For the first time the symposium will take place directly on the Mediterranean Sea, of which the island of Crete is a paradigmatic case in terms of biodiversity and cultural heritage.
Historically, the Ecology of Sandy Shores was established as discipline in the 80s by Dr. Anton McLachlan in occasion of the first ISBS and afterwards it had its main development mainly on oceanic beaches. This is mirrored by the series of previous venues of the Symposia: among others, Chile (Valdivia -1996), Spain (Vigo – 2006), South Africa (Port Elizabeth -2012) and Brazil (Ilhabela -2015).
The symposium takes place every 3 years. Each symposium includes practical workshops, where ideas are shared and next lines for research and beach management are drawn. With time however it became more and more clear that beaches can only be studied as single social-ecological systems. This means high complexity. Therefore, an integration of disciplines on one hand, and an integration of science with management and beach stakeholders are needed.
Contributions from all disciplines around the topic of sandy beaches are welcome, from biogeochemistry to animal behavior, to biogeography and numerical modelling. Scientists, researchers and beach managers at all levels are invited to participate and share their research, making this symposium a platform to interact, establish links and identify synergies across disciplines.
Further information at www.isbs2018.wordpress.com .
The call of papers is now open until the 15th of December. Should you have problems to meet this deadline, please contact with Dr. Lucia Fanini at isbs2018@hcmr.gr . The official language of the Symposium is English.
