Next week is the Ecology Across Boarders meeting in Ghent. At the meeting, a number of the BES Special Interest Groups are running workshops, social events and meet-ups. To find out more about the SIGs, we’ve invited them to talk about who they are, what they do, what to look out for at the Ecology Across Borders meeting, and what their plans are for 2018.
The Aquatic Ecology Group (BESAG) aims to foster a dynamic group of individuals able to address the broad range of challenges faced by the aquatic community, and to further knowledge in this research area. BESAG is growing and so is our following on social networks (2500 followers on Twitter!)
Upcoming event:
BESAG ECR Award
The British Ecological Society Aquatic Group (BESAG) will award this prize to one distinguished early career scientist at its annual meeting. The award will be made in recognition of excellent research, as demonstrated by first-authored publications in internationally relevant journals, to a scientist who is no more than 8 years after the start of their PhD and working on a relevant area of marine and/or freshwater ecosystem science.
The winner will receive the award at the BESAG annual meeting and will be invited to present their research in a keynote speech as part of the annual meeting. Conference fees, travel and accommodation expenses are covered, and the winner will receive a commemorative plaque.
Self-applications will not be accepted; nominations (of no more than 1 side A4) should be made by colleagues or collaborators. It is expected that the nominator will discuss the application with the nominee, in order to provide a summary CV (maximum 1 side A4) giving details relevant to the award criteria above. Nominees must be members of the British Ecological Society.
Please email nominations for the 2018 round to Lee Brown (l.brown@leeds.ac.uk) before June 1st 2018.
Ecology Across Borders – BES Annual Meeting
On Tuesday 12th December, BESAG will host a cheese and wine social. Time and location TBC.
Some of our committee and SIG members will be present at the pre-conference ECR development workshop. If you are attending, be sure to say ‘hello’ and make yourself known to us! Other workshops and talks that will be of particular interest to aquatic ecologists are as follows:
- Workshop: Who is there and how do we know? Navigating the complexities of taxonomy assignments during eDNA metabarcoding studies. (Wednesday, 13th December, 13:15 – 14:45 – conceptstore).
- Workshop: From theoretical ecology to seafood markets: advancing holistic marine conservation through ecolabeling. (Wednesday, 13th December, 13:15 – 14:45 – Hubert van Eyck)
- Workshop: Biotic interactions and joint species distribution modelling (Wednesday, 13th December, 13:15 – 14:45 – Jan Van Eyckzaal)
- Thematic topic: Linking functional diversity of terrestrial and marine primary producers – the potential of remote sensing (Wednesday, 13th December, 15.00-17.00, Auditorium)
Get involved
The BESAG is an active network of aquatic ecologists whose interests tend to overlap with several other SIGs and we are keen to develop cross-cutting activities. We would like to invite suggestions from the ecological community for aquatic themed workshops, inter SIG meetings and short conferences or courses, for inclusion in our next budget. For example, in the past we have provided financial support for keynote speakers, room hire and assisted with advertising. If you would like to suggest themes or topics for discussion for future meetings please contact China Hanson (c.hanson@qmul.ac.uk) or Lee Brown (l.brown@leeds.ac.uk).
Twitter: @BES_AquaEco (#Thursdayjobday, #BESaquatic)
Facebook: BES-Aquatic Ecology Group
Mailing list: email v.r.edmonds-brown@herts.ac.uk
BESAG Committee
Co-secretary marine ecology: China Hanson (c.hanson@qmul.ac.uk) from Jan 2018
Co-secretary freshwater ecology: Lee Brown (l.brown@leeds.ac.uk)
Treasurer: Michelle Jackson (m.jackson@imperial.ac.uk)
ECR team: Lynsey Harper (L.Harper@2015.hull.ac.uk), Lydia White (lwhite18@qub.ac.uk)
Communication team: Marie-Claire (dannermarieclaire@gmail.com), Pavel Kratina (p.kratina@qmul.ac.uk)
Mail List manager: Ronni Edmonds-Brown (v.r.edmonds-brown@herts.ac.uk)
Functional Ecologists 