On Saturday, February 15, 2003, PISCO hosted a symposium titled "Opening the Black Box: Understanding Ecosystem Dynamics in the Coastal Ocean" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Held in Denver, Colorado, the session highlighted some of PISCO's recent findings in the nearshore environment of the U.S. West Coast. Over 100 people attended the event.

Media Coverage

The event received significant media attention. This is in part due to the significant assistance of SeaWeb in helping us to develop a press release and to receive a press briefing as part of the conference schedule. Our briefing was held on Saturday, February 15 at 12 noon.

A sampling of articles written about our symposium include those from the following outlets:

Los Angeles Times, February 16
San Francisco Chronicle, Febrary 16
Oregonian, February 16
Environmental News Service, February 19

Session Schedule

February 15, 2003

2:30 pm: Introduction, Jane Lubchenco

2:40 pm: A model for benthic-pelagic coupling in coastal ecosystems, Bruce Menge

3:00 pm: Biogeographic perspectives on coastal populations: abrupt shifts in larval regimes at oceanographic transitions, Steve Gaines

3:20 pm: Linking the recruitment dynamics of temperate reef fish populations to coastal physical processes, Margaret McManus

3:40 pm: Coffee Break

4:00 pm: Scaling up: bridging the scales from individual to ocean, Mark Denny

4:20 pm: Opening the black box: dispersal scales and connectivity among marine populations, Robert Warner

4:40 pm: A gene's view of oceanography: genetic mapping of hidden population boundaries in barnacles, Steve Palumbi

5:00 pm: Q&A and Discussion: moderated by Jane Lubchenco

5:25 pm: Closing remarks, Steve Palumbi

Talk Summaries

Bruce Menge: A model for benthic-pelagic coupling in coastal ecosystems.

Steve Gaines: Biogeographic perspectives on coastal populations: abrupt shifts in larval regimes at oceanographic transitions. (Summary not available.)

Margaret McManus: Linking the recruitment dynamics of temperate reef fish populations to coastal physical processes.

Mark Denny: Scaling up: bridging the scales from individual to ocean.

Robert Warner: Opening the black box: dispersal scales and connectivity among marine populations.

Steve Palumbi: A gene's view of oceanography: genetic mapping of hidden population boundaries in barnacles.