A ZEN conference at the Smithsonian
by Pamela Reynolds (ZEN postdoc and coordinator)
This month ZEN partners from across the globe gathered in Washington DC at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History to discuss their research and new directions for the ZEN program. The meeting combined a symposium, which reported research completed during the first generation of ZEN (2011 – 2013), with an interactive workshop to plan for ZEN 2 (2014 – 2016). Returning and new ZEN partners, including site PIs, postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate students attended the meeting. Partners presented talks and posters throughout the 4-day conference. The research primarily focused on comparative community and functional ecology of eelgrass ecosystems, including interactions between bottom-up and top-down forcing, and links between biodiversity—at genetic, taxonomic, and functional levels—and ecosystem processes. The meeting was a great opportunity to engage in person with the diverse assemblage of seagrass biologists and ecologists within the ZEN network.
This working group meeting was supported by The Zostera Experimental Network (NSF OCE-1031061 and OCE-1336206) and the Smithsonian Institution.
This meeting also marked the first trip to the USA for several of the conference attendees, and we were very excited to show off our nation’s capital. We are very grateful to the Smithsonian staff who helped with the logistics of the meeting, which included organizing a special welcome reception at the Smithsonian Castle and a special behind the scenes tour of the collections. We may be marine ecologists, but seeing a triceratops skull, sloth dung, and mammoth fur (along with a 3-d printer model of an active dig site) up close was a real treat!
Photos contributed by Jonas Thormar, Paul Richardson, Massa Nakaoka, and Pamela Reynolds.