Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences

The Young Reef Scientist Meeting was held this year at the Freie Universität Berlin. It was the follow up on the last successful meetings at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main 2011 and at the Leibniz Center for Marine Tropical Ecology in Bremen 2009. The conference started with a welcome by Prof. Reinhold Leinfelder who addressed problems of coral reefs in the Anthropocene. Throughout the following three days of conference I had the opportunity to listen to a variety of talks covering the field of coral reef research in a changing world. The talks included topics such as “Human Impacts on Coral Reefs with Focus on Climate Change”, "Metabolism, Feeding and Photosynthesis in Coral Reefs" as well as a session on genetics and paleontology. During a twenty minute talk followed by ten minutes of discussion I could also present my own work addressing coral reef calcifiers and their physiological response to altered environmental conditions. At the end of the first day we visited the Zoo-Aquarium Berlin where we discussed problems of the aquarium trade and sustainable catching methods of fish. During the second day of the conference we then visited the AquaDom, an over one million liter big aquarium with a height of 25 meters. It resembles the fish community of a coral reef in the indo-pacific and inhabits nearly a hundred species of fish which sum up to more than one and half thousand individuals. Located below this aquarium is the quarantine area as well as the breeding facility for corals. Here we took part in course that focused on the asexual propagation of a wide range of coral species. As many of us use similar techniques in the field to prepare corals for experiments, this course was very interesting for all of us and followed by a vivid discussion.

The third and last day of the conference day started at the national history museum where the talks were focused on paleontology. The conference then finished in the afternoon at the AuqaDom with the opening of a photo exhibition displaying selected photos taken by the conference participants during their field work. Here also my photo was selected (see picture). Overall the conference was a success for me as well as the other participants and I am looking forward to the next year conference at the University of Giessen.