Greetings Phyco-philiacs,
As the old adage goes: even a virus can’t keep a good society down. Although we may not be having a physical meeting this year, the excellent folks on the virtual PSA Meeting Committee are pleased to announce a two-day, on-line PSA event for 2020! The meeting will feature some fantastic phycological speakers, including the inaugural, soon-to-be Annual Lang Lecture, the bi-annual Student-Organized Symposium, our inaugural Journal of Phycology Co-editor’s mini-symposium featuring two of our incoming new co-editors, contributed lightning talks, award presentations, break out rooms, and more.
Due to the vagaries of virtual meetings and exigent circumstances, we will not be having full, contributed talks from our members this year, but will be facilitating a limited number of lightning talks (three, action-packed minutes of phycological information). If you are interested in giving a 3-minute lightning talk, please send me (Dale Casamatta, email) a short abstract (<200 words) by July 5 (midnight). Students are especially encouraged to apply! If your abstract is accepted, we will request that you pre-record your talk for logistics purposes, and then will live-stream them at the indicated times (with further details to follow). If we have more talks than time available, we shall make them available on the PSA website.
The meeting will be gratis for all, and we encourage members to let their colleagues, friends, nemeses, and acquaintances know of the events. The meeting time has been selected to permit people from many time zones to participate, so please forward widely! In addition, if you have any meeting ideas or would like to propose a topic for one of the breakout sessions please let one of us know.
We are looking forward to connecting with everyone if only virtually this year.
On behalf of the Virtual 2020 Organizing Committee, we are looking forward to the phycological festivities next month.
With regards,
Amy Carlile Patrick Martone Sabrina Heiser
Eric Linton Dale Casamatta
The PSA 2020 annual meeting will be offered via a Zoom webinar. Note that the link will work for both days. Registration was FREE! Abstracts for lightning talks are available for download here.
Some of our speakers (left to right): Patricia Glibert, Bilassé Zongo, Nelson Valdivia, and Holly Moeller
Meeting Program:
Wednesday, July 29: 11 am – 1:30 pm EST
11:00 am: Opening and Welcome: Dale Casamatta, PSA President
11:30 am: 1st Annual Lang Lecture (introduced by Patrick Martone)
Holly Moeller (University of California, Santa Barbara): Modeling complex endosymbiosis: Empirical and mathematical studies of the genus Mesodinium
12:00 pm: Coeditors plenary session
Thomas Wernberg (University of Western Australia): The rise and fall of seaweeds – welcome to the phycocene
12:30 pm: Lightning talks: 3 minutes of fast-paced phycology! All are pre-recorded. (Numbers correspond to numbers in abstract pdf).
R.H. Lampe: Resistance to ocean acidification in upwelling-associated phytoplankton communities
Z. Lu: A growth ceiling exists when Prochlorococcus cultivates in artificial seawater media?
M.M.B. Filho: Programmed cell death in coccoid green microalga Ankistrodesmus densus Korshikov (Sphaeropleales, Selenastraceae)
E.A. Alvarado: Mesophotic diversity of Rhodymeniales (Rhodophyta) in Hawai‘i: species new to science?
S.M. Andrew: Temperature but not carbon dioxide stimulates growth in southern ocean phytoplankton
E.C. Cissell: Revealing the hidden taxonomic, trophic, and functional diversity of conspicuous coral reef benthic cyanobacterial mats
G. Singh: Culturable cyanobacterial diversity from Harike Wetland (Ramsar Site), Punjab, India
T. Kassaw: Synthetic, episome-based regulatory systems for controlling gene expression in diatoms
K. Merritt: Phenotypic plasticity and growth responses of marine cryptophytes to varying spectral irradiance
H.R. Molitor: Using simulated coal-fired power plant emissions to rapidly grow nutritious microalgae with enhanced settleability
J.J. Morris: Foes with benefits: Evolution of conflict and cooperation between Prochlorococcus and Alteromonas
P.T. Martone: Calcification does not necessarily protect coralline algae from herbivores
1:10 pm: Break-out discussion sessions (zoom links will be distributed to registrants) — topics with the moderators are:
Lightning talk discussion: Patrick Martone
How to science during COVID (Student focused, but not exclusive): Sabrina Heiser
Algae-related teaching resources: Jeff Morris
General discussion/coffee hour: Amy Carlile
Thursday, July 30: 11 am – 1:30 pm EST
Student-organized Symposium: Micro to Macro – impacts of photosynthesizers across aquatic ecosystems (moderated by Sabrina Heiser)
11:00 am: Nelson Valdivia (Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas, Chile): Diversity, structure, and functioning of a seaweed-dominated marine ecosystem in King George Island, Antarctica
11:30 am: Patricia Glibert (University of Maryland): Eutrophication, climate change and harmful algae
12:00 pm: Bilassé Zongo (Université Nazi Boni, Burkina Faso; Fulbright scholar – University of South Florida): Diversity and ecology of microalgae in Burkina Faso (West Africa)
12:30 pm: Presentation of PSA awards: Provasoli Award, Outstanding student paper, Lang Fellow, PSA Award of Excellence, Prescott Award
1:00 pm: Lightning talks: 3 minutes of fast-paced phycology! All are pre-recorded. (Numbers correspond to numbers in abstract pdf).
13. M.O. Paiano: Haraldiophyllum hawaiiensis sp. nov. (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta), a new delesseriacean alga from the Hawaiian Archipelago
14. T.M. Williams: Reproductive Phenology of an Invasive Alga in a “Pristine” Marine National Monument
15. S. Heiser: The chemistry between an amphipod and its macroalgal host
16. A.R. Sherwood: Identification of a cryptogenic seaweed displaying invasive characteristics at Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
17. D. Spagnuolo: Porphyra dioica J.Brodie et L.M.Irvine; a first look to a mass cultivation of a European species
18. F.C. Cabrera: Diversity of Kallymeniaceae (Gigartinales, Rhodophyta) associated with the mesophotic reefs of Hawaiʻi with description of Psaromenia laulamaula sp. nov. and Meredithia hawaiiensis sp. nov.
19. S. Augyte: Sugar kelp, Saccharina latissima, population genetics in Northeast US, for guiding a breeding program
20. I. Huang: Screening the Plankton Soup-Utilization of Imaging FlowCytobot
21. I.V. Grigoriev: JGI Algal Genomics Resources
1:30 pm: Break-out discussion sessions (zoom links will be distributed to registrants) – topics with the moderators are:
Lightning talk discussion: Sabrina Heiser
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion brainstorm: Patrick Martone
Award opportunities through PSA: Morgan Vis
General discussion/coffee hour: Amy Carlile
2:30 PM: Student games and social hour (Sabrina Heiser)