Meeting: New Frontiers from Marine Snakes to Marine Ecosystems, Charleston, SC January 4-7, 2012

2012年1月3日至7日，将在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿综合与比较生物学学会的年度会议上举行题为“从海蛇到海洋生态系统的新领域”的研讨会和题为“在海蛇研究和挑战生物学前沿之间建立概念桥梁”的相关研讨会。研讨会将有11位演讲者，其他与会者将在研讨会上进行补充口头和海报会议和讨论。这次会议将反映广泛的参与，包括年龄、性别、种族、机构和国际参与的多样性。本次研讨会将结合互补性会议和相关的研讨会，为学生和新的研究科学家提供重要的服务，解释当前研究的意义，促进海洋研究的整合，并强调未来研究的一些有趣的方向。研讨会的广度和与会人员的不同兴趣，为整合主题和促进未来涉及各种学科的跨学科研究提供了无与伦比的机会。研讨会的几个相互关联的目标是：(1)汇集世界？这些专家目前正在研究海蛇的生物学以及它们与海洋生态系统（主要是珊瑚礁）的相互作用。(2)建立和促进利用海洋系统作为研究与环境、气候变化和生物群落持久性有关的概念问题的模式。(3)确定海蛇研究可能对研究进步做出独特贡献的前沿课题。例如：(i)了解印度-太平洋地区生物多样性的总体格局；（ii）应用分子方法促进对进化过程的理解，包括多样化和多产的辐射；（三）更好地了解生物指标对珊瑚礁生态系统的健康和保护的重要性。(4)在推动领域向前发展和促进与正在进行的研究的联系的背景下，总结和评估各种主题的知识现状。(5)在各种参与人员之间建立合作关系。研讨会的论文将发表在同行评议的《综合与比较生物学》杂志上，并将在不久的将来出版一本书。

A Symposium titled "New Frontiers from Marine Snakes to Marine Ecosystems" and an associated Workshop titled "Building Conceptual Bridges between Marine Snake Research and Challenging Frontiers in Biology" will be held during 3-7 January 2012 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Charleston, SC. The Symposium will feature 11 speakers with additional participants contributing to complementary oral and poster sessions and discussions at the Workshop. This meeting will reflect a breadth of involvement including diversity of age, gender, ethnicity, institutions, and international participation.The proposed Symposium, together with interactions during complementary sessions and the associated Workshop, will provide an important service for students and new research scientists by interpreting the significance of current research, promoting the integration of marine research, and highlighting some intriguing directions for future investigations. The breadth of the symposium, and the diverse interests of people who will come to it, presents unparalleled opportunities for integration of topics and promotion of future interdisciplinary research involving a variety of disciplines. Several interrelated goals of the Symposium are: (1) Bring together world?s experts who currently investigate the biology of marine snakes and their interactions with marine ecosystems in which they live (principally coral reefs). (2) Establish and promote the use of marine systems as models for investigating conceptual issues related to environment, changing climate, and persistence of biological communities. (3) Identify leading-edge topics for which studies of marine snakes might contribute uniquely to the advancement of research. Examples are: (i) understanding overall patterns of biodiversity in the Indo-Pacific; (ii) applying molecular approaches to advance understanding of evolutionary processes including diverse and prolific radiations; and (iii) better understanding the importance of bioindicators to health and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. (4) Summarize and evaluate current states of knowledge for various topics in a context of moving fields forward and promoting linkages to ongoing research. (5) Build collaborations among the various persons who will participate. Papers from the Symposium will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Integrative & Comparative Biology, and will be followed with publication of a book in the near future.