The CAFF Flora Group (CFG) and the International Arctic Vegetation Database (IAVD) will be meeting April 12-16, 2013 Krakow, Poland just before the 2013 Arctic Science Summit Week.
The annual CFG meeting will be held April 12-14 and the IAVD meeting will be held April 14-16.
There is considerable overlap in membership of the CFG and IAVD. These meetings will allow both groups to meet independently to discuss focused topics and also bring both groups together on 14 April to discuss important species-list issues related to the International Arctic Vegetation Database. Please note that the CFG and IAVD meetings are discussed separately below:
The main agenda items during the CFG meeting will be:
Steffi Ickert-Bond will chair the CFG meeting in Stephen Talbot’s absence. Steffi is currently on sabbatical and Stephen Talbot is currently in the Czech Republic at a vegetation-analysis workshop.
The important thing now is for the CFG members to plan for the meeting and start making travel arrangements. See Venue and Housing arrangements below.
Please inform This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) at the CAFF Secretariat if you will be attending and to contact him if you have any queries. Stephan Talbot and Steffi Ickert-Bond will provide more detailed information and preliminary agenda once they both return from vacations in early February.
The IAVD workshop will bring key participants from the Arctic countries together to address the issue of assembling the available vegetation plot (relevé) data into a single database. This database is needed to develop circumpolar vegetation-change models, biodiversity models, and a circumpolar Arctic vegetation classification. The IAVD will be useful to a wide variety of Arctic issues being addressed by the Arctic Council, international government agencies, and the Arctic community of vegetation, biodiversity, and climate-change scientists. A major goal is to harmonize the North American and European approaches to vegetation classification in the Arctic.
Invited speakers are asked to address these topics in 20-minute talks with 10 minutes for discussion. Please bring written drafts of the papers to the workshop to speed publication of the proceedings.
Extended abstracts from the workshop that include key figures from the oral presentations will be published as a CAFF Technical Report. See CAFF Technical Report. No. 21. Talbot et al. (2010) for examples of the extended abstract format.
If the papers appear to be of wide interest we will also pursue publication of a summary paper in a high-profile international journal devoted to vegetation science, ecology, biodiversity, or biogeography.
Participants in the FG and IAVD meetings will need to arrange and pay for their own travel to the meeting, lodging and meals. There is a 50 EUR registration fee to help pay for the meeting hall and refreshment breaks during the meeting.
We have only a small amount of support for he meeting, but are continuing to seek other sources.
Arrangements will be made to partially reimburse the costs of the IAVD invited speakers.
We have received 10 000 EUR from the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Secretariat to help support invited speakers at the IAVD meeting. 1/3 of IASC funds will be used to support early career scientists giving invited talks. We will continue to look for additional funding sources, but likely there will not be sufficient funds to fully support any of the invited speakers, and we ask that speakers also seek other sources of funding.
The meetings will be held the Jagiellonian University "Floriańska Guesthouse" http://www.dg.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/florianska/zdjecia, which is in the Old Town. Housing arrangements can also be made here. There may be competition with others during the ASSW 2013, so make reservations as soon as possible to avoid having to find other accommodations. Reservations can made using the above web site. Breakfast is part of the room package.
We invite you to send us an expression of interest for participation no later than 1 Feb January 2013. Please download and complete the Registration Form.
April 13: Travel to Krakow
April 14: Joint CAFF FG / IAVD WG meeting. The IAVD concept, progress to date, and status of circumpolar vegetation datasets
Morning: IAVD Introduction, species list issues
Welcome and overview and history of the IAVD concept: Skip Walker
Summary of CAFF FG meeting activities: Steffi Ickert-Bond
PanArctic Species List (PASL v. 1.0): Martha Raynolds, Amy Breen, Helga Bültmann, Stephan Hennekens
Looking ahead to applications of the IAVD:
CBIO-NET–IAVD initiative: Loïc Pellisier, Laerka Stewart, Mary Wisz et al.
An International Arctic Vegetation Classification: Fred Daniëls
Afternoon: Status of vegetation databases in Alaska, Canada, Greenland
Arctic Alaska: Amy Breen, Skip Walker et al.
Arctic Canada: Katherine Kennedy, Dietbert Thannheiser et al.
Greenland: Helga Bültmann, Fred Daniëls, Christian Bay et al.
15 April: Status of circumpolar vegetation datasets (continued)
Morning: Summaries from Iceland, Svalbard, Scandinavia, Russia
Arctic Iceland: Guðmundur Guðjónsson, Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir
Svalbard and Scandinavia: Arve Elvebakk, Dietbert Thannheiser, et al.
Arctic Russia: Nadya Matveyeva (Taimyr region and polar desert), Ksusha Ermokina (Yamal region), Sergei Kholod (European Russia and Wrangel Island), Natalia Koroleva (Kola Peninsula), Valodya Razzhivin (Chukotka), Olga Sumina (disturbed habitats), et al. (number of Russian talks to be determined based on availability of travel funds)
Afternoon: Database issues
Turboveg: Stephan Hennekens (presented by Amy Breen)
European Vegetation Archive: Milan Chytrý or designate
VegBank: Michael Lee, Robert Peet
Russian IBIS database: Andrey Zverev
Canadian database: Will Mackenzie et al.
Progress on prototype IAVD databases:
Greenland: Helga Bultmann and Fred Daniels
Northern Alaska: Amy Breen and Skip Walker
Evening:
Demos of Turboveg, VegBank and other databases.
April 16: Next steps, proposals, publication of workshop proceedings
Morning: Summary of action items:
Afternoon: Wrap-up and end of workshop
The CAFF FG/IAVD WG meetings will precede the Arctic Science Summit Week 2013. Please take a look at the schedule for the week and also consider presenting a paper at the Science Symposium. CFG members, who are also members of the IASC Terrestrial Working Group are required to attend the IASC TWG meeting all day on 13 April.
