Story
Reflections on the 7th International Zooplankton Symposium
29 July 2024
Earlier in the year, a team of PML researchers headed to Hobart, Tasmania for the 7th International Zooplankton Symposium. Some of the team kindly shared their reflections on this globally significant event.
The symposium, supported by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, is held every 6 or 7 years and is organised by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES).
The gathering of over 300 zooplankton experts from 38 countries offered a valuable forum to discuss zooplankton, their role in the global ecosystem, their sensitivity to change and the resultant effects on ecosystems. Attendees enjoyed 16 sessions, 5 workshops, 357 presentations and 75 scientific posters on display.
To read more about the event and PML’s presentations, please click here >>
Our Prof. Angus Atkinson, who was recently awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list, had the privilege of being the Plenary Speaker with his talk: ‘New dawn fades – returning to dark data during a zooplankton technology revolution’.
Angus commented about his whole meeting experience:
“For me, I had not been to any meeting outside Europe since 2011 so it was a very good chance to catch up with colleagues from outside Europe, some of whom I had not met for ages.”
“One of these was an Australian early postdoc modeller with whom I had countless e-mail exchanges while we wrote a recent paper. We had worked very closely together to make our paper happen so it was great to finally meet them in person.”
“Scientifically, for me the highlight was understanding how far particle imaging had progressed, to the extent that it is now challenging our understanding of plankton size structure.”
“The other big thing was talking to colleagues offline, after the main sessions or in the short coffee breaks between sessions. Informal chats between conference sessions are so important and often lead to new directions for research or new collaborations”.
Another member of the team that attended this event, Elaine Fileman, who is leading the zooplankton elements of the ‘Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS)’ project, added:
“This was perhaps the best and most useful meeting I have ever attended. It was wonderful to have so many zooplankton enthusiasts together in the same place, and with that place being Hobart, making it all the more amazing.”
“It was lovely to meet many old acquaintances, some I went to sea with 30 years ago and have not seen since, but equally good to see many new faces, in particular students and early career researchers.”
“For me the meeting led to a number of useful leads on which to follow up. I am currently writing a Royal Society exchange grant to setup collaboration with a colleague based in China, who I had never met before the meeting but who has invited me to do some collaborative work though international exchange visits.”
“Another contact from South Africa has been in touch regarding some collaborative opportunities relating to plankton imaging and I have been approached by a number of students wishing to visit PML and enquiring about studentship opportunities.”
“It was a real pleasure to have the opportunity to sit down with the inspirational Fabien Lombard from the University of Sorbonne, to talk about using Ecotaxa. Whilst we have communicated by email, we have never met face-to-face and having that time to be able to ask him all the questions I had relating to Ecotaxa and Planktoscope was invaluable and definitely worth the travel”.
