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Have a question about the MASTS Annual Science Meeting? Please feel free to get in touch via masts@st-andrews.ac.uk – we would love to hear from you.
5th-7th November at the Technology & Innovation Centre (TIC), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
08/10/24 – VIEW THE UPDATED DRAFT PROGRAMME HERE.
The fourteenth MASTS Annual Science Meeting is a cross-disciplinary event that brings together members of the marine science community, with the aim of promoting and communicating research excellence and forging new scientific collaborations. The event will take place in-person in Glasgow, although we will also provide some limited online attendance options too.
The first two days will bring together expert plenary speakers and contributed talks, panel sessions and e-posters outlining the latest research and management practices that address key topics related to marine science and management in the face of global climate change and a biodiversity crisis. Alongside our general science sessions, the event will include special topic sessions, and plenty of opportunities to network. There will also be a ceilidh to enjoy! The third day is devoted to workshops.
The call for abstracts is now closed and abstracts are being reviewed.
We have space to accommodate additional eposters, so please email us if that is of interest.
All presenters are encouraged to not solely focus on past and current research but reflect on gaps of knowledge and future research directions. Talks should be accessible to other disciplines, by avoiding jargon and keeping technical details simple.
We also have two other special sessions happening at the ASM, but these don’t have an open call for abstracts:
* An ePoster is an electronic version of the traditional poster boards, and is displayed on a TV monitor/screen. The ePoster may include text, figures and images, as well as video and animation. Read our guidelines here. Eposters will need to be submitted to masts@st-andrews.ac.uk before close on 21/10/24.
We encourage all presenters to read our general accessibility guidance here to ensure our event is available to all.
Details of confirmed workshops are below.
Organisers: Karen Alexander & Bill Sanderson
Open workshop (max 24 attendees)
Helping more communities to care for local natural assets is a top priority for the Scottish Government and NatureScot, supported by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. This has led to an increase in community-based environmental volunteer networks such as The Conservation Volunteers and Greenspace Scotland, environmental charities such as Seawilding Scotland and Project Seagrass, as well as focused community conservation projects such as Restoration Forth and NatureScot’s Community-led Marine Biodiversity Monitoring Project. Communities also increasingly engage directly with environmental research projects through citizen science, contributing data to these projects in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists. It is, however, much less common for marine science conservation/restoration research projects to be converted into ongoing community-led projects and yet, with ongoing pressure on the public purse, it is arguably the most likely way forward. Community-led projects could ensure the longevity of research projects and the ongoing long-term monitoring that may be useful in caring for and managing local natural assets.
The purpose of this workshop is to start a discussion regarding how to transition existing marine conservation/restoration research projects into ongoing community-led environmental projects through community empowerment. It will include short presentations by those working with communities on conservation/restoration projects, detailing lessons learned and best practice. This will be followed by a facilitated session to identify a generic theory of change.
Expected Outcomes/Outputs:
Publication/position paper/white paper on how to transition a marine conservation/restoration research project into an ongoing community-led environmental project.
Advice to government
Organisers: Natalie Isaksson, Gordon Hastie & Nicholas Petzinna
Open workshop (max 24 attendees)
The marine renewable energy industry is growing at an unprecedented pace and scale, with developments projected to take up increasing amounts of space at sea. The transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewables is acknowledged as important in the bid to address the ongoing climate crisis. The concurrent biodiversity crisis, however, means that the assessment of potential negative impacts of developments on top predators (i.e., marine mammals, seabirds) is more urgent than ever. Technological developments over the last few decades has resulted in an ability to track animals at sites of ongoing and planned marine renewable energy development areas. The resulting data (e.g. acoustics, biologging, imaging) have the potential to be useful in renewable energy siting, consenting, and monitoring as they often provide fine-scale, three dimensional insights into individual habitat use and behaviour. Such information can therefore be used to predict species vulnerability as well as assess barrier effects, displacement, disturbance, and collision risk. This potential is acknowledged by both developers and governments with calls for increased use of archival datasets as well as in the generation of new data. However, the use of such data varies widely between interested parties, with little to no standardization or best practice guidelines available. This has the potential to lead to the misuse and misinterpretation of any results yielded. It is therefore timely for the marine wildlife tracking community (i.e., academia and industry) to come together to identify key knowledge gaps and provide “best practice” guidance for its responsible use by the renewable energy industry. We therefore invite colleagues to consider and provide their insights on the advantages and limitations of tracking data in the context of assessing effects of marine renewables on wildlife.
Expected Outcomes/Outputs:
-Form a consortium/network of interested parties on the subject
-Identify knowledge gaps
-Identify priority areas for current/future knowledge
-Formulate hypotheses/projects centred around the identified knowledge gaps
-Identify opportunities for collaboration and funding applications
-Collate findings/outcomes of workshop and wider discussion into an opinion/perspective piece targeting submission in a peer-reviewed journal
Organisers: Helena Reinardy and Thangavel Thevar
Scotland is undergoing a new approach to sea lice management through the new sea lice risk assessment framework. The framework calls for improved sea lice monitoring methods, both targeting the in-water larval stages as well as automation of sea lice counting on farms. This workshop will look at innovations in methods for monitoring sea lice.
Expected Outcomes/Outputs: 1st session (closed 0930-1100) highlighting achievements from the SIF HOLO sea lice project, and discussions on future potential for the technology.
2nd session (open 1130-1330): bringing Scottish and international researchers together, knowledge exchange with industrial technology innovators, networking and future collaboration building.
Organisers: Roseanna Wright and Charlotte Miskin-Hymas
Open workshop (max 24 attendees) – particularly useful for PGRs.
Data management is a critical skill that underpins the integrity, efficiency, and impact of research. It is a foundational aspect of conducting rigorous and reproducible research, making it essential for students and early career researchers to develop competence in this area. MEDIN workshops are designed to enhance attendees’ knowledge and skills in marine data management. Training will cover data management planning and tips for effective data management during a project as well as resources such as the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard, the MEDIN Data Guidelines, and controlled vocabularies. The MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard enables users to generate standardised information about their datasets and upload them to an online portal, facilitating data discovery. The MEDIN portal provides access to over 18,000 existing marine datasets, which can be used to provide context during research projects. Additionally, the MEDIN Data Guidelines offer a structured approach to collecting information about sampled data, ensuring it can be interpreted by others in the future. More information about MEDIN workshops can be found here: https://medin.org.uk/data-standards/medin-workshops
Expected Outcomes/Outputs:
– Understand the importance of data management.
– Develop skills in data lifecycle management, quality assurance, and metadata creation.
– Explore how to publish, share, and reuse data effectively.
– Gain practical experience with MEDIN data guidelines and controlled vocabularies.
– Learn about data governance and the MEDIN metadata standard.
– Recognise how data management can reduce costs, risks, and add value to data.
Designing experiments that measure the response of (marine) organisms to multiple simultaneous environmental changes requires a good understanding of how to translate questions about biotic response to multiple drivers into a tractable research question, and then how to design and analyse an experiment that actually answers the question.
This workshop is aimed at students and early career researchers new to multiple driver experiments. It is focused on the design of manipulation (laboratory or field) experiments, though many of the concepts are applicable to observational data. Exemplar workshops can be found at https://meddle-scor149.org/teaching-resources/. The workshop is offered by the SCOR project “Changing Oceans Biological Systems” and uses the resources in the online MEDDLE resource at https://meddle-scor149.org/
This workshop is mainly a repeat of the workshop that took place at the 2023 ASM, but with the addition of some statistical resources to aid in data analysis.
Expected Outcomes/Outputs: This practical workshop will explore defining research questions, designing multiple driver experiments, and present an overview of statistical methods for analysing multiple driver experiments. Participants will work in pairs to define and design an experiment and its analysis.
Max 20 participants
This workshop will be led by Dr Sinead Collins (University of Edinburgh) & Dr Matt Wale (ENU).
Workshop hosted by Prof William Austin (University of St Andrews) and Prof Hilary Kennedy (Bangor University, Emeritus).
Guest plenary from Prof Phil Williamson
There has been an exponential growth in Blue Carbon (BC) science since the term was introduced ~15 years ago. A current grouping of BC ecosystems (BCE), based on the evidence available to support climate mitigation, are termed “actionable” and include seagrass, tidal marsh and mangrove. Another group of BCEs, termed “emerging” include macroalgae, tidal flats and subsurface sediments, while a third grouping are termed “non-actionable” (sometimes also referred to as “supporting” BCEs) and include corals, shellfish and maerl. Given the rapid rise in data availability it is surprising that few countries have included BCEs in their Nationally Determined Contributions, national Greenhouse Gas Inventory, or hosted carbon projects. The increased interest in BCE has generated a wealth of data and established new technologies leading to a greater appreciation of BCE’s complexity and their varied capacity for climate change mitigation (and adaptation). At this workshop, which is being hosted by UK and Scottish Blue Carbon forums, there will be a key plenary by Professor Phil Williamson (University East Anglia) and we invite abstracts that illustrate the growing power or constraints of current data sets, modelling or mapping that can advance or limit the evidence base, conceal or reveal the priorities needed to support BCEs inclusion in national and international policy as well as carbon accounting.
We welcome contributions from across the MASTS community and note that we especially welcome contributions on coastal ecosystem approaches as highly relevant to the session
If you are interested in providing a short (10-15mins) talk on relevant topics for this workshop, please submit your abstract using this form before close on Tuesday 15 October.
Expected Outcomes/Outputs: A meeting report will be profiled on the Scottish Blue Carbon and UK Blue Carbon Forum websites and we anticipate a perspective(s) interview with Professor Williamson and other speakers to be profiled on the UN Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon (GO-BC) website (https://www.go-bc.co.uk/news).
This workshop will aim to finalise a StoryMap to visualise climate change impacts on Scottish deep-seas, creating a cross-disciplinary tool to provide an overview of our current knowledge and existing research gaps. This is main output of the MASTS Working Group on “Understanding Climate Change Impacts around Scottish Deep Seas”. The story map will illustrate changes happening now and expected under future climate change scenarios, in line with IPCC timelines. It will highlight variations in biotic and abiotic factors, including temperature, salinity, carbon sequestration, and species ranges, as well as showcase data technologies and identify hotspots of industry pressures and climate change risks.
Expected Outcomes/Outputs:
The creation of an interactive tool to visualise climate change impacts on Scottish deep seas targeted to a broad audience, from the general public to policy makers.
In 2021, UKRI awarded £12.4M of funding to marine research projects that would address critical gaps in understanding that have been identified by UK policy makers.
You are invited to attend this focussed workshop and hear from four of the projects about the tools and interventions that they have specifically produced to inform policy, regulation, and management. Each project will deliver a 25 min presentation, followed by 20 mins to answer your questions.
Workshop programme:
1100-1115 Welcome from SMMR Champions, Prof David Paterson & Dr Mark James
1115-1200 Integrating Diverse Values into Marine Management
1200-1245 Restoration of seagrass for ocean wealth
1245-1330 Lunch and networking
1330-1415 Co-Benefit solutions for resilient coasts
1415-1500 Pyramids of Life – working with Nature
1500-1515 Closing from SMMR Champions
Integrating Diverse Values into Marine Management
This session explores new horizons for marine research and management, presenting a selection of the arts-based research methods we used to engage local communities in eliciting lesser-heard voices in Portsmouth, Chepstow and the Shetland Islands through the Diverse Marine Values project. In this panel discussion, we will explore how arts-based research methods can be used to enhance marine decision-making and ocean literacy through more inclusive and engaging processes. It will also delve into our reflections on transdisciplinary collaboration and ways of working differently in marine management and research settings. Alongside the session, we will showcase some examples of our research outputs, including our three Community Voice Method documentary films, a selection of digital stories from participants from our three communities, as well as links to a digital folder of other resources and artefacts produced as part of the first three years of the project.
Restoration of Seagrass for Ocean Wealth
Seagrass meadows are one of the most degraded, yet potentially valuable, elements of the UK coastal environment. The tools, resources and the understanding generated by project ReSOW provides the means to design and upscale seagrass restoration strategies, which will enhance ecosystem services for the benefit of people and planet. Our decision support tool ’CEEDS’ provides spatially explicit information on seagrasses distribution, restoration suitability and functional ecological role in fisheries, carbon sequestration, culture and human wellbeing. Our pioneering national UK Seagrass Ocean Account provides a baseline of the governance and value of UK seagrasses, facilitating incorporation of natural capital accounting into economic decision-making. Finally, our socio-political analysis contextualises stakeholders, governance structures, and policy opportunities that can drive impactful change. Together, these outputs from project ReSOW offer a comprehensive framework for protecting and restoring the UK’s seagrass meadows, ensuring long-term ecological, economic, and societal benefits while contributing to global biodiversity and climate change mitigation efforts.
Resilient Coasts: Optimising Co-Benefit Solutions
Sea and society interact most strongly at the coast where communities both benefit from and are threatened by the marine environment. It is essential that UK coasts are managed so that coastal protection is resilient to future climate and co-benefits are achieved. We will present new tools created and new knowledge generated by the Co-Opt project. We will particularly focus on new findings regarding social acceptance of coastal schemes and its implications for coastal management.
Pyramids of Life: Working with Nature for a Sustainable Future
Transforming fundamental marine science into useful information for policymakers, stakeholders, and conservationists is a formidable task. We have elegant ecological theory, based on carbon flux from small fish to big fish and the stability of complex ecosystems, but how well does this theory withstand the challenge of real-world economic, fishery, nutritional, and commercial datasets? Our Pyramids of Life project creates a framework within which these diverse strands can be understood, and alternative outcomes explored. We will present new results, linking Celtic Sea fishery production and landings, which provide an ecosystem-scale perspective on exploitation. Perhaps more usefully for this audience, we will show how this information can be used to construct alternative fishing scenarios, including via a stakeholder-focused app developed to provide evidence for the UK’s Fisheries Management Plans.
The facilities of the Technology & Innovation Centre are available to exhibitors during the MASTS ASM. Exhibitors will be in the main conference lobby and are expected to stay for the duration of the conference. To have a stand at the conference please contact us at masts@st-andrews.ac.uk.
The MASTS ASM is being organised by Dr Emma Defew (MASTS Programme Coordinator) & Philip Bell-Young (MASTS Comms and Outreach Officer)
If you would like to get involved or have a query, please drop us an email.
You can stay up to date by following us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The event will take place in a variety of rooms in the Technology & Innovation Centre (TIC). A full access guide for the TIC is here. Including information regarding accessible toilet locations, lifts and outside access. Directly from the TIC “Events in the Technology & Innovation Centre: an A–Z Guide“
The event’s reception and posters will be in the main conference lobby on the ground floor at the TIC. Seating is available around the lobby, although this is limited and we ask that this is prioritised for disabled attendees. There are plenty of quiet areas around the TIC. Dietary requirements will be catered for.
Address:
Technology & Innovation Centre,
99 George Street,
Glasgow, G1 1RD
+44 (0) 141 444 7000
If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about access at this event, please contact MASTS at masts@st-andrews.ac.is
We are delighted that IMarEST have kindly agreed to sponsor the student prizes again for the 2024 ASM.
You must be a student member of IMarEST to be eligible to win a prize, but membership is free. Sign up here.
Congratulations to the 2023 winners:
Don’t forget to stay up to date on the ASM by following us on Twitter or LinkedIn! #MASTSasm2024
See what has featured in our previous Annual Science Meetings here
Check out some of the images from the ASM on the slideshow below.
MASTS was founded in 2009 to be a unique collaboration between marine research organisations, government and industry.
Charity Number: SC045259
Company Number: SC485726
We’re working behind the scenes to bring you a suite of useful, and updateable, resources including:
If you would like to be updated when the resources section is live please let us know.
