Dear ECOLOG_L Community: The team of Local Hosts at East Carolina University and UNC Coastal Studies Institute, led by Dr. Joe Luczkovich, have outdone themselves and put together an amazing AERS Spring Meeting. Registration, abstract submission, and Ann C. Powel Student Travel Award applications are all open on the AERS website (http://www.aers.info/meetings.htm)! Please join us in North Carolina - we look forward to seeing you! Details, including registration, lodging, and brief program schedule are included in the attached flyer PDF. Please post, email, tweet, instagram, and otherwise share this flyer near and far to encourage your colleagues, students, and other interested parties to attend! AERS Spring Meeting Date: 12-14 March, 2015
The Deadline is February 20 for: • Registration • Abstract Submission • Ann C. Powel Student Travel Award Thursday Workshops: Be sure to check the attached schedule - we are expanding our Thursday programming! • Mid-Atlantic Coastal Atlas Workshop • Student Employment Workshop Venue: UNC Coastal Studies Institute (CSI), Wanchese, NC http://csi.northcarolina.edu/ Who Should Submit An Abstract? You! Who, me? Yes, you! AERS welcomes abstracts on ALL topics of estuarine and coastal sciences and environmental issues and policies as well as intersections with all social sciences. We encourage abstract submissions from students, scientists, managers, and educators from Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington D.C. It is our intent to foster a broad interest in our environment by increasing public awareness of current issues. Theme: Our keynote speakers will be talking about “Blue Carbon”: Estuarine ecosystems, because of their high productivity and carbon sequestration in seagrasses, marshes, mangroves, and “black” carbon (in peat, sediments, and mudflats), and their lack of inclusion in most carbon storage models, are some of the best ways we may have to achieve a carbon neutral future. We have arranged a series of informative workshops, field trips, poster sessions, and contributed paper sessions on estuarine topics with student awards. Keynotes: Dr. Hans Pearl, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Institute of Marine Sciences (note: Thursday evening keynote address) Dr. Robert Twilley, Louisiana Sea Grant / Louisiana State University Dr. Siddhartha Mitra, East Carolina University Banquet: Pamlico Jack’s Pirate Ship Restaurant Field Trips: Nags Head Woods (Thursday) Jennette’s Pier (Thursday) Outer Banks Environments (Saturday) Trawling on R/V Riggs (Saturday) Lodging: A block of rooms at the Comfort Inn in Nags Head has been secured until February 19th at great rates ($59 - $99/night). You can reserve a room by calling them at (252) 441-6315 and mentioning AERS. We thank our early sponsors: CERF, ECU Biology, ECU Institute for Coastal Science and Policy, ECU Office Diving and Water safety, North Carolina Sea Grant, UNC Coastal Studies Institute (CSI), Virginia Sea Grant, and YSI. Again, our Local Hosts at East Carolina University have done a terrific job! Thank you Joe Luczkovich, Tom Allen, Christine Avenarius, Robert Christian, Reide Corbett, David Griffith, David Kimmel, Sid Mitra, Hans Vogelsong, JP Walsh, Enrique Reyes, and Robert McClendon! See you in North Carolina! Cheers, Ben Fertig, Cassie Gurbisz AERS Program Committee
