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

本次研讨会的目标是评估生理表现在推动岩质潮间带这一关键生态系统中的种群和群落生态方面的作用。长期以来，生理表现及其遗传决定因素一直被认为是潮间带群落结构和物种分布的重要决定因素。然而，对物理环境和生物体生理之间的相互作用如何驱动群落动态的理解仍然是难以捉摸的。随着新的分子和生化技术的出现，利用生理状态指示器来解决生态问题的潜力越来越引起生态学家的兴趣。相反，生理学家正在积极研究复杂的环境信号(而不是恒定条件)在影响生物体生理学中的作用。这次研讨会将汇集来自一系列学科的研究人员，教育工作人员彼此方法的潜在优势和局限性。这次专题讨论会有三个主要目标：(1)评估潮间带生理生态学领域的知识状况，并确定尚未成功解决的问题；(2)向生态学家介绍使用生理状态指标(例如，热休克蛋白、RNA：DNA比率等)研究生态问题的优点和潜在的缺陷；(3)讨论如何最好地将在必要简化和受控条件下进行的研究与在现场更复杂、时变的条件下进行的研究合并。这次研讨会将由综合与比较生物学学会(SICB)于1月2-6日在加利福尼亚州阿纳海姆举行的年会主办。

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.