Symposium: "Physiological Ecology of Rocky Intertidal Organisms: From Molecules to Ecosystems," Anaheim, CA

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The goal of this symposium is to assess the role of physiological performance in driving the ecology of populations and communities in a key ecosystem, the rocky intertidal zone. Physiological performance and its genetic determinants have long been considered important determinants of community structure and of species' distribution within the intertidal. However, an understanding of how interactions between the physical environment and organismal physiology drive community dynamics has remained elusive. With the advent of new molecular and biochemical techniques, the potential for using physiological indicators of state to address ecological questions is of increasing interest to ecologists. Conversely, physiologists are actively investigating the role of complex environmental signals (as opposed to constant conditions) in influencing organismal physiology. This symposium will bring together researchers from a range of disciplines to educate workers about the potential strengths and limitations of each other's approaches. This symposium has three main goals: (1) to assess the state of knowledge in the field of intertidal physiological ecology, and to determine what questions have yet to be successfully addressed, (2) to introduce ecologists to the strengths, and potential pitfalls, of using physiological indicators of state (e.g., heat shock proteins, RNA:DNA ratios, etc) for examining ecological questions, and (3) to discuss how best to merge studies conducted under necessarily simplified, controlled conditions, with those conducted under more complex, time-varying conditions in the field. This symposium will be hosted by the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) from January 2-6 in Anaheim, California.