Registration Deadline: May 26, 2015

DATES: 18th - 19th June, 2015

VENUE: The Cyprus Institute (CyI) – New Technologies Building, 1st Floor Events Room, Athalassa Campus, Nicosia, Cyprus

Interested participants can apply and/or address any questions by contacting Rana Abu Alhaija (email: r.abualhaija@cyi.ac.cy; tel. +357-2208 709 (weekdays 9:00-17:00). The registration deadline is May 26, 2015

Speakers:

Dr. Covadonga Orejas Saco del Valle, Instituto Español de Oceanografía Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares (IEO), Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain


Dr. Carlos Jiménez, Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of The Cyprus Institute
PhD. Candidate Rana Abu Alhaija, Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of The Cyprus Institute

*The event will be in English, light refreshments and coffee will be served during scheduled breaks.

Abstract:
This 2-days seminar intends to offer an overview on corals and coral ecosystems, including tropical, temperate and cold-water corals. The talks will cover interesting aspects of the “coral world”: from the occurrence and distribution of corals over different geographical areas, to specific aspects as the coral ecophysiology and its implication for these communities in future scenarios, where human activity will have a dramatic influence in the fate of these organisms and the associated species. The first exploration of cold-water coral communities of Cyprus (CYCLAMEN) will be formally presented and participants will share day-by-day experiences of the research.
About the speakers:

Covadonga Orejas (IEO) has worked on the biology and ecology of Antarctic and other cold-water corals (CWC) since 1996. She was involved in the discovery of live CWC communities in the submarine canyons of the NW Mediterranean. She has joined 23 oceanographic cruises, leading 13. Her work has been published in more than 40 SCI papers.

Carlos Jiménez (CyI) is a marine biologist with more than 20-yrs experience in the ecology of coral reefs under various environmental conditions. CJ’s research is published in 35 peer-reviewed papers. Since 2010, he is consolidating in Cyprus the research of shallow and cold-water corals.
Rana Abu Alhaija (CyI) has worked on the digitization of CWC from the coast of Cyprus and has experience with field and laboratory research involving marine ecology projects. Her expertise include mapping of oceanographic data, ecological analysis and taxonomy.