The talk will include a brief explanation of the problem of ocean acidification, review the work in this field involving calcifying and non-calcifying zooplankton, identify major gaps in our knowledge, and suggest future research directions.

The talk will first summarise our current knowledge of climate impacts on zooplankton from around the world. This will lead into a synopsis of what zooplankton models linked to global climate models are telling us about the marine foodwebs of the future.

The talk will discuss the role of microzooplankton in shaping the structure of different marine ecosystems, explore how this group interacts with other components of the foodweb, conjecture the likely effects of human and climate forcing on these key organisms, and identify present uncertainties and major gaps in the research on the topic.

Zooplankton play an integral role in the cycling of elements in the sea. As key drivers of the biological pump, zooplankton feed in surface waters and produce sinking fecal pellets, and actively transport dissolved and particulate matter to depth via vertical migration. Zooplankton grazing and metabolism transforms particulate organic matter into dissolved forms, affecting primary producer populations, microbial remineralization, and particle export to the ocean's interior. The elemental stoichiometry of zooplankton and their prey often differ, resulting in non-Redfield cycling of C, N, and P. We invite papers on role of zooplankton (both metazoan and protozoan) in biogeochemical cycles reflecting the significant strides that have been made in this area, as well as identifying crucial gaps in our knowledge. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the role of zooplankton in the biological pump, mesopelagic and deep sea processes, trophic interactions and nutrient cycling, ecological stoichiometry, effects on biogeochemical cycling (measured or modelled) of human- or climate-influenced changes in zooplankton community structure, and regional or global syntheses of the importance of zooplankton in biogeochemical cycles. This session theme is closely related to research goals within IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research) and GLOBEC.

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Global change, a combination of both natural and anthropogenic processes, impacts heavily upon the marine environment and its services (e.g. fisheries, green house gas sequestering). A critical issue facing marine and climate researchers is developing a predictive understanding of how changes in climate and food web structure due to exploitation of marine resources feedbacks to global climate. Marine zooplankton perform a critical role in this change via structuring of higher and lower trophic levels. This structuring impacts upon the population dynamics of exploited species, as well as modifying the flux of organic materials to deep ocean. In this session, we encourage contributions highlighting the effects of climatic processes and changes in anthropogenic forcing on individual and population rates, life cycles and distributions as well as the structure of marine communities, in order to further our understanding of the role of zooplankton in global change.

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Understanding the patterns and causes of zooplankton mortality has been an elusive goal. Yet both theoretical and empirical studies illustrate the sensitivity of virtually all domains of zooplankton research to this understudied component of population dynamics. In recent years, it has become clear that a multiplicity of factors may account for mortality in different phases of the life history, ranging from chemical compounds to predators and parasites. The aim of this session is to bring together contemporary research approaches that address issues such as the estimation of mortality rates in natural zooplankton populations, the causal agents of mortality at different ontogentic stages, trade-off models exploring the costs and benefits of different behaviors and life history traits that influence mortality risk, and related studies. Participants are invited to present appropriate methods, up-to-date results, key issues and perspectives in order to better understand and further model the complex processes linking mortality and zooplankton productivity processes.

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Zooplankton play vital roles in the aquatic ecosystems. The biodiversity and biomass change will shape the ecosystem, but it is only a general concept. The most important is to find who the main contributor to the structure and function of the ecosystem is. In previous research, we mainly focused on the biodiversity, dominant species and the key species population dynamics of zooplankton. From the point of ecosystem modeling, it is not practical because we must consider their role in the ecosystem. Since many species have similar roles, we divide them into different functional groups, based on size, morphology, trophic level, or physiological parameters. In this session, we will focus on the zooplankton functional groups in ecosystems: composition, shift under the force of human activities and climate change, its effects to the foodweb structure and biogeochemical cycling. Our particular interests are toward the mechanisms and consequences of the alternation of major functional groups. What kind of environmental perturbation causes the alternation, and what are the ecological and biogeochemical consequences? In addition to the presentations from field- and laboratory-based studies, suggestions and proposals from theoretical and modeling approaches are welcome.

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Theoretically, the productivity at the top level of a pelagic foodweb is determined by the productivity at the basic level (here defined as phytoplankton and bacteria), the number of trophic links, and the efficiency by which energy or carbon is transferred between subsequent trophic levels. This implies that habitats with a dominance of organisms in the size below a few microns at the basic level will generate longer food chains and thereby relatively lower productivity at the mesozooplankton level, i.e. they have a lower foodweb efficiency. However, this theoretical consideration has not been verified from more than a few field-based and experimentally-based studies. We therefore invite papers in this session that can highlighting how contrasting foodweb structure is controlled and which consequences the foodweb structure has on the productivity at higher trophic levels like mesozooplankton or fish. Studies from marine as well as freshwater habitats are welcome since they usually complement each others by showing different trophic structure. Reports from field stuidies, laboratory experiments and mesocosm studies are all welcome.

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Egg and copepodite dormancy, egg-sac carrying and free spawning, vertical migration, depth selection, feeding rhythms, growth rates and generation lengths of zooplankton have evolved as adaptations to fluctuating environmental factors. These include cyclic food availability, predation pressure, patterns in advection, oxygen supply and temperature variations. Behaviors and phenologic patterns also respond to inter- and intra-species competitions. Zooplankton activity variations and life cycle timing are key parameters for the survival of animals at higher trophic levels. For example, fish may spawn at times that anticipate availability of copepod eggs or nauplii for larval feeding. Many findings in these regards have accumulated from widespread areas of the ocean in recent decades, especially with the attention given to zooplankton in the GLOBEC program. Presentations and posters are sought addressing any aspect of zooplankton phenology or behavior, including effects on biogeochemical cycles.

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Advanced methodologies are emerging that are strongly impacting research development in the marine sciences. Studies using microsatellite markers are now providing new understanding of genetic differentiation, phenotypic plasticity and identification of subpopulations that are shaping the future of zooplankton ecology research. Fluorescent molecular probes have facilitated studies on physiological processes regarding the reproduction, development, growth and mortality of zooplankton. There is also a growing interest in marine bioprospecting, i.e. search for bioactive compounds relevant for drug development and other product categories. Although few zooplankton groups have been commercially utilized historically for this purpose, there may be great scope for research in this field in the future.
This theme session seeks contributions from practical and potential biotechnological applications in zooplankton within, but not restricted to, the above outlined areas.

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One of the main problems confronting plankton research is low sampling resolution, both spatial and temporal. Although it is widely recognized that the relevant scales for plankton are much smaller than those usually sampled, the work involved in plankton sample analysis has made it impossible to sample at very high resolution in most programs. To some extent the lack of sampling capability has been resolved using simplified measurements such as Chl a, total biovolume, biomass (wet or dry weight) or more sophisticated systems providing size and number of particles (e.g. OPC). However, these methods have a common problem: they lack the ability to distinguish between different functional groups of plankton that we know have a very different roles in the ecosystem (e.g. diatoms vs flagellates, marine snow, or copepods vs appendicularia). In recent years several "in situ" and laboratory imaging systems have been developed. These systems are capable of obtaining relatively good resolution images at high sampling rates that would in theory allow quantification of the abundance of taxonomically well-resolved groups in the appropriate spatial and temporal scales. These systems have been confronted by a new problem, due to the huge amount of information (images) they produce, which is again impossible to analyse manually. New image analysis systems offer an advantage over other methods of counting / sizing: the images can be used for automated taxonomic identification using different recognition systems to identify at least major groups. Many sophisticated automatic recognition algorithms exist, and the research in this area is very active. The objective of this session is to present state of the art systems (imaging and analysis software) as well as examples of the results obtained using image analysis approaches to high resolution sampling.

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Zooplankton models have a long history and have made major contributions to our understanding of trophic impacts in marine ecosystems, giving us key quantitative insights into spatial processes such as vertical fluxes and temporal phenomena such as spring blooms. In the future, models of zooplankton dynamics will have rapidly expanding and increasingly central roles as tools for interpreting, integrating and extracting predictive insights from observations. Improving technology is resulting in an exponential growth of biological oceanography datasets that span spatial, temporal and organizational scales from organism-level genetics and physiology to basin-wide biomass distributions. At the same time, scientific and societal needs for quantitative understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in the oceans are increasing in accuracy and scope. Translating better data into enhanced understanding will require new breadth and depth in zooplankton modeling approaches. We invite papers that advance spatial, temporal or organismal analysis of interactions among zooplankton and between zooplankton and other components of plankton communities, and of zooplankton dynamics in global and regional ecosystems. We especially welcome new, integrative applications of existing modeling approaches such as biomass-based (NPZ) models and individual-based models, and novel modeling techniques that promise to synthesize and reconcile diverse observations at multiple organizational levels. A more comprehensive understanding of the boundary current systems requires modeling approaches, although the data for model validation is often limited. This session will also provide considertion of observing system requirements and techniques for monitoring boundary current circulation and ecosystems, in particular the necessary combination of data and models.

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The mean temperature of the biosphere is increasing on land and - after a lag-phase - in the oceans. The organisms of the sea - evolutionary accustomed to a low level of annual and seasonal variance in temperature - respond to the global warming with changes in the seasonal timing and with lateral shifts of the range of distribution. Phenology, the science of the timing of recursive events in organism live cycles, established in terrestrial sciences, will help to recognize temporal responses of zooplankton including fish and benthic larvae and to understand distributional change on a local and global scale. Community changes, the appearance of neozoa and the loss of even key species to regional biota can be understood as responses to climatic change, mismatch with their traditional environment and opening of their ecological niches elsewhere. The process of global warming-related community change has begun. In trying to observe, document and analyse it we can increase our understanding of the functioning of the pelagic ecosystem regarding this process as a large natural experiment. This workshop will address aspects of this natural experiment, new data, new approaches, and new syntheses.

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The Indian-Pacific region is a region of high zooplankton biodiversity, covering several high biological productivity areas and several important fishing grounds. Many Asian countries are developing countries, and they are facing the common issues: marine pollution, coastal destruction, overfishing, and marine aquaculture etc. These activities affect the coastal ecosystem more seriously than climate change, in turn, the marine ecosystems in this area are being influenced both by climate change and human activities.

As zooplankton play vital roles in the aquatic ecosystem, it can be used as an indicator of ecosystem changes. Zooplankton research in Asian countries has developed very rapidly in recent years, quite extensively from primitive level study in local waters to internationally collaborative projects in the open ocean. However, those are still weak compared to European and Northern American countries. The purpose of this workshop is to facilitate zooplankton research in Asian countries by presenting research activities, results, progresses, main problems, strategies, surveys, standard methods, and main instruments. We aim to strengthen our cooperative research and long-term zooplankton survey, and establish a name list of Asian zooplankton communities and a zooplankton data exchange system. Although several workshops, conferences and symposia have been carried out in the last 10 years in Japan, Korea and China under the framework of GLOBEC, LME, HAB and PICES, we hope other Asian countries will participate in those activities.

Financial support is available for a limited number of Asian zooplankton scientists (excluding China, Japan and Korea).

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The significance of euphausiids in marine ecosystem has been recognized for centuries particularly because of their obvious importance in the diet of baleen whales and many fish. They are excellent experimental organisms because of their relatively large size and high survival rate in captivity. They are also an ideal model organism for studying interactions between environmental and organismal variability at variety of scales ranging from short-term variation up to regime shifts. Recent advances in technology have increased the range of techniques that can be used for studies on krill biology and ecology, and the outcomes are now covering numerous research topics. The purpose of this workshop is to review current knowledge of krill biology, to highlight gaps and future areas for research, and to explore how the study of a range species of krill can further address general problems of the euphausiids (flux, biomass, recruitment, behaviour, growth and aging, genetics).

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