The European Coral Reef Symposium pursues the missions and objectives of the International Coral Reef Society (ICRS) and takes place every four years to bring together coral reef scientists, researchers, conservationists, policymakers, and reef managers. This year, the symposium (ECRS 2024) was held in Naples (Italy) from July 2nd to 5th, 2024, and several SPP 2299 members made the trip to take part. Close to 20 members of the SPP 2299 programme met at the symposium, delivering a range of presentations, from posters and short talks to longer talks and heading up sessions. The ECRS 2024 was a great way to develop new and existing scientific discussions. This blog is written by Diana Diers, a SPP 2299 PhD researcher from Goethe University Frankfurt, who attended the symposium.
The European Coral Reef Symposium (ECRS 2024) held in Naples, Italy, began on Tuesday evening with an icebreaker and registration in the beautiful courtyard of San Lorenzo Maggiore, a church and former monastery. After being impressed by the stunning courtyard and registering for the conference, I was delighted to meet other SPP 2299 members and familiar faces from previous conferences while enjoying the live music. It was an impressive example of the history surrounding us. The discussions at the icebreaker were a primer for what was to come: three days all about coral reef science.
The symposium was held at the Città della Scienza, around 40 minutes from Naples city. Each day started with a plenary talk, followed by parallel sessions with oral talks on various topics to choose from. In addition to the usual 15-minute talks, there was also the possibility to give a six-minute speed talk, which gave more people the opportunity to present their work. Several of the SPP 2299 early career researchers presented their projects in Session 1, “Lessons from the Past to Inform the Future” (including me), co-chaired by SPP 2299 Project Committee Member Miriam Pfeiffer (Kiel University, CAU), which focused on the interplay of past environmental and climatic changes on different time scales and their effects on corals and coral reefs. There were also several featured SPP 2299 talks throughout the symposium. You can check out the SPP 2299 Bluesky page (@climatereefs.bsky.social) to see some of them! Coffee and lunch were provided between the sessions, which allowed us to meet various scientists and students in the large outdoor areas of the venue.
Like Phyllis Mono (Leipzig University) and Konabe Watanabe (Kiel University, CAU), two of the other early career researchers of the SPP 2299 programme, I wanted to use this conference for intensive discussion and exchange with other scientists and decided to present a poster. I focused on my results and interpretations of variability and cyclical patterns in reconstructed sea surface temperatures from 1815 to 2004 and related climate modes from a Belize coral. Unlike many other conferences where poster sessions are rather short, at the ECRS we had one and a half hours on both Wednesday and Thursday evenings to present our work. This gave me more than enough time to talk to other participants of the conference in a relaxed atmosphere and have some insightful discussions.
Besides the official program of the conference, we also had an informal dinner with the SPP 2299 members who attended the ECRS 2024. Some brought friends from the conference with them, so again, I had the chance to meet some great people while enjoying pizza on a terrace in the busy old town of Naples. I like those meetings, as you can build connections without it feeling like work. Even after the ECRS 2024, when some stayed in Italy for travelling, we were still in touch. After the symposium, I got the chance to go snorkelling with Phyllis in the Underwater Archaeological Park of Baia, where you can still see beautiful mosaics and walls of a sunken Roman city, and I also went hiking with Laura Lehnhoff (FU Berlin) in the Vesuvius National Park.
The ECRS 2024 ended on Friday with the closing ceremony. It was an exciting and successful four days for me. Not only did I meet many new people from different fields, but I also received feedback and input on my project, which will contribute to my future research and publications.
Written by Diana Diers, Edited by Jessica Hargreaves.
SPP 2299 presentations and sessions at European Coral Reef Symposium (ECRS 2024), Naples (Italy)
Poster presentations
| Diana Diers (Goethe University Frankfurt) et al., | Tropical climate variability and the influence of environmental stressors as recorded in Orbicella and Siderastrea coral skeletons, Belize, Central America |
| Phyllis Mono (Leipzig University) et al., | Calcification characteristics of Eocene reef corals (Astreopora) |
| Marlene Wall (GEOMAR, Kiel) et al., | Natural thermal stress-hardening in corals: Cold-water pulses likely boost heat resistance |
| Takaaki K. Watanabe (Kiel University (CAU)) et al., | Coral growth response to multiple stressors: sediment runoff and heatwaves on the Tin Island of Belitung, Indonesia |
Oral presentations
| Hana Camelia (MARUM, University of Bremen) et al., | Indian Ocean Dipole and thermal stress response recorded in Andaman Sea corals during the satellite era |
| Andrew Dolman (AWI Potsdam) et al., | Wandering vital effects in tropical corals exaggerate climate variability in reconstructions from geochemical proxies |
| Thomas Felis (MARUM, University of Bremen) et al., | Tropical Climate Variability and Coral Reefs – a Past to Future Perspective on Current Rates of Change at Ultra-high Resolution |
| Sahra Greve (Heidelberg University) et al., | Little Ice Age freshwater variability traced in a Cuban coral using 234U/238U ratios |
| Jessica Hargreaves (MARUM, University of Bremen) et al., | Hydrologic variability in the southwest Indian Ocean from Mauritius corals since the late 19th century and connections to the Indo-Pacific throughflow |
| Saori (Sally) Ito (Kiel University (CAU)) et al., | Thermal stress signatures in Porites corals from the remote western Indian Ocean island Tromelin |
| Oliver Knebel (MARUM, University of Bremen) et al., | Common Era ENSO variability in the western tropical Pacific inferred from isotopic and trace element analysis of Porites microatolls. |
| Laura Lehnhoff (FU Berlin) et al., | Coral bleaching signals: Sclerochronological and geochemical insights from Porites bleaching survivors |
| Hannah Manns (University of Konstanz) et al., | Contribution of past and recent Climate Variability on contemporary Patterns of Coral Bleaching Susceptibility |
| Catarina P. P. Martins (Justus Liebig University Giessen) et al., | Integrating coral responses to ocean acidification from the microscale to the colony-scale |
| Luisa Meiritz (GEOMAR, Kiel) et al., | Reconstructing ultra-high-resolution climate variability and symbiont bleaching in tropical corals: Case study of a northwestern Pacific Porites colony. |
| Christian R. Voolstra (University of Konstanz) et al., | Doing Good better: adapting research-based coral conservation and restoration to local community Stakeholding |
| Merlin Weichler (GEOMAR, Kiel) et al., | Shift in trophic strategy is likely not the main driver for the higher bleaching resilience of coral holobionts exposed to internal waves in the Andaman Sea |
| Maren Ziegler (Justus Liebig University Giessen) et al., | Interconnection of coral holobionts in the reef environment: A holobiome perspectives |
Chaired sessions
| Session 1 – Lessons from the Past to Inform the Future | Session chairs: Miriam Pfeiffer, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Germany), and Stéphanie Reynaud, Centre Scientifique de Monaco (Monaco) |
| Session 12 – The Ocean Decade: The Science We Need for the Coral Reefs We Want | Session chairs: Sally Keith, Lancaster University (United Kingdom), Thomas Felis, MARUM/University of Bremen (Germany), and Rucha Karkarey Lancaster University (UK) |