Twice during the conference week, three plenary will replace the concurrent oral sessions: Tuesday afternoon, November 6, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm and Thursday morning, November 8, 8:00 am – 9:45 am.

Tuesday | Thursday | Convener Biographies

Tuesday afternoon, November 6, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

1. Ecosystem-Based Management from Science to Policy

Date and time: Tuesday afternoon, November 6, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Location: Rhode Island Convention Center, Fifth Floor, Ballroom B

Convener: Andrew A. Rosenberg, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space

University of New Hampshire

Panelists: Heather Leslie, Karen McLeod, and Mike Fogarty

Ecosystem-based management is a well-developed concept in search of implementation. There are significant scientific and policy-making challenges to develop a truly cross-sectoral, integrated approach to coastal management that is centered on the goal of sustaining a full suite of ecosystem services.

In this presentation we will discuss those challenges from the perspectives of the development of scientific advice, changes in governance and new policy-making. We will also highlight some of the ongoing work to implement an ecosystem-based approach domestically and internationally.

2. Where is the C in IOOS? The Relevancy of the Integrated Ocean Observing System to Coastal and Estuarine Scientists and Managers

Date and time: Tuesday afternoon, November 6, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Location: Westin Hotel, Street Level, Narragansett Ballroom A

Convener: Eugene (Geno) Olmi, NOAA Coastal Services Center

Charleston, South Carolina

Panelists: Robert Christian, Jan Newton

What are coastal ocean observing systems? Are they relevant to nearshore and estuarine environments? Who operates them? What kinds of data are available? How can you access these data? Come to this session and find out!

Ocean observing is often thought of as a tool for open-water oceanographers with little relevance to coastal or estuarine issues. This panel will explain the mission and structure of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), its links to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and how these systems are providing data and information relevant to the nearshore environment.

Specific examples from Europe and the U.S. will highlight how coastal observations are being applied to coastal issues, along with the challenges of growing these nascent systems into a robust program. The session will conclude with a facilitated discussion that will allow the audience to ask the panelists questions and provide feedback on the successes, challenges, and future directions, including what would be most useful to them. Come learn about coastal observing systems and how they can benefit you!

3. Science, Engineering and Policy to Reduce Risks in Coastal Landscapes: Unintended Consequences and Unnatural Hazards

Date and time: Tuesday afternoon, November 6, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Location: Rhode Island Convention Center, Fifth Floor, Ballroom D

Convener: Robert R. Twilley, Louisiana State University

Highly engineered landscapes are intended to protect local communities and support a national economy, but often work against natural coastal processes. This endangers social and natural resources in ecosystems that rely on those coastal processes, and limits the ability to adapt to a changing climate. Catastrophic events (such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004) should ultimately promote the resiliency of coastal communities, by adapting natural and social systems to these hazards.

However, the political urgency of rebuilding has historically promoted engineered infrastructure and ignored the ecological/social landscape. Coastal zone planning must integrate natural and social sciences if we are to achieve a sustainable and safe coastal landscape. First, ecosystem restoration must be designed to manage natural coastal processes. Second, ecological/social landscapes must incorporate adaptive management and the natural, social and engineering sciences. Third, after major disturbances, large-scale ecosystem restoration must proceed at the same urgent pace as rebuilding urban and industrial infrastructure. Finally, political will and funding must match aggressive planning.

Effective public policy behind water resource planning is arguably one of the most important safeguards of our national security, our natural resources, our public health, and our economic development - - we cannot afford to ignore the ecological and social well-being of our coasts.

Thursday morning, November 8, 8:00 am – 9:45 am

1. Ecological Restoration and Coastal Watersheds: Pipe Dreams vs. Portfolios

Date and Time: Thursday, November 8, 8:00 am – 9:45 am

Location: Rhode Island Convention Center, Fifth Floor, Ballroom B

Convener: Margaret A. Palmer, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Ecological systems are inherently dynamic systems; however, as humans have adapted natural systems to their needs, the variability so characteristic of ecosystems has been greatly reduced. Some would argue that this variability is central to the resilience of ecological systems – to their very ability to recover from or absorb disturbances – and that this attribute is severely compromised in most socio-ecological systems.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in coastal watersheds. Here, human constraints on the natural range of variability and our misguided management approaches have rendered ecological restoration a pipe dream. Our conceptualization of ‘restoration’ must be reshaped.

Starting with a focus on the fundamentals of restoration ecology and moving toward the realities of coastal watershed futures, I will explore a more diverse vision for restoration asking: Can we envision new ‘restoration portfolios’ that predispose coastal watersheds to adjust to changes…even changes outside the range of current expectations?

2. The EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Assessment

Date and Time: Thursday, November 8, 8:00 am – 9:45 am

Location: Westin Hotel, Street Level, Narragansett Ballroom A

Convener: James G. Sanders, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

Presenters: James Sanders and Catherine Kling

Panelists: Robert Howarth, Donald Scavia, R. Eugene Turner, Walter Boynton, and Daniel Conley

Since 1985, scientists have been documenting a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico each summer, an area of low dissolved oxygen that cannot support marine life. Oxygen depletion begins in late spring, reaches a maximum in midsummer, and disappears in fall. To address this problem, the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Task Force was formed to bring together representatives from federal agencies, states and tribes to consider options for responding to hypoxia. The Task Force produced a 2001 Action Plan based on ten management actions designed to reduce the extent of hypoxia and improve water quality.

In 2006, the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Hypoxia Advisory Panel was charged with evaluating the state of the science regarding hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, and was charged with evaluating progress that has been made in implementing the nutrient mitigation and control options.

This plenary session will summarize the SAB Panel’s major findings and recommendations, and will bring together experts from the Gulf region and other areas in the world experiencing similar hypoxia to discuss the environmental, social, and economic issues faced in the Gulf and to outline the steps necessary to achieve a reduced hypoxic zone.

3. Science in Coastal Decision-Making: A Panel Discussion

Date and Time: Thursday, November 8, 8:00 am – 9:45 am

Location: Rhode Island Convention Center, Fifth Floor, Ballroom D

Convener: Jerry R. Schubel, Aquarium of the Pacific

Panelists: Don Boesch, Mike Connor and Margaret Davidson

The goals of this discussion are to explore and evaluate alternative models for integrating science into decision-making, and to identify a portfolio of robust strategies for improving the integration of science into the coastal decision-making process. Throughout, the panelists will share what they have learned from their experiences.

Collectively, this group offers more than 100 years of experience as students and practitioners of applying and integrating science into coastal decision-making in a wide variety of coastal environments and at scales ranging from local to regional to national to international.

Plenary Convener Biographies

Dr. Andrew Rosenberg is a Professor in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire, and has been a member of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy over the past three years. He is also Senior Vice President of MRAG Americas, a consulting company. Dr. Rosenberg holds a B.S. in Fisheries Biology from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. in Oceanography from Oregon State University and a Ph.D. in Biology from Dalhousie University. He was the Deputy Director of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service from 1998-2000, and before that was the NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator. He has also served as the U.S. lead representative in several international fishery management organizations such as NAFO, NASCO and FAO. Dr. Rosenberg was on the faculty of Imperial College of Science and Technology in London for six years, and was also the Deputy Director of the Renewable Resources Assessment Group, a consultancy. Dr. Rosenberg’s scientific work is in the field of population dynamics, resource assessment and resource management policy.

Dr. Eugene (Geno) Olmi is an ecologist with the NOAA Coastal Services Center in Charleston, South Carolina. For the past six years, Dr. Olmi has helped lead development of the regional component of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), working closely with partners to create the social and physical infrastructure that will allow the successful implementation of IOOS. Dr. Olmi received his Ph.D in Marine Science from the College of William and Mary, and has led a number of projects at state and federal agencies and academic institutions. Dr. Olmi’s interests are in estuarine and fisheries ecology, and in the application of science and technology to coastal management.

Dr. Robert Twilley is Distinguished Professor in Louisiana Environmental Studies in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University, and serves as Associate Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development to develop the ‘Coastal Systems and Society’ program at LSU. Dr. Twilley also directs the Shell Coastal Environmental Modeling Laboratory and heads up the Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Assessment and Restoration program, developing ecosystem models coupled with engineering designs to forecast the rehabilitation of coastal and wetland ecosystems. Dr. Twilley received his PhD in 1982 in plant and systems ecology from the University of Florida, and performed his post-doctoral studies at the University of Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. Most of Dr. Twilley's research focuses on coastal wetlands both in the Gulf of Mexico, throughout Latin America, and in the Pacific Islands.

Dr. Margaret Palmer is the Director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL), University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, where she is also a Professor. Dr. Palmer is an editor for the journal Restoration Ecology and serves on boards for the Chesapeake Bay Trust, American Rivers, the NSF National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics, and the NSF Long Term Ecological Research program. Dr. Palmer graduated from Emory University in 1977, then went on to earn her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in coastal oceanography in 1983. She taught and conducted research for 17 years as a Professor of Biology and Entomology at the University of Maryland in College Park, serving as Director of the Biological Sciences Program at the University of Maryland from 1997 – 1999 and as Director of Ecology at the National Science Foundation from 1999 – 2001. Dr. Palmer’s research expertise is riverine science, particularly stream and river restoration.

Dr. James Sanders is the Director of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, a campus of the University System of Georgia. He is President-Elect of the National Association of Marine Laboratories, is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SouthEast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, and is on the Ecological Processes and Effects Committee of the Science Advisory Board of the EPA. Dr. Sanders received his B.S. from Duke University in Zoology and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1978 in Marine Sciences. Prior to his arrival in Georgia, Dr. Sanders served as Head of the Academy of Natural Sciences’ Estuarine Research Center in Maryland from 1981 to 1999, then was Chairman of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Dr. Sanders has served on Boards of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and the Estuarine Research Federation. Dr. Sanders has research expertise in trace element biogeochemistry with a particular interest in how trace elements are transported through coastal zones, how they are transformed by chemical and biological reactions during transport, and how they impact aquatic ecosystems.

Dr. Jerry Schubel is president and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific, and is director of the Aquarium’s Marine Conservation Research Institute. He also chairs the Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel, an interagency panel to advise the federal government on matters related to the Ocean. A Michigan native, Schubel holds a B.S. degree from Alma College; a Masters degree from Harvard University; a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University; and an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Dr. Schubel has served on an NSF Council, on the US Committee of the Census of Marine Life, as an ERF president, on a number of National Research Council commissions, committees and boards, and is past chair of the National Sea Grant Review Panel. Dr. Schubel was dean and director of SUNY Stony Brook’s Marine Sciences Research Center from 1974 to 1994, and was president and CEO of the New England Aquarium from 1994 to 2001. Dr. Schubel’s current focus is on bringing together scientists, business leaders, decision-makers and other stakeholders to identify and explore alternatives for dealing with complex multidisciplinary environmental issues.