MASTS Annual Science Meeting

The MASTS Annual Science Meeting ("Science to Underpin Scotland's Marine Plan") was held at the Edinburgh Conference Centre, Heriot Watt University on 22-24th August 2011. The themes of the Annual Science Meeting (ASM) matched those articulated in Scottish Government’s strategic vision for  “clean, healthy, safe, productive, biologically diverse marine and coastal environments, managed to meet the long terms needs of nature and people”. The conference was attended by approximately 150 delegates, ranging from postgraduate students, academics, members of Government departments and industry. The ASM was opened by Professor David Paterson (MASTS Executive Director) and Dr Linda Rosborough (Acting Head of Marine Scotland), and both noted what an exciting time this was for the Scottish Marine Environment. Invited talks were delivered by Dr John Baxter (Principle Advisor, Marine Ecology, SNH) on "Marine Research: Making it relevant in 2011" and Dr Carlo Heip (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) on "Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change in Europe".

The first two days of the conference were plenary talks, and the structure of the ASM programme echoed titles set out in the introductory sections of the recently published Scottish Marine Atlas: 1) Healthy & Biologically Diverse Seas; 2) Marine Systems & Dynamics; 3) Productive Seas; and 4) Clean and Safe Seas. On Day 2, there were also two discussion sessions: 1) The development of a governance baseline for Scottish coasts and seas (led by Dr T Stojanovic) and 2) A review of the Joint Research Theme Structure (led by Prof D Paterson).

As well as talks, research was presented on over 70 posters covering a wide range of research topics. Student poster prizes were won by Niels Jobsvogt (Measuring changes in ecosystem service values for the deep sea), Virginia Echavarri Bravo (Impact of silver nanoparticles on estuarine microbial communities) and Jennifer Loxton (Biodiversity and calcification in Scottish Bryozoans and the potential implications of climate change on these communities). These posters are available to download from the MASTS website.

Day Three of the ASM was made up of six workshops on a variety of topics: 1) Hydrodynamic Modelling; 2) Marine Renewables; 3) International collaborations and networking; 4) Developing an ecologically coherent network of Marine Protected Areas; 5) Scientific Requirements for Autonomous and Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles; and 6) Marine Environmental Data & Information Network. The excellent facilities at the conference centre were also used for a variety of sub-meetings including Joint Research Theme meetings, the MASTS Advisory Board meeting and the MASTS Prize Studentship interviews.

The successful ASM provided the first real networking opportunity for the MASTS community as a whole, and the MASTS Directorate hope that the community will now go away and build on that. The Directorate is already planning for next year's ASM, which will be held at the same venue on 11-13 September 2012.

Links - http://www.masts.ac.uk/ and http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/science/atlas

Questions/Queries about MASTS can be directed through the email: masts@st-andrews.ac.uk<mailto:masts@st-andrews.ac.uk>