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Past meetings
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
Rottnest
Island, Western Australia
1-4 February 1997
The huge
Indo-West Pacific and Australasian Region has a tremendous diversity
of marine, freshwater and terrestrial molluscs. Throughout the
many countries with coastlines on the Indo-Pacific, there are
many scientists working on all aspects of molluscan biology
including systematics, ecology, physiology, functional morphology.
Many of the scientists use different languages from each other
and publish in journals from their own country. Yet we all share
in common our work on molluscs and the need to share information
with scientists from other countries.
To help
overcome some of this “tyranny of distance”, The
Malacological Society of Australasia organised a symposium on
the “Molluscs of the Indo-West Pacific and Australasian
Region”. This was the first meeting to bring together
malacologists and other interested scientists working on the
molluscs of the region.
The symposium
was held at the Rottnest Environmental Education Centre at Rottnest
Island, off the coast of Perth, Western Australia from 1 to
4 February 1997. It attracted 60 leading experts on molluscs
from Australia and 12 overseas countries (Fiji, New Zealand,
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong,
Philippines, Japan, United States, Denmark, and South Africa).
Over half of the delegates were from outside Australia.
The keynote
speaker was Prof Alan J Kohn of the University of Washington.
Prof Kohn has worked on Indo-Pacific molluscs for forty years
and is an acknowledged world authority on the subject. He spoke
on his extensive work on the gastropod genus Conus, tracing
the geological history of the genus, the history of his own
work on Conus (a very much shorter timeframe), and provided
a series of recommendations on future directions for research
on the genus.
Prof Kohn
is best known in Western Australia for his discovery at the
1991 AMSA marine biological workshop of imposex, a reproductive
abnormality caused by tributyl tin pollution, in the genus Conus
at Rottnest Island. In addition to his keynote address, Prof
Kohn reported to the conference on work on Conus conducted
at the 1996 Rottnest workshop by himself, Dr Fred Wells, then
of the WA Museum, and Dr Carol Lalli of the University of British
Columbia. The work compares imposex levels in 1991 and 1996.
Other
talks dealt with a very wide range of topics, including molluscan
fisheries in Western Australia, the use of molluscs in conservation
in areas of Indonesia, evolutionary studies of a variety of
groups, ecology and taxonomy.
CONFERENCE
ORGANISERS:
Fred Wells, Western Australian Museum
(Chairman)
Anne Brearley, University of Western Australia
Lindsay Joll, Western Australian Fisheries Dept
David Macey, Murdoch University
The
University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
4th - 8th December,
2000
Understanding Molluscan
Biodiversity in our Region into the 21st Century
This
was the second of the Society's 3-yearly meetings aimed at bringing
together people working on molluscs in the Australasian and
Indo-west Pacific regions. A major focus for the meeting was
to investigate new and improved ways of sharing and disseminating
information and data throughout the region. The very successful
meeting attracted over 220 participants from more than 20 countries.
It was organised in a partnership with the Centre for Research
on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities, University of Sydney
and the Society would like to thank
all the volunteers from the University and the
Society who ensured the meeting ran so smoothly.
As well
as general papers and posters, there were three main symposia:
1.
Describing Molluscan Biodiversity
- taxonomy and phylogeny and their role in biodiversity studies.
Organisers: Dr Winston Ponder, Dr Peter Middelfart, Dr Jeffery
Stilwell.
2.
Assessing Molluscan Biodiversity - ecology, life history
and genetics.
Organisers: Dr Gee Chapman, Prof. Mike Johnson
3.
Humans and Molluscan Biodiversity - impacts, commercial
utilization, pests and diseases.
Organisers: Dr Wayne O'Connor, Dr John Walker, Dr Geoff Baker
.
The
meeting convenors were:
Dr
Winston Ponder, Australian Museum,
Sydney.
Dr
M.G. Chapman, Centre for Research
on Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities, University of Sydney.
World
Congress of Malacology, Perth, WA, Australia
July 2004
At
the recent World Congress of Malacology in Vienna (August 2001),
Dr Fred Wells of the Western Australian Museum was elected President
of Unitas Malacologia. The prime role of the president is to
serve as chief organiser of the next Unitas conference. Accordingly,
the World Congress of Malacology 2004 will be held in Perth
in July 2004. The Malacological Society of Australasia and the
Tropical Marine Mollusc Programme have already agreed to participate,
ensuring that the World Congress of Malacology will be a truly
international conference. The American Malacological Society
has been invited to be a co-sponsoring society, but has not
yet reached a decision on this.
The recent Vienna congress was jointly organised by Unitas Malacologia
(The International Society of Malacology) and by the American
Malacological Society. The conference was the second world congress
to be organised by the two societies. It attracted 400 scientists
working on molluscs from over 60 countries, including 6 participants
from Australia. Topics discussed included all aspects of molluscs,
including marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and fossil species.
The five days of paper sessions covered subjects as diverse
as the phylogeny of the Mollusca, functional morphology, ecology,
behaviour, fossil record, biodiversity, and conservation.
This is a preliminary announcement. Further information on will
be posted on the MSA website as it becomes available. Otherwise
you can obtain information directly from the conference organiser.
CONFERENCE ORGANISER:
Dr Fred Wells
wellsf@museum.wa.gov.au
WORKSHOPS
Workshops
are organized from time to time, to meet specific needs, or
as coordinators become available. The following have been presented
recently:
Cephalopod Taxonomy
Workshop
4th - 5th December,
2006
This workshop,
presented by Dr Mark Norman and Dr Mandy Reid, dealt with the
taxonomy and identification of octopuses, cuttlefishes and squid.
The content was:
Identifying
cephalopods: where to start
- Survey
of participants needs
- Types
of material to be identified: live animals in the field, dead
(fisheries) material, stomach contents
- Key
morphological characters: how they work
- Terminology
- Where
to start with dissections
Session
1. The major groups
- Recognising
major cephalopod groups
- Key
characters for rough sorting into groups
Session
2. Octopuses
- Distinguishing
the major groups: benthic versus pelagic octopuses
- Benthic
octopuses
- Key
characters
- Keys
to genera
- Species
level characters
- Examples
- Practical
use of keys with unidentified material
Session
3. Cuttlefishes
- Distinguishing
genera
- Key
characters
- Keys
to genera
- Species
level characters
- Examples
- Practical
use of keys with unidentified material
Session
4. Squid
- Distinguishing
the major groups: myopsid, oegopsid, sepioid
- Key
characters
- Keys
to genera/subgenera
- Species
level characters
- Examples
- Practical
use of keys with unidentified material
Eastern Australian
land snails - their identification, diversity and conservation
9th - 10th December,
2006
Eastern
Australia has an exceptionally rich land snail fauna with over
1,500 species known as a conservative estimate. Despite this
wealth and diversity of snail species, we still know very little
about this largely cryptic fauna. With such a speciose fauna
occurring in the most heavily populated region in Australia,
conservation issues have arisen over conflicts of land use and
habitat management.
This workshop, presented by Dr John Stanisic and Mr Michael
Shea, presented the following topics:
- An introduction
and overview of the land snail groups in Eastern Australia
(both native and exotic).
- Habitats,
ecology and biology of Australian snails with an emphasis
on areas of high land snail diversity – ‘hotspots’
of evolution such as limestone outcrops, rainforests, islands
etc.
- Snails
as environmental indicators – how snails are affected
by changes in climate and by the affects of human activity
(land clearance, increasing fire frequency, introduced species
etc.)
- Where
to look for land snails, collecting methods and preservation
techniques. Some ‘hands on’ work will involve
sorting leaf litter samples for snails from the local Illawarra
area.
- An introduction
to identifying species within land snail groups using particular
diagnostic characters. Many species have similar shell shapes
and identification can prove difficult and confusing –
examples from most families will be shown and compared. Examples
sorted from the leaf litter samples will be identified using
these characters.
- Because
most species have never been formally described in scientific
publications, a surrogate classification system had to be
devised which roughly sorted and categorised this large number
of nameless taxa based on bioregional codes. This will
be discussed and evaluated.
- The
importance of museum collections and photographic databases
in identifying species – collections are historical
archives of information which can show changes in faunas and
species distributions over time. Modern photographic techniques
such as S.E.M. and computer photomontage microscope photography
can now make comparison and identification of minute species
much easier.
- Molecular
phylogeography of land snails - the importance of DNA comparisons
in determining evolutionary paths and family/genus/species
lineages.
- Conservation
issues concerning habitat destruction and the increasing importance
of habitat restoration and rehabilitation. How do we make
authorities and the general population become aware of snails
and their conservation.
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