Chesapeake Bay Seminar Series now available in Flash and Podcast formats
Webcasts of the Chesapeake Bay Seminar Series are now available in a new Flash format for greatly enhanced compatibility and viewing. For those of you who are too busy to watch the webcasts, we now have a Podcast version you can subscribe to, so you can listen to the seminars during your daily commute.
Chesapeake Bay Marsh Restoration Workshop
On March 10, 2006, IAN, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Maryland Port Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Widlife Service, held the “Chesapeake Bay Marsh Restoration Workshop”. This one-day technical workshop brought together scientists, engineers, and economists to focus on the concept of restoring eroding marshes at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge with dredged materials. Information derived from this meeting will be used to develop a workplan for this potential project. Seminars presented at the workshop are available in multimedia format. An International Tidal Wetlands Conference is being held May 31 – June 2, 2006 at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. This conference is open to all interested participants. We will be inviting ecologists, engineers, and economists from across the country and around the globe, who have worked on similar projects and can help to develop a plan for this project in the Chesapeake.
Seagrasses of southwest Australia poster series
Southwest Australian seagrass meadows are unique and are both regionally and globally significant. This series of four posters (General, Estuaries, South Coast, West Coast) describe the unique coastal systems of southwest Australia through the use of conceptual diagrams from the IAN Symbol Libraries. This project was funded by CoastWest in Australia and the poster series is specifically targeted at the general public to communicate key issues and management priorities of these seagrass habitats. Tracey Saxby, Tim Carruthers, and Bill Dennison from IAN worked with Marion Cambridge (University of Western Australia) and members of the Water and Rivers Commission in Western Australia to put the posters together. The posters will be displayed at boat ramps, local stores, and information centers. They are available (in PDF format) from IAN press.
A new synthesis of Chesapeake Bay aquatic grasses
Chesapeake Bay aquatic grass experts convened at a workshop during March to integrate the current understanding of aquatic grass occurrence and abundance. Water quality, biotic and physical factors controlling aquatic grass distribution were reviewed and conceptualized. New approaches and methods of conducting aquatic grass forecasts were discussed in preparation for the 2006 summer forecast. A descriptive paper, newsletter, and website will be produced over the next six months; these will form the basis of a subsequent explanatory paper. The workshop was organized and sponsored by the Integration and Application Network and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Analytical support is being offered by the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Second workshop at Louisiana State University to synthesize issues of regional landscape integrity in coastal Louisiana
Continuing this project, Bill Dennison and Tim Carruthers traveled to Baton Rouge for two days of workshops with scientists and resource managers to assist in drafting a science newsletter entitled ‘Enhancing landscape integrity in coastal Louisiana: water, sediment, and ecosystems’. Jane Thomas assisted with graphics from Horn Point. This particular newsletter aims to clarify the differences between the Chenier and Deltaic Plains of coastal Louisiana, which were formed by different geologic processes as a result of the Mississippi River changing courses over the past several millennia. Their different underlying structure results in different dominant processes and therefore different threats and management priorities in the two regions. Alaina Owens from LSU will be attending the IAN ‘Science Communication Course’ for a week which will provide the opportunity to complete the newsletter, the second in a series for issues in coastal Louisiana. Visit the Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Assessment and Restoration (CLEAR) website for further information.