Dear colleagues: Apologies for cross posting! We would like to inform you of the workshop to be held at the 21st Biennal Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in San Francisco. *ECOLOGICAL ROLES AND IMPORTANCE OF MARINE MAMMALS IN AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS *Date/time: Saturday, December 12th, 2015. From 830am to 530pm. Organizers and contact email: Jeremy Kiszka, Michael Heithaus (Florida International University) and Peter Corkeron (NOAA) Contact email: jeremy.kiszka@gmail.com Description: Top predators have the potential to impact ecosystems through direct predation, risk effects, and their interaction as well as through “bottom-up” processes stimulating primary production (“ecosystem engineers”) or moving nutrients across ecosystem boundaries. Recently, it has been argued that strong top-down effects of predators are likely the rule rather than the exception based on the broad-scale community rearrangements that accompany the loss or reintroduction of top predators. Marine mammals, including some freshwater species, feed at a variety of trophic levels, from herbivores to large apex predators, and occur from freshwater to open ocean systems of all latitudes. Due to their high abundance and considerable energetic needs as homeotherms, they have a strong potential affect the structure and function of ecosystems. In addition, due to their size and large movements, often across ecosystem boundaries, aquatic mammals might also influence nutrient dynamics within and among ecosystems. Because of historical and ongoing changes in aquatic mammal abundances and distributions, their function in aquatic ecosystems likely has been, and continues to be, altered. Therefore, investigating the ecological roles and importance of these species represents a major challenge for research. Empirical evidence of the ecological roles of aquatic mammals is still lacking or incomplete in most cases. While some species have been shown to play crucial roles in marine systems, but how the relative importance of aquatic mammals varies within and among species, ecosystems and contexts remains underexplored. This workshop will review empirical and ecosystem modeling studies on the ecological role of mammals in aquatic ecosystems and attempt to bring together the two major strands of research (top-down and bottom up processes) together. The audience of this workshop is likely to be very broad, from marine mammal and fishery ecologists to conservationists. Secondly, we will discuss approaches for investigating the roles of marine mammals in aquatic ecosystems and work towards a predictive framework for marine mammal ecological roles. This will be a full day workshop divided into two main sections. The first (morning) will be dedicated to case studies and review presentations on the role of various aquatic mammal species in various ecological contexts (10-15 min presentations with 5 minutes for questions and comments). The second section (afternoon) will focus on discussions and round tables, especially to enhance approaches to investigating the role of marine mammals in aquatic ecosystems. Cost: $80 (early bird), $90 (after September 15th, 2015) For more information: https://www.marinemammalscience.org/conference/workshops/#ecological or please contact me! See you there! Jeremy Kiszka, Peter Corkeron and Mike Heithaus -- Jeremy Kiszka (PhD) Marine Sciences Program, Florida International University 3000 NE 151 St., FL-33181, North Miami, USA. Tel office (direct): (305)-919-4104 Cell: (786)-717-9797 Skype: jeremy.kiszka The Heithaus lab: http://www2.fiu.edu/~heithaus/ --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier électronique a été vérifiée par le logiciel antivirus Avast. http://www.avast.com