October 21, 1997
Contact: Patricia Wu, 619/594-6613
pwu@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/medecos97
Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTE's) are found in five areas of the world: North America, the Mediterranean Basin, Chile, Australia, and South Africa. Their impact on and pressure from human society is, however, especially large. These regions are heavily populated cultural centers and are amongst the most popular tourist destinations of the world. In addition, there are many reasons to expect Mediterranean-type ecosystems to be affected by future global change including increasing elevated atmospheric CO2, climate change, and increasing land use pressures. As a result, the Union considers Mediterranean-type ecosystems as the most threatened of the major European ecosystems, and the most in need of further research. MEDECOS meetings have played a critically important role in fostering continued scientific research on Mediterranean ecosystems.
Every few years, researchers from all the MTE regions get together in a MEDECOS meeting to discuss current research and future research priorities. Typical MEDECOS meetings include scientists from at least 15-20 different nations. Unlike many international meetings that are massive and very formal in their presentation of papers, the MEDECOS meetings are moderate in size and present ample opportunities for discussions and informal contacts among the participants. Most MEDECOS meetings have resulted in a conference publication as well as new inter-regional collaborative projects. No other global ecosystem type has had this level of success in developing and maintaining such truly collaborative interactions among international researchers.
Over the years, MEDECOS meetings have been held in all of the various Mediterranean climate regions of the world, and each meeting has explored a different theme:
1971 MEDECOS I Valdivia, Chile convergent evolution
1976 MEDECOS II Stanford, California role of fire
1980 MEDECOS III Stellenbosch, South Africa role of nutrients
1984 MEDECOS IV Perth, Australia ecosystem resilience
1988 MEDECOS V Montpellier, France time scales and water stress
1991 MEDECOS VI Crete, Greece animal-plant interactions
.1994 MEDECOS VII Viña del Mar, Chile landscape degradation
1997 MEDECOS VIII San Diego, California global change.
MEDECOS VIII consists of six organized symposia, plus afternoon contributed paper sessions and evening poster sessions. Leading scientists have organized the symposia which will bring comparative, inter-regional perspectives to how MTE's will be affected by climate change. The six scheduled symposia are as follows: (1) Effects of Global Change and Land Use on the Mediterranean Basin, (2) Effects of Elevated CO2 on Mediterranean-type Ecosystems, (3) Theoretical and Applied Aspects of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Complexity in Mediterranean-type Ecosystems, (4) Restoration: What makes for Functional Ecosystems?, (5) Effects of Global Climate and Land Use Changes on Mediterranean-type Oak Woodlands, and finally (6) Mediterranean Regions: Year 2050. The Multi-driver Nature of Global Change.