The 8th International Conference on Applications of Stable Isotope Techniques to Ecological Studies Brest, Brittany, France - August 20th to 24th 2012 Conference Organisers Stanislas Dubois Jacques Grall Organising Committee Caroline Nerot Gauthier Schaal Antoine Carlier Sandrine Laurand Location : Quartz Conference Center Square Beethoven 60 rue du Château, 29200 Brest, France +33 (0)2 98 33 95 00 Dear Isotope lovers, Welcome to Brest and to Brittany for the 8th International Conference on Applications of Stable Isotope Techniques to Ecological Studies. We are delighted for this eighth edition to have that unique blend of researchers and students from universities, governmental institutions and industry that has made this series so successful. We hope that Brest will build on the success of the previous meetings, retaining the relaxed, friendly and collaborative atmosphere that sets the ISOECOL conferences apart. The ISOECOL group is growing fast. We will have this year close to 250 researchers and students attending the meeting. As you can imagine with so many delegates, we have had an extremely difficult task selecting presentations for oral slots (we could have easily run the conference twice!). However this has made for a very exciting, diverse and very full program. We didn’t want to change the timetable format as the previous conference (five days with a day off in the middle), proved to be a winning formula. This year we will have a plenary speaker to open each conference day. Plenary speakers are all international leader in their field and they will bring us new insights and new perspectives to shake things up. We will have 15 theme sessions which will run throughout the oral programme and poster evenings, as a proxy of the growing diversity of isotopic field interests. We sincerely hope that you will enjoy your stay in Brest and that you’ll find opportunities to take some time out. Brittany is one of the most beautiful part of France and we have selected several field trips so you can have a glance at our coast. If you have a chance to stay a few additional days, we are convinced that you will enjoy walking the coastal trails and wandering in old villages. Most important of all we hope that you find this a rewarding and productive week. Thank you for participating and helping to make this meeting a success. On behalf of all the organising committee, Isotopically yours, Stan Dubois & Jacques Grall. The Scientific Program The program has 231 papers in total – 71 oral and 160 poster presentations. Many thanks to all the contributors. We have four excellent plenary speakers, each a leading researcher in his field: PLENARY SPEAKERS ■ On Monday morning Pr Brian Fry from the Griffith University will give a talk entitled: “Estuarine Conservation and Restoration in the 21st century: Using Stable Isotopes to Turn the Red Dots Green Again” Brian said he discovered the power of stable isotopes by accident, which means accidents sometimes are a good thing. Brian has a broad interest in wetlands and marshes and has been investigating their ecological processes in the light of isotopes for years. His sense of humour and his pedagogy skills contributed to pass the love of isotopes to many students. ■ On Tuesday morning, Pr. Sébastien Lefebvre from the University of Lille will give a talk entitled: “Insight from modelling into isotope ecology: love story never ends”. Sébastien has brought his modelling skills and unique physiology insight to isotopes to help disentangle feeding ecology from ecophysiology processes in organisms’ isotopic variations. He is a driving force to help understand isotopic fractionation mechanisms. ■ On Thursday morning, we have Pr. Stuart Bearhop, from the University of Exeter. Stuart will talk about “Stable Isotopes as markers of diet and trophic structure: the good the bad and the ugly”. Stuart has been using stable isotope techniques to investigate ecology and foraging behaviour of an amazingly large number of animals, in an amazingly large number of field sites all over the world. He has a pivotal role in keeping the isoecol group alive and making it grow. ■ On Friday, our final plenary will be given by Dr Pascal Riera, from the Station Biologique de Roscoff, with a presentation entitled: “Food web ecology and stable isotopes: applications from macrofauna to microorganisms in marine and coastal ecosystems”. Pascal has been at the forefront of stable isotope work in France and has contributed to bring new insights in tracing carbon and nitrogen pathways in marine coastal systems, by focusing on several marine compartments. ORAL PRESENTATIONS Oral presentations will take place in the Petit Theatre of the Quartz Convention Center. All presenters should give their presentation files (PowerPoint) to Antoine Carlier the day before they are due to talk (this will be on Tuesday for those presenting on Thursday). Antoine will go through your presentation on a laptop in order to make sure there are no problems. Presentations should be 15 minutes in length, with 5 minutes for questions. POSTER PRESENTATIONS Poster presentations will be held in the Meridienne on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The sessions will begin at 8:00 pm and run until 10:00 pm. Beer and soft drinks will be provided to help you survive. Posters can be put up from Monday (during coffee break of lunch) onwards and have to be removed by 4pm on Friday. Boards are 1 meter large and 2 meters high. We strongly recommend you to keep it as a portrait format 90 cm (35 in) large x 120 cm (47 in) high. Poster boards will be provided along with materials to attach posters to the boards (scratch). NAME BADGES Please wear your name badge at all times during the meeting. STUDENT AWARDS We have almost 100 students attending the conference and nearly all of them giving oral or poster presentations. There will be a competition for the best students’ presentations. These awards consist in three cash prizes (300 euros, 250 euros and 200 euros) for the three best poster presentations and the three best oral presentations. Only Master and PhD students are allowed to compete for these awards. Presentations will be evaluated by an international committee and winners will be announced during the banquet. Good luck! FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE CONFERENCE. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following organisations and businesses for their financial support: Ifremer, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), University of Alaska Fairbanks, CNRS, Société Française des Isotopes Stables (SFIS), Conseil Général du Finistère (CG29), Brest Métropole Océane (BMO), Région Bretagne, Sercon, Thermo Scientific, Elementar group - Isoprime, IVA Anlysentechnik, Eurovector. Social Events PRE-CONFERENCE MIXER Sunday 19th August To expedite the process of becoming accustomed to local food and drinks, we will host a crepes-party in the famous concert-room of the Vauban hotel. Unlimited draft cider and crepes will be served. A great chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. Registration packages will be available here for pick up from 6:00 pm onwards (only for fully registered people). CONFERENCE FIELD TRIPS Wednesday 22th August Several field trips are available for the day off: Trip 1: Excursion to Ushant Island : hiking and bird watching (max 60 places) Trip 2: Roscoff and The Bay of Morlaix (North Brittany) (max 60 places) Trip 3: Trip landward of the Parc naturel régional d'Armorique (max 30 places) Trip 4: Trip to Le Conquet and pointe Saint-Mathieu, the very tip of Brittany. Details on where and when to meet will be given on arrival at the conference. Depending on the trip, we will ask you to pay at the conference the first day (Monday) or directly on site. People should bring walking boots and wet weather gear (just in case). We might be forced to cancel Trip 4. For those who want to do something else, we are suggesting other options on the website (www.isoecol2012.com). Also note that with your badge, you will have full access to the fitness center (Physic Form) at 3 min walk from the Quartz Center (7:30 am to 11:00 pm Monday and Thursday, 8:30 am to 10:00 pm other days). THURSDAY NIGHT FREE CONCERT Thursday 23th August A concert will be given on Brest Harbor downtown (10 min walk from the Quartz Center). This is a popular event for Brest citizens during summer time. There are a lot of people enjoying music and local food and Thursday 23th is the last concert of the summer, featuring an international famous brass band heavy funk group “Ceux qui marchent debout”. Feel free to join! CONFERENCE BANQUET Friday 24th August The conference banquet will be held in Oceanopolis. A pre-dinner drinks reception will begin at 8:30 pm among aquarium of local marine fauna all around. This will be followed by a dinner at 9:15pm in a brand new reception room. There will be live music too, so you will get a chance to learn traditional dances. Buses will pick you up at the Quartz Center and bring you back around 0:30 am. You can buy “+1” tickets for the banquet only the first day (Monday) of the conference (cash only). Conference Program th ► Sunday 19 August 09:30 17:30 Workshop 1 (Gabe Bowen et al.) Isotope applications for geospatial assignment 09:30 17:30 Workshop 2 (Kirsteen MacKenzie et al.) Sampling animal tissues for stable isotope analysis 18:00 22:00 Ice Breaking at the Vauban Hotel (crepes-party and cider) (for attendees, please download the latest program on the conference website) th ► Monday 20 August