For more images from the symposium please click here, or click on the magnifying glass at the top right in the image above.
Nearly a hundred participants from 16 countries gathered 6 - 7 May in Malmö, Sweden, for the scientific symposium “Tools for assessing status of aquatic ecosystems”.
The two-day programme included 55 presentations on indicator development and assessment methods for ecological and environmental status of freshwater and marine ecosystems, as well as panel discussions and – of course – lots of networking between scientists, environmental managers and authority representatives. Here are some comments from a few of the participants:
"The program is both broad and solid. The organizers have found the absolute right mix of topics, which is evident by the number of countries present. The combination of both marine and freshwater is a strength – it is the same processes going on anyhow. I find the quality of the presentations to be very high."
Jesper Andersen,
NIVA Denmark WaterResearch
"I think it’s a very well organized conference. There is a good mix of talks, although I would have preferred fresh water and marine water separately since there will easily be clashes between the sessions."
Alexandra Pavlidou,
Hellenic Center for Marine Research
"The conference is enjoyable with an informal atmosphere. A lot of the work here is done during coffee breaks and dinner! It is good to join people from different projects so they can exchange knowledge about different approaches, and get new ideas on what to do with their own data. Many people here are interested in more than one topic, and I would have preferred the conference to be a day or half a day longer to avoid parallel sessions. Then the benthic people would be forced to listen to the plankton people and go outside their own comfort zone, and vice versa!
I think that the conference shows that we now have all the right tools and approaches, but how good are we at implementing them? How can we reach out to the managers? Here we preach to the converted, and the big challenge for Mars, Devotes and Waters now is now to spread the knowledge to others."
Mike Elliott,
University of Hull
"It was very interesting to hear the different programs being presented yesterday morning. It is rewarding to gain perspective on the various Directives, especially as I am not very versed in coastal waters. It is also interesting to see the similarities and differences in the expectations from science and society."
Kerstin Holmgren,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
"For me as a master’s student the conference is very helpful and informative. I am most interested in indicators of ecosystem services, and that is also the topic of my talk."
Kristel Kalpus,
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Here are the presentations in PDF from the conference. The numbers refer to the numbers in the Programme and Abstracts book.
Session 1
Lyche-Solheim et al
Enserink et al
Bergström and Zweifel
Session 2
Lindegarth (W)
Borja
Lyche-Solheim et al
Isaeus
Session 3
1 Josefson and Blomqvist (W)
2 Göransson et al
3 Chuševė et al
4 Leonardsson et al (W)
5 Pantazi et al
6 Borja et al
7 Walve (W)
8 Kauppila et al
9 Paczkowska et al
10 Karlson et al
11 Drakare – omitted
12 Carstensen (W)
13 Murray et al
14 Strāķe et al
15 Søndergaard et al
16 Grimvall et al (W)
17 Aroviita – not available
Session 4
18 Gundersen et al
19 McKie (W)
20 Truchy (W)
21 Milun
22 Andersen et al
23 Kahlert (W)
24 Drakare (W)
25 Harvey et al
26 Höglander and Walve (W)
27 Walve and Larsson (W)
28 Pavlidou et al
29 Phillips et al
30 Pitt et al
31 Olenin et al
Session 5
32 Kalpus and Vilbaste
33 Wynne et al
34 Almeida et al
35 Johnson et al (W)
36 Riemann et al
37 Bergström et al (W)
38 Karlsson et al (W)
39 Holmgren (W)
40 Poikane et al
41 Ecke et al (W)
42 Šiaulys et al
43 Bučas and Alberte
44 Wikström et al (W)
45 Wikström et al (W)
Session 6
Van Hoey et al
Carstensen and Lindegarth (W)
Andersen et al (W)
Session 7
Verdonschot
Elliott
