9th Open Science Conference SCAR2020 COMNAP XXXVI SCAR, Hobart, Tasmania

Hosting a symposium at the 9th Open Science Conference SCAR2020 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 31 July to 11 August 2020.

Please visit the web site: https://www.scarcomnap2020.org/.

The symposium will be on "Biological dispersal-connections at continental and inter-continental scales".

For a long time, scientists have been fascinated by the idea that species might disperse long distances, and how dispersal might underpin distributions; the “grand game of chess with the world for a board” as Charles Darwin wrote in one of his letters.

We now have a wealth of powerful methods to investigate where, when and how biological dispersal occurs.

Understanding the processes and patterns of species distribution and ecological and genetic connectivity of populations is particularly relevant in the geographically isolated and rapidly warming Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions.

How will species in these regions respond to environmental changes? Which can or can’t shift their distributions through dispersal? Where are the biogeographic barriers, and where are the primary dispersal pathways? What mechanisms do different species use to disperse? This session will bring together recent research on active and passive dispersal of Antarctic organisms at regional, continental and intercontinental scales.

We particularly welcome talks that bring together different sources of evidence to investigate dispersal and the processes that drive it, and/or that shed light on species distributions and population connectivity, in and around the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic.