INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

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1st Announcement

School of Aquatic Science and Natural Resources Management Deakin University
Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia 3280

3-8 February 1997

Australia is one of the most urbanised of the developed nations with over 50% of its population located in cities associated with estuaries and coastal environments. The ecology of estuaries in Australia has become a topic of interest to governments and public as a result of recent enquiries and the State of the Marine Environment report. However, experimental estuarine ecology in Australia is in its infancy. As a result, ecologists have a limited ability to provide predictions about how estuarine assemblages will respond to a variety of influences, including those which are anthropogenic. The theme of this conference will be benthic ecology in estuaries and soft sediment habitats but broad discussion of estuarine ecology generally is also invited. The aims of the conference are to: i) synthesise knowledge on benthic ecology of Australian estuaries compared to estuarine ecology elsewhere in the world, and, on the basis of these syntheses,

ii) to discuss and derive priorities for research into these systems in Australia.

The conference will include invited speakers, contributed papers and posters and targeted discussion.

A number of speakers with considerable experience in soft sediment ecology have been invited to address aspects of the theme in order to stimulate discussion on future directions for research into estuarine and soft sediment ecology, including:

C.H. Peterson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, U.S.A.;

B. Coull, Marine and Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, U.S.A.;

D. McLusky, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland;

P. Hutchings, Australia Museum, Sydney, N.S.W.;

W. Dennison, University of Qld, Queensland;

I. Potter, Murdoch University, W.A.;

S. Thrush, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hamilton, N.Z.;

A.J. Underwood, University of Sydney, Sydney, N.S.W.;

M.J. Keough, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria;

P. Fairweather, CSIRO, Griffith, N.S.W.

More information can be obtained from the conference organisers (Dr. Andrew Constable or Assoc. Prof. Brad Mitchell) on

email: aconst@deakin.edu.au

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