Call for Abstracts

Call for Abstracts is now open. Click the button below to submit your abstract.
Please click here to download the abstract template.

ABSTRACTS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 1700 (AEST) ON 6 AUGUST 2012.

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One presentation rule

Delegates may submit only ONE abstract as the presenting author - regardless of presentation format (i.e. poster, speed talk or oral presentation) or whether the presentation is part of a symposium or open forum. Normally, the first author is expected to present the work. Delegates are free to serve as a non-presenting author on multiple abstracts. Delegates are encouraged to present recent research (e.g. typically, work that has not been published in print or electronic media at the time of abstract submission).

Presentation type

There will be three kinds of presentation at ESA 2012:- all are equally valued contributions and different presentation formats may be best suited to different kinds of content. Delegates are encouraged to select the presentation format that best suits the material to be presented.

Oral presentation (15 minutes: 12 minute talk + 3 minute questions):

Typically, oral presentations will be complete stories or largely finished research projects, with clear outcomes and conclusions. They should be placed in a broad ecological context and therefore be of general interest beyond the immediate subject area. They may be studies with complex hypotheses or study designs that require explication.
Oral presentations may be part of special Symposia or in the Open Program. Abstracts will be placed in sessions based on topics (themes) ranked by the submitting author (see below).

Speed talk (5 minutes: 4 minute talk + 1 minute changeover):

The short duration of speed talks is well-suited to short stories, with one main idea or result, in a topical subject area that might, eventually, be published as a short communication. Typically, they will involve relatively simple or well-established methods and study designs that do not require detailed explanation.
Speed talks will be presented in 1-hour blocks of 12 talks (max.) followed by a 30 min. discussion period during which presenters will be available for discussion with members of the audience.

Poster:

Poster presentations are well suited for works in progress, preliminary results and fairly detailed proposals for imminent research. They are also ideal for reports of new methods and techniques, that might be of relatively narrow interest to researchers in particular fields. Studies that seem ideal for oral presentations can also be presented very effectively as posters.

Posters will be on display and provide opportunities for relaxed discussion throughout the entire conference. There will be two dedicated poster sessions, each of 2 hours duration. Presenters of even numbered posters will attend their poster on the first day, presenters of odd numbered posters on the second day. This will minimise crowding in front of the posters, maximise opportunities for discussion with presenters, and also allow poster presenters to view other posters.

Guidelines for good posters can be found here.

Abstract selection criteria

The Scientific Committee will attempt to accommodate the preferred presentation type for all delegates. The number of oral presentations (15 min) that can be accommodated in the program is larger than for any other ESA meeting, but is still limited. In recent years, the number of delegates requesting oral presentations has exceeded the places available and this trend may continue. In 2012, if the demand for oral presentations exceeds the available time slots, then the Scientific Program Committee will review all abstracts for 15 min talks (special symposia and open program) and some delegates who request oral presentations will be given the option of presenting a poster or a speed talk. We do not expect to exceed the limitation on space for posters or speed talks.

The criteria used to assess abstracts may include:

relevance to the remit of the Ecological Society of Australia (www.ecolsoc.org.au/what.html);
a demonstrable fit to the description of oral presentations (above);
clear statements regarding (i) the motivation of the study/project/issue; (ii) problem/hypotheses addressed; (iii) approach/methods used; (iv) the results/findings; (v) conclusions/implications;
scientific merit, originality and interest;
compliance with the word count and format requirements for abstracts (below).

NB: Abstracts for 15 min oral presentations may be submitted before all analyses and interpretations of the results have been finalised, but authors MUST report some specific preliminary results. Vague statements such as ‘results will be discussed’ will not be accepted.

Conference session themes and symposia

Authors of abstracts forall presentation types are required to categorise their abstract to help Program Organisers group related presentations.

Symposia

An array of exciting symposia is being developed for the conference. Click here to view the themes, also listed below. The number of talks that can be included in a symposium is limited. If demand for a particular symposium exceeds supply, then some abstracts may be grouped with related papers in the Open Programme.

Open Program

The Open Program category is open to any abstract on any topic. Themes relate to core ecological processes and questions, and are to assist the program committee in grouping abstracts on related topics into coherent sessions or groups of posters. In organising the program, the committee wish to group presentations under broad ecological processes, with the general aim of bringing together diverse kinds of research.

In the spirit of the theme of the conference, which is to get “back to basics”, the committee ask all delegates to describe their research using a reasonably “traditional” set of 30 themes (below) that describe ecological processes, sensu lato. Some researchers who identify with particular sub-disciplines of ecology or who focus on human impacts may not find the words they would normally use to describe their research. This is because our goal is to try to remove the perceived divisions between “basic” and “applied” research, or between research carried out in different ecosystems, on different organisms, or using different methods of investigation (e.g. mathematical modelling vs field experimentation). As such, we would like to organise conference sessions around common sets of ecological questions or processes. Thus, for example, research on restoration of environments damaged by human action might be described by the themes “Disturbance, recovery & resilience”, “Community assembly, diversity & dynamics” or “Dispersal & habitat connectivity”, depending on the particular research questions. Research on the effects of climate change might be described by “Environmental stressors”, “Ecophysiology” or “Changing distribution patterns & range sizes”, again depending on the particular research questions. Mathematical models are devised to answer particular questions, and almost any of the themes might be germane.

Authors wishing to present in special symposia or the open program, must select 3 themes and/or special symposia from the list below. If demand for symposia exceeds the number of available time slots, then talks will be placed in relevant session in the open program.

Special Symposia

Bridging the temporal divide: linking palaeoecological and ecological science to discern long-term information about the biosphere
Forest transition in a changing climate
Australian phenology
Plant pollination and mate choice
Identifying refugia for biodiversity in the face of global climate change
Does recent scientific evidence support existing approaches to ecological fire management?
Restoration of ecosystem functions using green infrastructure
Urban ecology
Plant adaptations to drought
Back to fundamentals: linking Indigenous and Western ecologies

Themes

Allelopathy & chemical ecology
Animal behaviour
Biogeochemistry & nutrient cycling
Biogeography & macroecology
Changing distribution patterns & range sizes
Community assembly, diversity & dynamics
Competition
Complex species interactions
Decomposition, fungi & bacteria
Dispersal & habitat connectivity
Disturbance, recovery & resilience
Ecological education
Ecological genetics
Ecophysiology
Ecosystem dynamics
Environmental policy & management
Environmental stressors
Food webs & trophic networks
Herbivory
Life history ecology & evolution
Mutualism, facilitation & commensalism
Palaeoecology
Parasitism, host-parasite & host-pathogen relationships
Population & metapopulation dynamics
Predation & predator-prey interactions
Primary & secondary production
Rapid evolution
Sampling, monitoring & experimental design
Soil-plant interactions
Spatial processes: causes & consequences

Abstract submission

When submitting an abstract you will be required to provide the following information:

Abstract title: a brief, interesting and explicit description of the presentation (<15 words)
Symposium names and/or themes for open programme (refer to lists above)
Name and address of corresponding author
Identification where the presentation is given by a ESA student – making them eligible for one of the many student prizes
Preferred presentation type (oral presentation, speed talk, poster)
Authors’ names (lead author is expected to present the material)
Authors’ affiliations
Abstract (max. length 250 words)
-The abstract will have two parts with the headings.
1. Background/Questions/Methods, and 2. Results/Conclusions.
Headings will not be included in the word count.
Acknowledgement that you will register and pay to attend the Conference

Abstract template

Presenters are required to use the following abstract template to format their abstract. Please note that the template will need to be followed for the abstract to be considered for review by the Scientific Committee.

Please click here to download the template.

Abstract notification

Notification letters will be dispatched at the end of August.

For further information please contact:

Conference Logistics*
Telephone: 02 6281 6624
Fax: 02 6285 1336
Email: esa@conlog.com.au
*acting as agent for ESA

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