E-mail Announcements

Subject: From Ed Laws re: Hawaii Ocean Sciences Meeting - The Ocean's Role in Human and Ecosystem Health: Global Processes and the U.S. Oceans and Human Health Initiative

Dear Oceanographers:
Along with Sharon Smith, Paul Sandifer, Erin Kipp, and Dale Griffin, I will be convening a session (OS013) at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu February 20-24, 2006. The session will be titled The Ocean's Role in Human and Ecosystem Health: Global Processes and the U.S. Oceans and Human Health Initiative. I would like to request that people who are planning on giving talks at this session submit a copy of their abstracts to me at edlaws@lsu.edu. That will help me get a sense of what to expect before the deadline for abstract submission, which is October 20, 2005. A description of the session follows: Both natural processes and human activities impact water resources and their role in human health. There are, for example, clearly established links between El Niņo Southern Oscillation patterns, regional rainfall and waterborne disease; and the trend of increasing degradation of ocean ecosystems and population concentration near the ocean-land interface makes ocean-derived human health problems a rapidly growing planetary concern. Activity in the North Atlantic Oscillation has been related to fluctuations in the global atmospheric transport of dust and associated microbes, including organisms pathogenic to humans and corals. Simultaneously, new pharmaceuticals are being isolated and identified from marine organisms almost daily. In this session, multidisciplinary research will be presented that relates global processes (oceanic to atmospheric) and human activities with localized impacts on water resources and the health of both aquatic ecosystems and human beings. The human health reports will focus on results from the recently funded NSF/NIEHS and NOAA Oceans and Human Health programs and will include studies related to (1) water-borne diseases associated with recreational use of marine waters, (2) genesis and ecology of harmful marine algal blooms, (3) pharmaceuticals derived from marine organisms, especially marine microbes, (4) ecological and human health risks from chemical pollutants, and (5) role of shellfish as vectors for pollutants and pathogens.
Edward Laws
Louisiana State University
School of the Coast and Environment
1002R Energy, Coast and Environment Building
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Tel: 225 578-3334
FAX: 225 578-5328
Cell: 225 806-9946
email: edlaws@lsu.edu

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