Date

Session Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Trophic Interactions and Ecosystem Services: How Will They be Impacted
by Climate Change?
Arctic Change 2008
Quebec City, Canada
9-12 December 2008

Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday, 26 September 2008

To submit an abstract, please go to:
http://www.arctic-change2008.com/index.php?url=13010

For further information, please contact the session conveners:
Gilles Gauthier
Email: Gilles.gauthier [at] bio.ulaval.ca

Nigel Gilles Yoccoz
Email: Nigel.Yoccoz [at] ib.uit.no


Abstracts are invited for session T01 "Trophic Interactions and
Ecosystem Services: How Will They be Impacted by Climate Change?" being
convened at the Arctic Change 2008 Conference, to be held 9-12 December
2008, in Quebec City, Canada.

Session description:
Climate change is strongly affecting arctic ecosystems, as the
distribution, abundance, and interactions of species are altered.
Changes in species assemblage, either through the decrease or
disappearance of arctic species or the invasion of new ones, will
interact with trophic interactions such as herbivory, predation and
parasitism, leading to cascading effects on ecosystem services such as
hunting, reindeer herding or tourism. The speed of response to changing
conditions will also vary among trophic levels, which may cause a
mismatch in the timing of seasonal events between herbivore and their
food plants or predator and their prey, leading to further disruption of
the trophic dynamics. Arctic ecosystems are especially sensitive to
those changes because the food webs are composed of a relatively small
number of species. Although some of these changes are already apparent,
predicting their outcome on ecosystem services is exceedingly complex
due the paucity of information on the functioning of arctic food webs.
As several International Polar Year projects attempt to fill this
knowledge gap at numerous sites in the circumpolar world, this session
would provide an opportunity to review progress made to date and to
identify challenges still ahead. The session will focus primarily on
terrestrial ecosystems and will encompass a large diversity of human
communities, ecosystem services and terrestrial food webs throughout the
circumpolar world. However, contributions from aquatic ecosystems are
also welcome.

The abstract submission deadline is Friday, 26 September 2008.

To submit an abstract, please go to:
http://www.arctic-change2008.com/index.php?url=13010.

For further information about this session please contact the session
conveners:
Gilles Gauthier
Center for Northern Studies
University Laval, Canada
Email: Gilles.gauthier [at] bio.ulaval.ca

Nigel Gilles Yoccoz
University of Tromso, Norway
Email: Nigel.Yoccoz [at] ib.uit.no

For further information about the conference please go to:
http://www.arcticchange2008.com