Write up about the Conference
The meeting has special relevance not only for the GEOHAB programme, but also for the entire international scientific community for researchers and managers engaged in the advance in harmful algal bloom research and mitigation of impacts.
The meeting has two objectives: 1) to review the scientific advances accomplished under GEOHAB since its inception; and 2) to identify a near-future roadmap of GEOHAB-like activities to be pursued beyond 2013. To achieve these objectives, active involvement of meeting participants, representing the global HAB community, is essential. For this reason, the OSM is structured somewhat differently from a typical science meeting, along four main axes; 1) invited presentation, 2) concept paper, 3) poster sessions and 4) breakout discussion sessions among the participants. With this diverse approach, a synthesis document regarding a near-future international collaboration on HAB research will arise from this OSM. The result of the OSM discussions and recommendations will be presented to IOC’s Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms at its 11th Session, immediately after the OSM.
Feedback on paper presented
This paper was much appreciated including by a representative from the International Panel o Climate Change. This pioneering work/paper successfully embedded the biological oceanography with physico-chemical oceanography of HABs in the study ares. The work has been cited in a GEOHAB (IOC/PHAB-XI/inf.4) as a model for future HAB research.
Future directions of research presented
Approach to be used in other HAB research; collaboration other local and foreign scientists.
Potential foreign collaborators
- Suzanne Roy – Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- University of Tokyo
Other important contacts and insights
The global HABs projects will be directly linked with other global project of IOC-UNESCO-NOAA
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
I presented an invited paper on the just concluded program “Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal in the Philippines (PhilHabs)” which is one of the 3 national projects (the other two are from the USA and China) under the United Nations Educational, Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (UNESCO-IOC-SCOR) project “Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB)”. The Philippines program which I headed and implemented for 3 years was considered pioneering and a model for HAB studies because physico-chemical and biological aspects of the phenomenon was considered including natural and anthropogenic impacts from the adjacent land/s.
