Microbial Diversity and Its Role in Conservation: The 2007 AMNH Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Spring Symposium

2007年4月26日和27日，美国自然历史博物馆生物多样性和保护中心(CBC)将举行第12届春季研讨会。今年，主题将是“微生物多样性及其在保护中的作用”。这一独特的会议将召集不同的科学家小组，研究微生物和保护生物学的交叉。通过一系列的演讲、小组讨论和海报展示，会议将解决以下紧迫问题：地球上微生物多样性的数量，这种多样性如何对其他生物产生积极和消极的影响，以及保护措施应该如何考虑微生物生命。这次研讨会将是疾病生态学家、微生物基因学家、海洋病毒学家、生物地球化学家和保护遗传学家/生物学家等首批机会之一，他们聚集在一起，讨论如何评估微生物多样性，如何威胁微生物多样性，以及“看不见的大多数”如何深刻地影响地球上所有其他生命的命运。这次研讨会代表了保护方面跨学科思维的一项重要的新倡议。该节目包括一群不同的演讲者。在确认的24名参与者中，有10名(42%)是女性。在整个研讨会期间，将展出大约70张来自其他科学家的海报，包括来自当地机构的研究生和博士后研究员，以及国家和国际项目，为许多崭露头角的研究人员向不同的受众展示他们的工作提供了机会。将通过四种方式向科学界和公众传播专题讨论会的会议记录。首先，第一天有一个向公众开放的晚间讲座，因此是向非常普通的听众介绍研讨会主题的一种手段。其次，所有研讨会都在CBC网站上存档，包括演讲稿和演讲者摘要、个人简介和出版物清单；今年将发布所有演讲的播客。然后，将广泛传播关于这些材料可获得性的信息，并制定包括当地高中和本科院校在内的分发计划。纽约大都市区是美国种族最多元化的地区之一；该地区至少有30所公立和私立中等教育机构，其少数民族入学率从31%到100%不等。第三，在这次研讨会上汇集的不同主题将被合并成一本编辑过的卷。最后，CBC的春季研讨会通常会吸引地方、国家和国际媒体的成员，他们报道研讨会演讲和海报中分享的信息，再次将信息带回公众。

On April 26 and 27, 2007, the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) will hold its twelfth annual Spring Symposium. This year, the topic will be "Microbial Diversity and Its Role in Conservation. This unique gathering will convene a diverse group of scientists to examine the intersection of microbes and conservation biology. Through a series of talks, panel discussions, and poster presentations, the conference will address pressing questions of the amount of microbial diversity on the planet, how this diversity influences other organisms, both positively and negatively, and how conservation practices should take microbial life into account. This symposium will represent one of the first opportunities for disease ecologists, microbial genomicists, marine virologists, biogeochemists, and conservation geneticists/biologists, to name a few, to come together and discuss how microbial diversity is assessed, how it is threatened, and how the "unseen majority" profoundly affects the fate of all other life on Earth. This symposium represents a significant new initiative of interdisciplinary thinking for conservation. The program includes a diverse group of speakers. Ten of the twenty-four confirmed participants (42%) are women. Throughout the symposium, approximately 70 posters from other scientists, including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from local institutions but also national and international programs will be exhibited, providing an opportunity for many up-and-coming researchers to present their work to a diverse audience. The proceedings of the symposium will be disseminated to the scientific community and to the general public in four ways. First, there is an evening lecture on the first day that is open to the general public and thus is a means of introducing the subject of the symposium to a very general audience. Second, all symposia are archived on the CBC website, including presentation transcripts and speaker abstracts, bios, and publication lists; this year podcasts of all of the talks will be posted. Information on the availability of these materials will then be disseminated widely, with a distribution plan that includes local high schools and undergraduate institutions. The New York metropolitan area is one of the country's most ethnically diverse regions; there are at least 30 public and private secondary education institutions in the region whose minority enrollments range from 31 to 100%. Third, the diverse topics that are being brought together in this symposium will be merged into an edited volume. Finally, the CBC's Spring Symposia typically attract members of the local, national, and international media who report on the information that is shared in the symposium talks and posters, again, taking the message back to the general public.