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

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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.