Workshop Goal is establishing a scientific network that will, following also the activities and goals of DNAqua-Net COST action, unify efforts of researchers interested in studying freshwater biodiversity of the Carpathian region.
Issues to be discussed in the workshop:
- How can the Carpathian region and/or Central/Eastern Europe join, contribute and – most importantly – benefit from the barcoding-rush?
- How to organize and maintain the network? How to share former experience and strengthen the knowledge transfer? Informal (webpage of the network, mailing list, social media) and formal (as an EU COST action, conference sessions, training schools) opportunities.
- Funding: Collaboration in preparation of joint grant proposals through both international (IBOL, EC) and regional initiatives (e.g. national grants, transborder grants).
- Gap analysis: Identification of main regional/taxonomic/habitat gaps that would be prepared as a review and/or a white paper and published (provisional taxonomic lists, barcoding gap analysis).
Chairs: Zoltán Csabai, Tomasz Mamos
Date: July 6th 2020 (after regular presentations)
SPECIAL SESSION (SS1) title: Aquatic macroinvertebrate research using genomic tools
There will be one special session during CESAMIR, bringing together presentations related to DNAqua-Net COST action objectives. The session will be devoted to genomic tools in biodiversity description and assessment, improving DNA barcode reference libraries and biomonitoring of European aquatic macroinvertebrate fauna.
“Early bird” registration and Abstract submission deadlines prolonged!!!
Thank you very much to all who have already submitted their Abstracts and have registered for CESAMIR2020! So far we have about 120 participants from 20 countries registered, which is amazing!
But :-), from our own experience we know, that deadlines often arrive very quickly and, despite efforts, we cannot catch them. For such cases we have very good news!
We would like to inform you that CESAMIR2020 deadlines were prolonged as follows:
New Early bird Registration deadline: March 15th, 2020
New Abstract submission deadline: March 31st, 2020
We strongly believe that many will be pleased with this news and that it will convince you of your participation at CESAMIR2020 conference!
Plenary speakers complete!
With great pleasure we would like to announce that the list of plenary speakers is complete. We are very pleased that our invitation has been finally accepted by truly extraordinary capacities, which play an important role in global freshwater invertebrates research.
In addition to the speakers already announced, our invitation was accepted by Dr. Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber from the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (Austria)and KD (Klaas-Douwe) B Dijkstra from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden (The Netherlands).
Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber is senior scientist focusing mostly on topics related to benthic invertebrates in a changing environment. She is the main driving force behind the Freshwater Information Platform, has established and maintains freshwaterecology.info, and is involved in the establishment of the Alliance for Freshwater Life. Together with colleagues from the UK and Austria she has founded an IUCN Species Specialist Group for Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera.
Astrid will give a talk preliminary entitled “Walking the line from single species to information infrastructures”.
KD Dijkstra is the world specialist on Odonata. His goal in life became to make dragonflies and damselflies the first insect order to attain universal popularity and application in science, conservation and public interest. His European field guide has over 35 thousand copies sold in five languages and cited over 800 times. For twenty years, KD is focused on African Odonata, adopting diverse roles from explorer to curator, taxonomist to conservationist, and environmental consultant to evolutionary ecologist. KD is a member of the Freshwater Conservation Committee of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. His talk at CESAMIR is entitled “Field guides, freshwater, and dragonflies: results and reflections on discovering, appreciating, and preserving life”.
And again, we would also like to remind you that the early bird registration and abstract submission finish in 4 days (March 1), so be sure not to miss it!
It is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Mehrdad Hajibabaei from Canada on board!
Mehrdad Hajibabaei is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics and the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Canada and founder and CSO of eDNAtec Inc. based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. He is an internationally recognized expert in environmental/ecological genomics and bioinformatics and has published 122 publications with over 13000 citations.
Mehrdad has been one of the pioneers in the use of high-throughput genomics technologies, such as Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) for the assessment of biodiversity in samples as varied as water, benthos, soil and sediments to gut contents. He has played a leadership role in establishing and managing large scale research projects and collaborative networks such as the International Barcode of Life (iBOL). He has independently raised approximately $20M in research funds from various agencies and the industrial sector.
Hajibabaei has served on advisory and review panels for major initiatives (e.g. U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network; NEON), international organizations (e.g. International Union for Conservation of Nature; IUCN; UN Convention on Biological Diversity), and major funding agencies. He has collaborated with regulatory agencies (e.g. US EPA, US FDA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Parks Canada) and various industrial partners. He currently leads project STREAM, Sequencing the Rivers for Environmental Assessment and Monitoring, which combines community-based monitoring (citizen science) with a DNA metabarcoding approach to assess aquatic ecosystem health using benthic macroinvertebrate communities across Canadian watersheds.
Title of plenary lecture given by Mehrdad will come soon!
We are proud to announce the first plenary speaker for the 4th CESAMIR – Dr Cesc Múrria from the University of Barcelona (Spain)
Cesc Múrria is an Adjunct part-time professor at the Section of Ecology, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona. As a freshwater macroecologist, he is integrating fieldwork, molecular techniques and statistical and computational tools to investigate fundamental questions in understanding patterns of diversity and structure and the evolutionary processes that drive these patterns.
Given the complexity of factors affecting biodiversity (i.e. functional traits, habitat heterogeneity) and the additive effects of historical events and contemporary processes, his research uses an inter-disciplinary approach assessing diversity patterns simultaneously at different hierarchical organizational levels, from intraspecific traits and genetic variability, through community patterns of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversities to infer diversification and community assembly processes. This perspective enables him a more holistic view on biodiversity, recognising the conceptual time continuum across ecology and evolution. Moreover, his research provides a theoretical framework to test the relevance of the four main “high-level processes” in ecology and evolution: selection, dispersal, drift and speciation.
Cesc will give a lecture preliminary entitled “Macroecological patterns of multiple diversity facets of freshwater macroinvertebrates”.
Another news concern conference workshops and special sessions:
Based on the submitted proposal, we agreed that during the conference one Workshop focused on DNA barcoding and diversity of freshwater biota of the Carpathian region will take place. The workshop will be led by Dr Zoltán Csabai from University of Pécs, more information coming soon.
Due to kind support, we decided to devote a conference Special session to the topics associated with DNAqua-Net COST action objectives and goals. More details also coming soon.
We would also like to remind you, that the early bird registration and abstract submission deadlines (March 1) are approaching, so be sure not to miss it!
Happy New Year with CESAMIR2020!
Dear colleagues, limnologists, conference participants…
On behalf of the entire organizing team, we wish you a happy, healthy and successful year 2020, full of interesting scientific results and fruitful cooperations!
We wish to meet many of you at the CESAMIR2020 – Central European Symposium for Aquatic MacroInvertebrate Research conference in Slovakia in the middle of this year.
We would like to remind you that early bird registration and abstracts submission is in full swing with the deadline March 1, 2020! So far, we have registered participants from seven countries (Armenia, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), so be the next one to increase our diversity.
For all necessary information, please visit the conference website https://www.aquabol.sk/cesamir2020/, where you can also subscribe to receive conference news and updates. All your potential questions will be answered at cesamir2020@aquabol.sk.
With best regards,
CESAMIR2020 Organizing Team
Last reminder: Workshops & Special sessions application
Dear colleagues,
just a small reminder: please, keep in mind the deadline for Workshops & Special sessions application for CESAMIR2020 conference – NOVEMBER 30, 2019!! (for details see previous post).
CESAMIR2020 early bird registration as well as abstract submission is still open!