Chemical Ecology of Marine Interactions, the chemical language that shapes future marine healthInternal

21 experts interested in the chemical ecology of terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems covered processes from cellular to ecosystem scales in the workshop. Chemical ecologists from across Europe discussed their activities and visions, synthesising current knowledge on marine chemical ecology and identifying important knowledge gaps. A World Café event raised public awareness of the topic. Key milestones in terrestrial chemical ecology were identified that could provide a blueprint for new cross-disciplinary activities to unravel chemical signalling processes in marine ecosystems. The co-ordination of a ten year roadmap is ongoing and will focus on addressing the lack of mechanistic understanding in chemical ecology.

Next steps include developing a workshop that would combine participants’ expertise to address the role of chemical signalling in marine food webs. Another aim is to develop a foresight manuscript to increase awareness of the potential of aquatic chemical ecology research for addressing societal challenges in the areas of food security, climate change, and the development of novel disease detection, monitoring and prevention methodologies. Other activities proposed at the workshop include developing an EU Horizon 2020 proposal and developing an EU ITN in Aquatic Chemical Ecology.

Update

Due to the interest and success of the EuroMarine workshop in August 2015, a second workshop was held at the University of Gothenburg/Tjarno Marine Station in May 2016. During this workshop a set of three short experiments were conducted and a draft manuscript is being prepared for one of these experiments, as are two papers stemming from the outcomes of these workshops.

The researchers created a draft manuscript of the first workshop and planned to submit a proposal for a new COST Action, however unfortunately these plans have been put on hold due to Brexit.