WELCOME TO THE 46th LARVAL FISH CONFERENCE

07-11 May, Lisbon
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LARVAL FISH CONFERENCE 2023

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JOIN US FOR THE LARVAL FISH CONFERENCE 2023

On behalf of the Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society, we invite you to attend the 46th Annual Larval Fish Conference, from 07-11th May 2023.

Location

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Av. de Berna, 45A, 1067-001 Lisboa
Portugal

LFC SCHEDULE
Date

MAY 07th -11th 2023

ORGANIZERS

Ana FariaAna Faria
Ana Faria
Ana FariaResearcher at ISPA, Instituto Universitário
Ana is a specialist in behaviour, ecology and development of fish larvae, and is interested in understanding how global changes might affect survival during this critical life stage.
Susana GarridoSusana Garrido
Susana Garrido
Susana GarridoSenior Researcher at Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere
Susana is internationally acknowledged for her work on the study of the trophic ecology of small pelagic fish species for the last 15 years, including studies on the field and on laboratory, both with adults and larvae.
IPMA
ISPA
MARE
EARLY_LIFE
AMERICAN_FISHERY_SOCIETY

Scientific Steering Committee

Ana MachadoAna Machado
Ana Machado
Ana MachadoPhysical Oceanographer and Ocean Modeller
Ana is a physical oceanographer and ocean modeler specialized on the ocean dynamics of the Iberian Margin. She works as a Junior Researcher at IPMA and as external collaborator at IDL.
Alexadra TeodosioAlexadra Teodosio
Alexadra Teodosio
Alexadra TeodosioAssociate Professor at University of Algarve and Researcher at CCMAR
Alexandra is an Associate Professor at University of Algarvea nd Researcher at CCMAR. Her research focuses on estuarine ecology and biological oceanography, where she coordinates the group “Ecology and Restoration of Riverine, Estuarine and Coastal Habitats”.
Filipe RibeiroFilipe Ribeiro
Filipe Ribeiro
Filipe RibeiroResearcher at MARE – University of Lisbon
Filipe is a researcher a MARE – University of Lisbon. He has been focusing his research on invasive fishes in freshwater ecosystems. He studies mostly fish larvae ecology and fenology in rivers, estuaries and mangroves.
Laura RibeiroLaura Ribeiro
Laura Ribeiro
Laura RibeiroSenior Researcher at the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere
Laura is a Senior Researcher at IPMA, acknowledged for her work on marine fish larval development, with special focus on digestive physiology and nutrition applied to development of feeding protocols, but also the utilization of biomarkers as indicators of fish condition.
Núria BaylinaNúria Baylina
Núria Baylina
Núria BaylinaCurator and Head of Conservation of the Oceanário de Lisboa
Nuria is the Curator and Head of Conservation at Oceanário de Lisboa. She has been involved in planning and start-up of aquatic exhibitions, coordination of marine species breeding programs and collaboration in aquarium project as a technical advisor.
Pedro RéPedro Ré
Pedro Ré
Pedro RéFull Professor at the Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa
Pedro is a Full Professor at University of Lisbon. His main research interests deal with the ecology of the ichthyoplankton, daily growth of fish larvae based on the microstructure of the otoliths, rhythms of activity of fish larvae, and fisheries biology/recruitment.

VENUE

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

The symposium will take place at the Conference Center, Calouste Gulbenkian foundation in Lisbon, Portugal. As one of local sponsors, the Foundation generously provides their meeting facilities free of charge.

Address:
Av. de Berna, 45A, 1067-001 Lisbon

HOW TO GET THERE

REGISTRATION

PLEASE CLICK BELOW TO REGISTER!

CHECK FOR MORE INFORMATION BELOW.
01/02/2023Registration opens
20/03/2023Deadline for early bird rates
20/04/2023Deadline for late registration
Registration Fee TypeEarly-BirdRegular
until Mar 20, 2023after Apr 20,
2023
Student350€400€
Non-Student500€550€
Accompanying person (gives access to
the welcome reception and conference
banquet to an accompanying person of
a registered delegate)
150 €
Registration Fee TypeEarly-BirdRegular
until Mar 20, 2023after Mar 20 2023
Student350€400€
Non-Student500€550€
Accompanying person
(gives access to the welcome reception and conference banquet to an accompanying person of a registered delegate)
150 €

A successful registration for the LFC46 does not guarantee entrance to Portugal. Participants from some countries may require a visa to travel to Portugal. Please refer to the Portuguese Embassy or Consulate of your choice to check whether you need a visa and to know the details of the application procedure. A list of countries with visa requirements and information on where visas are to be issued can be found here . Due to the time required for visa processing and issuing, those wishing to attend the LFC46 should submit their visa application as early as possible, and at least 15 working days before departure from the country of origin.

Official letter of invitation

A letter of invitation from the host country is required for the visa application.

Those in need of official letters of invitation should should contact Ms. Patrícia Pereira patricia.isabel.pereira@ipma.pt and provide the following information :

  1. name, as it appears on passport
  2. date of birth (MM/DD/YYYY)
  3. nationality
  4. passport number

Please provide a copy of a passport photo page (pdf or jpeg format) to speed up the process.

We hope everyone who registers for the conference will be able to attend. However, we understand that unforeseeable situations do occur. The LFC46 Cancellation and Refund Policy will be as follows:

Conference registration cancelled before April 15th, 2023 is refundable but subject to a €50 administrative fee. Registrants cancelling on or after April 15th, 2023 will not receive a refund.
Requests for cancellation must be emailed to lfc46@larvalfishconference.com

Grants to support student travel to participate to the 46th Annual Larval Fish Conference (LFC) in Lisbon, Portugal, are available. Previous travel grants ranged between 500 and 1000 USD per student, with higher amounts awarded to students requiring transcontinental or long-distance travel. The application deadline for student travel grants for the LFC46 has been set to 20th March 2023 (corresponding to the abstract submission deadline). All undergraduate and graduate students who are current members (full or affiliate) of the AFS-Early Life History Section (ELHS) are eligible to apply. If not a member, please considering joining our Section as an affiliate member for $15 here. The application materials must include the following:

1) Extended (1-page) abstract that may include a figure

2) CV (3 pages maximum)

3) Letter from the student’s advisor that:

i) Confirms student status

ii) Indicates whether the student is at the ‘start’, ‘middle’ or ‘end’ of their degree

iii) Rates the quality of the research that will be presented

iv) Discusses the need for travel funds (e.g., whether co-funding is available)

All application materials should be sent electronically (via email) to the ELHS Secretary (Hannah Murphy, hannah.murphy@dfo-mpo.gc.ca), who will coordinate the selection process. The faculty advisor should send a letter separately to the ELHS Secretary. All application materials must be received by the deadline indicated above.

The ELHS Executive Committee will award travel grants based upon a careful consideration of the application materials and notify students within 2 weeks of the application deadline to allow for travel planning. Priority will be given to students not previously awarded travel grants. Students that receive travel grants will be required to submit a short summary of their presentation to be published in the next issue of STAGES following the conference and to provide modest on-site assistance during the conference.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Submission of abstracts on all aspects of the early life history stages of fishes is welcome, either as an oral presentation or as a poster. Session convenors will do their best to accommodate author´s; preferences for oral or poster  presentations. However, because the sessions have a limited number of timeslots, some papers submitted with a request for an oral presentation might be offered to be presented as posters.

All abstracts must be submitted in English and limited to 250 words. Responsibility for accuracy rests with the author.

The deadline for abstract submission has been extended and now is midnight* on March 20th 2023.
*Lisbon, Western European Time (WET)

If you need confirmation of abstract acceptance before registering, please send us an email: lfc46@larvalfishconference.com

PRESS BUTTON TO SUBMIT
01/02/2023Abstract submission opens
20/03/2023Deadline for abstract submission

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

TOPIC SESSIONS FROM 8-11 MAY 2023, FOLLOWING MORNING AND AFTERNOON PLENARY SESSIONS

SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS

Convenors: Ana Faria, Filipe Ribeiro and Hannes Baumann

Early life stages are expected to be most vulnerable to changes occurring in aquatic environments, but the effects are likely to differ across species, developmental stages (embryos, larvae, juvenile) and habitats (freshwaters, estuaries and ocean waters). In this session we invite presentations that examine direct or indirect effects of key environmental factors that are changing as a consequence of climate change and have been defined as determining factors for the maintenance of physiological functions in fish. These include temperature (both gradual warming and extreme events, such as marine heatwaves), ocean acidification and hypoxia. We also encourage contributions about research on emerging contaminants, microplastics, noise, light pollution, habitat alteration and parasites. We particularly value submissions that focus on the combined effects of these stressors and on the ability of individuals to acclimatize to changing conditions.

Convenors: Núria Baylina and Raquel Quirós-Pozo

Knowledge of larval biology of marine teleost is still on early stages for many species, particular for those targeted by the marine ornamental trade and for commercial aquaculture diversification. Also, there is a limited number of species that have successfully bred, both for biological research and/or commercial aquaculture purposes. On this regard larval ontogeny and zootechnics are still poorly studied for the majority of marine teleost species. This lack of basic knowledge is a big challenge not only for larval commercial production (food and aquarium trade), but also for fisheries stock management. More recently, overfishing, climate change and the increase in threats to natural hatcheries such as mangroves, estuaries or coral reefs habitats destruction, marine fishes breeding has gained increased interest and importance not only for aquaculture species diversification but as a powerful tool for marine species conservation purposes. The aim of this session is to include studies that focus on larval development description and identification, including studies addressing ontogeny, prey selectivity, feeding behaviour, nutrition, but also zootechnical description and optimisation of the larval rearing systems, amongst others.

Convenors: Susana Garrido, Pedro Ré and Marta Moyano

The importance of food for larval survival has motivated a large number of studies on the feeding ecology of fish larvae. These studies involve a large number of techniques such as studying the diet composition of field caught larvae through prey visual identification, or less frequently using fatty acid biomarkers and more recently using molecular techniques. Also, trophic position and trophic niche breath were studied by analysing the stable isotopic composition. Feeding experiments in laboratory-controlled conditions allowed to obtain several parameters such as ingestion rates, prey requirements, feeding behaviour and relation of feeding rates with other environmental variables such as temperature. In this session we welcome studies focusing on the feeding ecology of fish larvae from marine and freshwater environments, including those focusing on ontogenetic shifts of diet composition, taxonomic differences, diet broadness, and spatial and temporal variability of feeding.

Convenors: Ana Machado and Stefan Koeninsgtein

Early life history processes are influenced by the physical and ecological environment, and are important drivers of fish population and community dynamics. Physiological and ecological process rates quantified by empirical approaches are set within the spatio-temporal dynamics of the environment, which needs to be considered when assessing the overall impacts on a species’ life cycle and productivity. New ecological modeling approaches are contributing to understanding fish early life history stages and the processes that lead to their variation in space and time. This session invites studies from ocean and fresh water systems which use numerical and conceptual models, to link empirical results to impacts on species and ecosystems. Approaches include individual-based models, biophysical larval dispersal models, energy budget models, recruitment, population and ecosystem models. We strive to better connect empiricists with modelers, and advance understanding of the sensitivity and response of fish populations to environmental variation and climate change.

Convenors: Alexandra Teodósio and Vânia Baptista

The causes of recruitment variability are a key question in the ecology of marine communities, with consequences for global human population directly depending on marine resources. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain recruitment of fish species, focusing on survival and growth of fish larvae, as well as the physical and complex food web processes that sustain fish larvae in nursery areas. It is also known that fish larvae use sensorial and swimming abilities to detect and ingress into nursery habitats. In this session we welcome studies from all seas and inland waters focusing on the specific relevance of factors potentially determining recruitment success of fish larvae from marine and freshwater ecosystems, including survival and growth rates, swimming and personality, as well as their ontogenetic changes, spatial and temporal variability, habitat uses, and larval ecophysiological condition. Contributions to a deep understanding of recruitment variability from tropical, temperate or extreme aquatic enviroments are needed and will lead to an adequate management of marine ecosystems and key fisheries with direct consequences to an healthy ocean and quality of life increase .

Convenors: Laura Ribeiro and Paulo Gavaia

The application of analytical technologies has contributed to deepen the knowledge on how fish larvae cope with external challenges and successfully develop and reach juvenile stages. During the period where development, differentiation and maturation of tissues and important biological functions are taking place, integrated analytical approaches like histological, biochemical, enzymological, and molecular techniques, have contributed to understand the synchronism between structure and function at different developmental stages. Still analytical limitations exist related with small larval size, sampling conditions, among others. The recent application of “omics” (metabarcoding, proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, genomics and transcriptomics) to larval research have contributed in overcoming some of the technical limitations. In this session we welcome studies focusing on the application of omics technologies and other analytical tools, applied on studies with fish larvae from marine and freshwater environments, to gain deeper understanding of fish larvae biology, such as predatory capacity and prey selection, characterization of functional responses when exposed to different conditions, epigenetic effects, identification of molecules involved in tissue differentiation and regulatory pathways during development.

If you consider your abstract does not fit the theme of the proposed scientific sessions, please submit your work under this Session. Every contribution on the study of fish early life stages is welcome!

SOCIAL PROGRAM

A NUMBER OF NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES ARE EXPECTED FOR THE LFC46 WEEK

USEFUL INFORMATION

INSTRUCTIONS TO PRESENTERS

With the exception of the plenary sessions, oral presentations are scheduled for 20 minutes (15 minutes for presentation + 5 minutes for questions).

Presenters must prepare their talks in either PowerPoint (.ppt or .pptx) or PDF (.pdf) format. Please ensure that unusual fonts, and any videos or sound files are embedded in the PowerPoint file (or transferred onto the presentation laptop). To save time between presentations, presenters will not be permitted to use their own laptop. Please therefore make sure that your talk gets uploaded to the conference laptop prior to your session.

The poster session will be held Tuesday evening. The poster boards be available all-day Tuesday and Wednesday. Please place your poster in the board displaying the number assigned to your poster. Poster dimensions should correspond to portrait A0 format (Dimensions: 1189 x 841 mm or 46.8 x 33.1 in). We will provide mounting tape to place posters.

TRANSPORTATION

How to get downtown Lisbon from the Airport

You can take a taxi, airbus, Uber, or subway from the Airport. It takes 10-15 min.
Info on transportation, fare, and time:
https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Lisbon-Airport-LIS/Lisbon.

ACCOMODATION

Book your hotel room at the online registration form! The available option is within a walking-distance from the conference venue.

In addition to the recommended hotel, the organizers have contacted 2 companies that can help participants rent the whole apartment or an individual room in the  apartment that can be shared with your group or with other symposium  participants.

Apartment rental: Rentandrent
Contact: sofia.matias@rentandrent.pt or ana.goncalves@rentandrent.pt

Apartment rental: Turisma
Contact: hello@turisma.pt

RESTAURANTS

A map with some cafés and restaurants near the conference venue, Fundação Gulbenkian, suggested by our host, is intended to help you in finding a place for lunch. These cafés and restaurants differ in quality, service, and price and, by all means, this is not a comprehensive list. Follow this link to find information about location, menu, price, and guest rating of recommended and many others cafés near the venue.

SPONSORS

pices
scicom
ORGANIZERS AND CONTACT

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