Announcements

1st Announcement     Dear Colleagues!
The Scientific-practical conference “Šeriphyton and fouling: theory and practice” will be held at Zoological institute and St.-Petersburg research centre RAS on 22-24 October 2008.
The meeting is aimed to provide:
• Overview of current knowledge and ongoing research in ;
i biology and ecology of fouling organisms including dispersal and formation of fouling assemblages
ii biodiversity (from species diversity to functional diversity) of freshwater and marine fouling assemblages in natural, transformed and artificial ecosystems
• Identify
i causes and consequences of biofouling development in artificial ecosystems
ii Use of basic (fundamental) knowledge in solving practical problems
• establish connections for further collaboration in this area
• develop the plan for dissemination of the meeting results (as publications, www activities)

And so far the topics are:
• Biology and ecology of periphyton species;
• Prerequisites, cause, consequences and forecasts of fouling communities (periphyton) development;
• Science based approach for prevention and control of fouling organisms and fouling assemblages;
• Basic knowledge for innovations and practical use of fouling organisms (they are not all bad…)

The meeting is aimed at academic scientists, applied scientists, public education specialists, industrial water users (remedies to mitigate or solve the problem), state agencies (monitoring, environmental protection, public education).

Conference materials (Program, abstracts (in English and Russian (optional) and pdf-saved presentations (optional)) will be posted on the internet (at www.zin.ru). Book of abstracts will be issued before the conference and distributed to participants at registration.

                                                                   The Organizing Committee
2nd Announcement
(see full text)
Dear Colleagues!

The Organizing Committtee of the forthcoming conference “Šeriphyton and fouling: theory and practice” to be held at Zoological institute and St.-Petersburg Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Science (SpbRC RAS and ZIN RAS) on 22-25 October 2008 extend our warmest thanks all who have expressed interest, have sent registration cards and have supplied abstracts. We have had a tremendous response, and are looking forward to an exciting and productive meeting.

(Earnest request to those who have not yet sent their abstracts – please, send your abstract as soon as possible by e-mail: fouling_periphyton@yahoo.com )

Conference Venue
The Conference will be held at the building of St.-Petersburg Research Centre RAS, which is located on the Universitetskaya emb., 5. The nearest metro stations are “ Gostinyi Dvor”, “Nevsky prospect”, “Vasileostrovskaya”, “Sportivnaya”. The most convenient alternative transport links to the venue include the municipal bus nos. 7, 10, 47, fixed-route taxis nos.147, 209, 128, 129, 141, 147, 209, 252, 228, and trolleybus nos. 1, 7, 10, where you should alight at the stops labeled as "University", "Universitestkaya naberezhnaya”, or “Birzhevaya ploshad”.

Tentative timetable
21-22 October, Arrival of participants;
22 October, 9.00-12.00, Registration;
22 October, Opening Session and Plenary Sessions, beginning of Poster Session;
23 October, Concurrent Sessions, continuation of Poster Session, Conference Dinner;
24 October, continuation of Poster Session, Round tables (themes will be circulated in due course), Excursions, Conference resolution, Closing Ceremony;
25 October, Departure of participants

Tea and coffee will be available during Registration and coffee breaks. Duration of coffee breaks will be 15-20 min.

                                                                   The Organizing Committee

Address and contacts:
Zoological institute, RAS, Universitetskaya emb., 1, 199034 St.-Petersburg, Russia,
tel.: 007 (812) 323 5197;    fax: 007 (812) 328 2941;    E-mail: fouling_periphyton@yahoo.com