Scientific conferences

On the occasion of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, more than 440 participants from 31 countries will meet in Vienna from 10 to 13 September 2018. In numerous talks and posters, they will present the latest results of their ecological research from a large range of disciplines, e.g. biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural ecosystems, die necessity of long-term data series, citizen science, the non-target effects of pesticides, or the IPBES process (the so called “world council on biodiversity”). The full list of topics and the detailed program for the individual talks are published on the conference website: https://gfoe-conference.de/index.php?cat=program

We were able to win six outstanding researchers for the keynote lectures of the conference:
• Prof. Dr. Stefan Dullinger
(Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Austria)
• PD Dr. Stephan Hättenschwiler
(Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), CNRS, Université de Montpellier, France)
• Prof. Dr. Claudio Gratton
(Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, USA)
• Prof. Dr. Nina Buchmann
(Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences at ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
• Prof. Dr. Pedro Beja
(CIBIO – Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, University of Porto, Portugal)
• Prof. Dr. Kerry Naish
(School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, USA)

Early Tuesday evening, 11.09.2018 18:15, Dr. Martin Sorg from the Entomological Society of Krefeld will give a special talk on insect decline. October last year, Dr. Sorg published the results of 27 years of continuous insect sampling in German nature reserves, together with Dutch scientists and other colleagues (Hallmann et al. 2017, PLOS one). Insect biomass declined by 75% during this period – a result that led to an enormous media response worldwide.

Also on Tuesday, 11.09.2018 20:00, Prof. Klement Tockner will talk about the domestication of our water bodies and the end of nature. Prof. Tockner is president of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and professor of aquatic ecology at the Freie Universität Berlin. The talk will be in German and is open to the public without any fees.

On Thursday, 13.08.2018 14:00, the award ceremony will take place. The GfÖ awards exceptional scientific achievements in basic and applied ecology. There are awards for the best master thesis, the best dissertation, and for the best project in applied ecology. Additionally, there are awards for the two best papers published in the scientific journal of the GfÖ, ‘Basic and Applied Ecology’. Finally, the conference participants vote on the best poster and the best ecological photo.

On Friday, 14.09.2018, we will organize scientific excursions to four attractive destinations: to the national park Neusiedlersee-Seewinkel, to the Steppic Refugium in the Weinviertel, to the subalpine and alpine vegetation of Mt. Schneeberg, and to the Danube Alluvial Forest national park. Please register for the excursions, there are additional fees to cover transport and lunch boxes: https://gfoe-conference.de/index.php?cat=excursions

Notes
The public evening lecture by Prof. Tockner will be in German and is open to the public without any fees. The talk by Dr. Sorg is only open for conference participants and will be in English. Journalists are welcome to attend the conference free of charge. To request a press pass in advance, please contact: presse@gfoe.org. Conference language will be English for the most part. Press releases on selected topics related to the conference will be published on the GfÖ-website http://gfoe.org/de/pressemitteilungen. A detailed program and more information on the conference are available at https://www.gfoe-conferences.de.

Overview
48th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland: 10.-13.09.2018
Special talk on insect decline, Martin Sorg: Tuesday, 11.09.2018, 18:30-19:00
Public evening lecture, Klement Tockner: Tuesday, 11.09.2018, 20:00-21:30
Award ceremony: 13.09.2018, 14:00-15:00

Contact (press) during the conference:
Juliane Röder (Press and Outreach Officer GfÖ
E-mail: presse@gfoe.org

About the Gesellschaft für Ökologie
The Gesellschaft für Ökologie e.V. (GfÖ) represents ecologists working on basic research, applied aspects and education, mostly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It was founded in 1970 to support exchange among ecologists working on a wide range of topics and positions. The diversity of the society’s over 1,100 members is reflected in the GfÖ’s specialist groups, publications and annual meetings. www.gfoe.org - @GfOe_org (Twitter) - @gfoe.org (Facebook)

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Weitere Informationen:
http://www.gfoe-conferences.de Conference website (program, abstracts)
http://gfoe.org/de/pressemitteilungen Press releases of GfÖ
http://www.facebook.com/gfoe.org GfÖ on Facebook
https://twitter.com/gfoe_org GfÖ on Twitter