International Symbiosis Society Congress Support, August 17-23, 2003, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

国际共生协会总部设在波士顿大学，请求支持其下一届科学研究大会的规划和召开，该大会定于2003年8月17日至23日在新斯科舍省哈利法克斯的圣玛丽大学举行。预计将有500名与会者，其中大多数从事特定共生系统的研究，如菌根-植物相互作用、内生真菌和草、固氮细菌/蓝藻及其宿主、造礁石珊瑚和腰鞭毛虫、地衣、昆虫和瘤胃肠道微型动物、满江红/水稻生长促进和兰花生态学。Birgitta Bergman，斯德哥尔摩大学; Margaret McFall-Ngai，美国夏威夷;安吉拉道格拉斯，约克大学，英国; Jan Sapp，U.蒙特利尔;林恩马古利斯，美国。马萨诸塞州;和OveHoegh-Guldberg，昆士兰州大学，澳大利亚等。大会的组织者是波士顿大学的生物学家和科学教育家协会主席道格拉斯祖克，他是私人侦探，哈利法克斯的圣玛丽大学的科学院院长和地衣学家大卫理查森。该协会的独特之处在于，它的性质决定了它在生物学家/生态学家之间建立了桥梁，否则他们将保持分离。因此，大会的主要目标是提供一个特殊的世界论坛，共生学家可以最佳地交流知识和思想。此外，其对话和成果将有助于更好地了解全球生态学、区域生态系统功能和细胞生物学;鼓励学生参与一般生态学，特别是共生;并且，积极促进大学预科和大学教师共生的内容和课程的改进。大会的一个焦点主题将是对关键共生体的全球威胁，如虫黄藻的漂白，地衣对二氧化硫和相关排放物的敏感性，以及含有共生体的大型有孔虫的消亡。这一主题进一步强调了共生在地球系统和人类社会中所起的深刻但往往被忽视的作用。农业、林业、生物群落的建立、恢复生态学、珊瑚礁的存在以及对真核细胞的基本理解都实质上依赖于共生。大会超过50%的资金将由注册费和一些预计的私人公司支持支付。ISS寻求NSF的额外支持，以帮助支付研究生的旅行费用;为特色演讲者提供旅行和相关支持;帮助教师出席会议并支持大会上的共生教师研讨会;并支付主要出版物的费用，如国际空间站通讯《共生国际》的特刊，其中将重点介绍大会公告、会议日程小册子，将通过国际空间站网站上的网络交流网络（大会网站为http：//people.bu.edu/dzook/）保持大会后的持续联系，大会的部分论文将于2004年期间在特拉维夫出版的国际空间站附属期刊《共生》特刊上发表。

The International Symbiosis Society based at Boston University requests support for theplanning and convening of its next scientific research Congress set for August 17 - 23,2003 at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Five hundred participants are expected, most working in specific symbiotic systems such as mycorrhizae-plant interactions, endophytic fungi and grasses, nitrogen fixing bacteria/cyanobacteria and their hosts, hermatypic corals and dinoflagellates, lichens, insect and rumen gut microfauna, Azolla/Oryza sativa growth enhancement, and orchid ecology.Keynote speakers/leaders for the symposia include David Read, U. of Sussex, UK;Birgitta Bergman, Stockholm U.; Margaret McFall-Ngai, U. of Hawaii; Angela Douglas,YorkU., UK; Jan Sapp, U. of Montreal; Lynn Margulis, U. of Massachusetts; and OveHoegh-Guldberg, Queensland U., Australia, among others. Congress organizers are SocietyPresident Douglas Zook biologist and science educator at Boston University and who is theP.I., and David Richardson, Dean of Science and lichenologist at Saint Mary's University,Halifax.The Society is particularly unique in that it by its very nature it builds bridgesamong biologists/ecologists who would otherwise remain separated. Therefore, the mainobjective of the Congress is to provide a special world forum where symbiologists canoptimally exchange knowledge and ideas. Also, its dialogue and outcomes will contribute toa greater understanding of global ecology, regional ecosystem function, and cell biology;encourage involvement in ecology in general and symbiosis in particular by students; and,actively promote content and curriculum enhancement in symbiosis for both pre-college anduniversity teachers.A focus theme of the Congress will be global threats to keystone symbionts, such asbleaching of zooxanthellae, lichen susceptibility to sulfur dioxide and related emissions,and the demise of larger symbiont-containing foraminifera. This theme further emphasizesthe deep but often ignored role symbiosis plays in earth systems and human society.Agriculture, forestry, biome establishment, restoration ecology, coral reef existence, andfundamental understandings of the eukarya cell are all substantiually dependent onsymbiosis.More then fifty per cent of the funds for the Congress will be covered by registrantfees and some projected private corporate support. The ISS seeks additional support fromthe NSF to help defray travel costs for graduate students; to provide travel and relatedsupport for featured speakers; to assist teacher attendance and support a symbiosisteacher workshop at the Congress; and to cover costs of key publications, such as specialeditions of the ISS newsletter, Symbiosis International, which will highlight Congressannouncements, conference schedule booklet, and the Congress abstract book.Ongoing post-Congress contact will be mainained through a web exchange network on theISS web sites (Congress web site is http://people.bu.edu/dzook/), and selected papers fromthe Congress will be published during 2004 in a special issue of the ISS affiliatedjournal, Symbiosis, published out of Tel Aviv.