Rationale:

The oceans, where life evolved, represent a unique environment. They constitute 70% of the surface of our planet and are fundamental for maintaining a functional global ecosystem.

However, in spite of ecological relevance, the molecular mechanisms underlying life and different organism adaptive solutions in the ocean are still poorly known, acknowledged and understood. To advance our knowledge of the links between marine biocomplexity and the marine environment at the population, organismal and molecular level, we propose a three-day-workshop that will address key issues using an integrative approach. We wish to bring scientists from different research disciplines together and let them exchange knowledge and ideas about biocomplexity and its interactions with the environment.

From an anthropocentric viewpoint the marine realm is a truly strange environment: it is quite hostile to us, and thus logistically demanding and expensive to access. It is therefore not surprising that our insights in relationship between biocomplexity and ecology in the marine habitats lag behind those in terrestrial ones. Nonetheless, life originated in the oceans, diversified there and formed complex ecosystems before it made its first inroads onto the land. Terrestrial diversity is generally phylogenetically embedded in marine diversity, and most phenetic, developmental and genomic characteristics are little else than modified inheritances from marine ancestors.

During the Workshop we will address the following questions:

First day: Growth, Reproduction and Survival @ Sea

How do environmental parameters affect growth, reproduction and survival in the marine realm? What signals are available to trigger life cycle processes and other behaviour in marine organisms? What kind of defence mechanisms and other survival strategies are available and how do they differ from those on land?

Second day: Evolution and Development @ Sea
Which is the relationship between developmental programs and their evolution (Evolutionary Developmental Biology)? How does the environment interact with developmental processes and how has it affected their evolution? What is the neurobiological substrate for these interactions. How does environmental change influence phenotypic evolution? And, to close the circle, how has developmental evolution affected the environment?

  Under the Patronage of: