SCOPE

This symposium is the 13th in a series of Pan-Mediterranean conferences on seabird ecology and conservation and the 8th symposium dedicated to seabird research throughout the Mediterranean and the wintering territories beyond.
The Alghero 2011 Symposium will focus on updating research data, on streamlining monitoring programmes as well as on progress achieved for coastal habitat conservation.
While addressing these issues, conference participants will be able to exchange valu able data on seabirds in their respective countries. Over the last 25 years, various seabird areas have been protected as nature reserves or national parks. Yet, several seabird habitats are still lacking efficacious management measures while the ongoing monitoring programmes would benefit from a closer transnational exchange of comparable methods among like-minded researchers.

CONFERENCE LOCATION

The symposium will take place in the historic city centre of Alghero located on the North-West coast of Sardinia. Alghero is a walled town on the seafront containing picturesque medieval streets with a distinctive Catalan influence. There are plenty of opportunities for sites to visit nearby such as the maritime caves of Neptune, several Nuraghe prehistoric sites, a vast array of sandy beaches, not to mention the magnificent coastal scenery of Porto Conte, the Argentiera coast up North or the dramatic scenery of the coastline towards Bosa, holding breeding sites of Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus and Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanii. Nearby seabird colonies are situated at the limestone cliffs of Capo Caccia holding a large colony of Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea and Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus as well as at the Asinara Island National Park (Audouin’s Gull Larus audouinii, Mediterranean Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis demarestii, and on nearby islets : Common Tern Sterna hirundo, Little Tern Sterna albifrons).
There is an extensive range of hotels and bed & breakfasts just situated outside the old town and along the Lido beach. Yet, Alghero is highly appreciated as a tourist destination. So, you will need to book your lodging well in advance.

HOW TO GET THERE

Alghero airport is situated at a 10 minutes drive from the city centre.
There are several daily flights to the main italian airports such as Bergamo, Bologna, Geneva, Milano Linate, Pisa, Torino and Roma (Fiumicino and Ciampino airports). Ryanair operates direct flights to several destinations in Italy as well as to varioius european cities such as Barcelona Girona, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf Weeze, Eindhoven, Frankfurt Hahn, London Stansted, Madrid, Munich West ...
The two other airports of Sardinia (Cagliari, Olbia) offer also a major flight network to the continent including several charter flights.
Sardinia may also be reached by car ferries calling at the harbour of Porto Torres situated some 40 km North of Alghero with regular services both from France (Toulon, Marseille, Propriano) and Italy (Civitavecchia, Genova, Livorno). There are daily crossings between Corsica (Bonifacio) and Sardinia (Palau).

CONFERENCE LANGUAGE

The conference language is english. No simultaneous interpretation will be made avaible. Authors wishing to present a paper at the conference may benefit from translation assistance. Please contact the Conference Secretariat if you need any help for presenting your manuscript in english.

SYMPOSIUM SUBJECTS

The Alghero 2011 Symposium is aimed at students and researchers dealing with seabird biology, at natural history NGO’s, managers of coastal & marine protected areas as well as at institutional agencies whose work deals with the conservation of coastal and marine habitats.
The Symposium includes the following subjects :
- Ecology and migration of Shearwaters, Storm Petrel, Shag,
- Ecology and migration of Gulls and Terns,
- Ecology of other coastal bird species as earmarked in the Biodiversity Protocol of the Mediterranean Action Plan (Barcelona Convention),
- Monitoring of seabird colonies in protected areas,
- Management and conservation actions for seabirds and their habitats.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Participants wishing to present a research paper or poster are requested to submit their abstract in english to the Conference Secretariat.
Deadline of abstracts is 15th May 2011. All abstracs will be reviewed by the Conference Committee as regarding the conference subject and the scientific contents. People who submitted an abstract will be informed 1 month after their submission on the acceptance of heir presentation and/or poster.
All accepted abstracts will be published in the Conference Programme Booklet before the symposium takes place.

Abstracts should not exceed a full A.4 page typeset on Word in Helvetica Font of 10 points.
Abstract guidelines are available here below.

Submitting Abstract and Author Information.

REGISTRATION

A registration form is available on the MEDMARAVIS website. No conference registration fee is charged. Yet, a 50 Euro fee will be charged for participants wishing to take part in the excursion in the Porto Conte Regional Park scheduled for Monday 17th October 2011. This fee, payable upon arrival, includes transport by coach as well as lunch.
All particpants are requested to register by 30th August 2011.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

All accepted papers and posters will be published in english in the set of conference proceedings. Manuscripts in english should not exceed 8 pages for Papers and 4 pages for Posters including all figures and references.
The Conference Editor is :
Dr Daniel Oro, IMEDEA
Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats
Miquel Marques 21
07190 ESPORIES, Spain
Tel. 34.971611731 Fax. 34.971611761 E-mail: d.oro@uib.es

The Conference Editor will contact all authors upon acceptance of their abstracts.