Workshop: Ecohydrology and Food Web Ecology on the Tonle Sap Lake- Lower Mekong, Sept. 25-28, 2012, -Santa Ynez, CA

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The Mekong River is one of the largest river systems on earth, and supports one of the most biologically diverse aquatic ecosystems in the world. The Tonle Sap Lake on the Mekong River is one of the most productive freshwater fisheries in the world. Seasonally inundated during the flood season of the Mekong, the flood waters of the Mekong fill the Tonle Sap basin. The fisheries associated with the Tonle Sap and its flood pulse ecology provide the majority of the protein for several million people in Cambodia. Despite the global ecological significance of the Tonle Sap and the regional importance of the fishery, scientific knowledge of the ecology of the ecosystem and of the processes underlying its productivity is rudimentary. The life histories of most fish species in the system have not been documented, data on foodweb relationships are almost entirely lacking and the basic processes sustaining the incredible productivity of the system are unknown. This workshop will bring together a working group to develop a research plan and modeling effort to provide the baseline ecological understanding and the development of local research capacity through provision of needed scientific infrastructure and the training of new scientists. The working group will focus on ecological research for the Tonle Sap, designed to gather data fundamental to sound management before the system is unrecognizably altered by climate change, upstream developments and intensive fisheries. A secondary focus of the workshop will be a working group to focus on Tonle Sap Foodweb Modeling. The plan will integrate the PEER-funded research of Veasna Kum and collaborators. This workshop will achieve broader impacts by providing a research plan, developing a consortium of research partners (international and peer), and by training and capacity-building to complement the PEER award to Dr. Kum.