American Malacological Society Newsletter Fall 2020 NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY POPULATION MANAGEMENT CENTER, LINCOLN PARK ZOO 2001 NORTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO, IL 60614, USA VOLUME 50, NO 2. FALL 2020 http://www.malacological.org ISSN 1041-5300 IN THIS ISSUE NEXT MEETING AMS 2021 Meetings CAPE BRETON, CANADA AMS 2021 – Tim Rawlings 1 JUNE 14-18, 2021 Mollusk Symposium at SICB, 4 Jan 2021 3 Submitted by Timothy Rawlings, AMS President SCUM (virtual), 30 Jan 2021 – V. Delnavaz 3 AMS 2022 – Ken Hayes 4 We are still planning for AMS2021 to be a Meeting Reports face-to-face meeting in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada . Given that this AMS 2020 report – Tim Collins 4 meeting is 7 months away, there is still a sliver Student Awards of hope that life will have returned to normal Three New Student Awards – Tom Duda 5 by then. All information relevant to the meeting Carriker Award 2020 Winners – A. Lawless 6 will be provided through the AMS website Burch Fund – Tom Duda 6 (https://ams.wildapricot.org/AMS-2021); any Research Notes changes to our current plans will be announced Tritia obsoleta – Michelle Gannon 7 through this website and through social media. Atlantic Oyster Drill – Andrew Villeneuve 9 AMS2021 is scheduled to run from Monday Coral-Boring Bivalves – Sarah MacLean 11 June 14th – Friday June 18th and will be hosted Antarctic Cruise for Aplacophora – Kocot 13 by Cape Breton University (CBU), a small News & Announcements undergraduate-based university located Hon. Life Memb. Rosenberg – Mikkelsen 14 between Sydney and Glace Bay. Local Free AMB Page Charges, Students – Meyer 15 mollusc-based research programs at CBU focus Peru-Chile Bivalve Book – Valentich-Scott et al. 15 on the conservation ecology of freshwater mussels, the revitalization of oyster aquaculture BMSM Web Portal – José Leal 16 in the presence of MSX disease, the In Memoriam development of a sustainable whelk (Buccinum Richard Johnson – Alan Kabat 17 undatum) fishery, and the ecology of John Pearse – Lindberg, Gosliner, Eernisse 18 freshwater and marine snails. The AMS2021 Reports President’s Symposium is being organized by Conservation Comm. Report – Jay Cordeiro 22 freshwater mussel ecologists, Dr. André Martel Business Meeting Minutes – A. Lawless 27 (Canadian Museum of Nature) and Kellie White (CBU) and is entitled: Freshwater Meet a Malacologist – Paul Valentich-Scott 30 mussels of the Atlantic Drainage: Ecology, Word Search – Tim Pearce 31 Evolution, and Conservation. Other special Editor Contact 31 sessions are also in development. If you are Page 1 American Malacological Society Newsletter Fall 2020 interested in organizing a symposium or special More information will be provided about session on a topic related to your research, AMS2021 in the coming weeks on the AMS there is still time! Please contact the local host website. Early in the New Year, we will as soon as possible: Tim Rawlings provide details associated with conference ([email protected]). travel and registration, and a general schedule of events associated with the meeting. Tim A number of field trip options are currently Rawlings ([email protected]) will be being organized for the last day of the happy to answer any questions about the conference. These will include: an exploration conference. Sydney is accessible via road from of freshwater mussels in local lakes, rivers, and Halifax’s Stanfield International Airport (4.5 creeks, with Kellie White and André Martel; a hour drive) or via air from Halifax, Toronto, or survey of terrestrial molluscs in Cape Breton Montreal (seasonal). Highlands National Park guided by Park scientists; a day trip around the scenic Cabot The Local Organizing Committee consisting of Trail, with opportunities for whale watching Tim Rawlings, Kellie White, Rod Beresford, along the way; and a tour of the Alexander and Jeff Clements looks forward to seeing you Graham Bell Museum, with the chance to in June! And, for those of you enchanted by the explore the beautiful village of Baddeck and ceramic moose at the World Congress of Cape Breton’s inland sea, the Bras d’Or lake Malacology meeting in Pacific Grove in 2019 estuary. (see below), make plans to come and see a real one in Cape Breton! They are waiting… As you can see on the map above, Cape Breton is only a stone’s throw away from Newfoundland (accessible via ferry), Prince Edward Island and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy (including the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and other maritime hotspots such as Halifax, home to Nova Scotia’s Museum of Natural History. Hence, there is great potential to use this conference as a stepping stone to explore other areas of Atlantic Canada. Page 2 American Malacological Society Newsletter Fall 2020 OTHER UPCOMING MEETINGS SBMNH, Host of SCUM XXV SICB Logo SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNIFIED MOLLUSK SYMPOSIUM, SICB MALACOLOGISTS 25TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, JANUARY 4, 2021 MEETING: VIRTUAL SCUM XXV Modified from Molluscalist Submission by Submitted by Vanessa Delnavaz Omera Matoo Southern California Unified Malacologists The symposium “Genomic Perspectives in (SCUM) will hold its 25th annual meeting Comparative Physiology of Mollusks: Saturday, January 30, 2021, 9 AM – 3 PM Integration across Disciplines” will take place PST (with plenty of breaks in between). This at the Society of Integrative and Comparative virtual meeting will be hosted by the Santa Biology (SICB) virtual meeting on Jan. 4, 2021 Barbara Museum of Natural History. (http://burkclients.com/sicb/meetings/2021/site/ index.html). The symposium is organized by The world has changed drastically since our Omera Matoo (U of Nebraska-Lincoln) and last meeting, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get Maurine Neiman (U of Iowa). together in 2021, in one form or another. The presentations represent a broad range of SCUM is an opportunity for those of us in the efforts to integrate large datasets across levels Southern California area that are interested of biological organization in mollusks, towards and/or involved in molluscan research to come the larger goal of linking genomes to phenomes together and discuss our work from the - one of the Grand Challenges identified by the previous year. Meetings are informal, and National Science Foundation (NSF). The presenters have a choice of five- or ten-minute symposium will be live-streamed with slots. additional opportunities to network. In addition to the main symposium, there will be both oral We hope to make the 2021 meeting as and poster complementary sessions with interactive as possible over Zoom, with speakers selected from submitted abstracts. breakout rooms for people to mingle in smaller Participants across disciplines will discuss groups, as well as a virtual tour of our mollusk major gaps, key barriers and leading edges in collection here at the Santa Barbara Museum of elucidating mollusk biology. (Abstract Natural History. submission is now closed.) Those interested in attending who are not Contact Omera B. Matoo ([email protected]) already on the SCUM email list, please contact with questions about the symposium. Vanessa Delnavaz ([email protected]) Page 3 American Malacological Society Newsletter Fall 2020 MEETING OF GENERATIONS: While we may have many more months of AMS-WCM 2022 pandemic-restricted interactions, we are hopeful and optimistic that by mid-2022, the Submitted by Kenneth A. Hayes, AMS world will have acclimated enough to a new President-Elect normal that we may once again have our Meeting of Generations in person. Barring that, In July 2022, Unitas Malacologia (UM) will there will certainly be plans for virtual host the World Congress of Malacology interactions if needed. As plans develop, more (WCM) in Munich Germany. UM president information will be provided and a proposal for Gerhard Haszprunar and the Unitas council and the symposium and joint meeting with WCM organizing team has extended an invitation to will be presented at the AMS 2021 meeting. all Malacological Societies across the globe to come together in July 2022 for the WCM, currently themed as a ―Meeting of Generations‖ – emphasizing the need to grow and expand the reach and relevance of our scientific societies MEETING REPORTS across generations. The location is a destination not to be missed. REPORT ON THE AMERICAN Munich is the capital of Bavaria, Germany, and MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY VIRTUAL the summers are so similar to Southern Europe MEETING 2020 that it has often been billed as the northernmost city of Italy. At the planned meeting time, the Submitted by Tim Collins, Past President AMS days will be long and warm, with pleasant summer evenings for exploring the city and its numerous parks, gardens, open-air markets, museums, and restaurants. The Unitas organizing committee is sure to take advantage of the surrounding beauty of the location to plan field trips that will certainly be packed with eager visitors – especially after the long isolation of 2020-21. Ken Hayes, AMS president elect, proposes that AMS accept Gerhard’s invitation and Ken will work with him and the Unitas local organizers The 86th annual meeting of the American to plan an AMS-sponsored symposium and to Malacological Society, and the first virtual host our ―famous auction‖ aimed at raising meeting, took place on Zoom July 13th and 14th, funds to support the next generation of 2020. Given the situation, turnout was good, malacologists! While concrete plans have yet to with 164 registered participants, and 18 posters be developed, Gerhard has hinted at making and 49 talks presented. There were sessions on economical accommodations available to Land Snails and Slugs as Species of Concern in maximize attendance by students, postdocs, and Agricultural, Health, or Other Areas; researchers from around the globe. Biodiversity and Conservation; Systematics and Phylogenetics; and Ecology, Environment, and The symposia and related science activities will Morphology.