Theme Sessions

The overall theme for the conference is "Larval Fish Biology in the 21st Century: Responding to a Changing Environment" 

The theme sessions are:

Integrative Developmental Systems: Where Developmental Biology, Physiology and Ecology Meet (Ione Hunt von Herbing, Warren Burggren and Pam Padilla, University of Northern Texas)

Reproductive and Early Life History Consequences of a Changing Environment (Chris Chambers, NOAA-NMFS, James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory). This theme session will include invited and contributed oral and poster presentations that address how a changing environment, particularly with respect to climate change, is affecting or is expected to affect the reproductive ecology and early life-stages of fish species. Areas of emphasis include direct and indirect effects of changes in the thermal environment, increases in ocean acidification and ultraviolet radiation, and decreases in dissolved oxygen on species distribution, life history, and ecology as well as population and community phenology.

Descriptions and Identification (Darrel Snyder, Colorado State University). Oral and poster presentations and overviews on the state of the art (what we know and what gaps need to be filled); techniques for traditional and electronic (digital) illustration, measurement, and descriptive and molecular analyses; morphological descriptions of various taxa, guides, traditional and computer keys, taxonomic databases, molecular (e.g., DNA) identification, and other descriptive and taxonomic aids. 

Larval Fish Ecology and Conservation of Native Fishes in the American Southwest (Kevin Bestgen, Colorado State University) 

Developmental Programming and Ontogeny in Fish (Elin Kjorsvik, Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Freshwater Larval Fish Ecology (Nancy Auer, Ed Rutherford, Ed Roseman, Michigan Tech University, University of Michign and USGS Great Lakes Science Center)

Larval Fish Ecology and Recovery of Missouri-Mississippi 'Big River' Fishes (David L. Galat, U. S. Geological Survey, Missouri Department of Conservation)

General Contributed Paper Session (for topics that do not fit into any of the above)