Funded by SIOS and hosted by the Institute of Polar Sciences, National Research Council (CNR), Messina (Italy), the 1st International Workshop on Biodiversity in Svalbard Archipelago aims at being a multidisciplinary arena where to discuss the state of the art and the gaps in the knowledge on Arctic biodiversity, and the way for future development in the studies of this vulnerable polar environment.
Both marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Svalbard Archipelago are populated by a variety of organisms (from microbes to invertebrates and birds, fish, mammals, from fungi, bryophytes to higher plants) adapted to live in extreme cold environments, that are being threatened by climate change and anthropogenic activities. There is an immediate need to both implement actions to preserve biodiversity in the Arctic in the face of environmental stressors and ensure conservation measures by predicting Arctic ecosystem response to natural and human-driven changes.
Discussion will focus on the relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem processes, and functioning, and the scientific approaches and measures needed to preserve and restore natural Svalbard biodiversity.
The talks will discuss descriptive, experimental and observational research to harmonize and integrate databases on coastal-marine biodiversity, monitor marine biodiversity at various levels of the ecological hierarchy, experimentally assess the vulnerability of the Svalbard habitats to global and local environmental change drivers, and build future scenarios of species distribution, ecosystem structure, composition, and functioning to define conservation scenarios to achieve the EU objectives.
Registration deadline: 29 July 2024
Date: 28-30 October 2024
Place: Messina, Sicily, Italy
For further information visit: 1st International Workshop on Biodiversity in Svalbard Archipelago: state of the art and perspectives | sios-svalbard.org
