Our COST Action CA20102 MAF-WORLD recently held a training workshop on "Changes in the Marine Biota (MAF) of the Black Sea" in partnership with Karadeniz Technical University. The event took place in Trabzon on September 18, 2023, and lasted four days.
Our Action has been selected and invited to this unique event of experts for the UN Science Summit, organised by the European COST Assocaition and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in New York.
It has been a great beginning for our MAF-WORLD COST Action. After a successful year, we are ready for the second, with some exciting COST Action activity set.
Branching MAFs are the key building units in marine ecosystems, including the coral reefs. Branching corals exhibit taxon-specific canopy structures and are crowned by morphometric modifications within their canopies, habitats that are under the control of biological and environmental drivers
Marine Animal Forests (MAFs) are built by many organisms that depend either partially or entirely on the heterotrophic uptake of particulate and dissolved nutrients for survival.
Taxonomical knowledge is the basis for many biological and ecological studies. However, even if this is a fact, the reality shows that the number of taxonomists working with megabenthic fauna is decreasingand few young researchers are involved in this fundamental research field.
Between August 3rd and 23rd, the second campaign started, leaded by Lorenzo Bramanti (LECOB-CNRS, ObservatoireOceanologiqueBanyuls sur Mer).
The Mediterranean pillow coral - Cladocora caespitosa (Linnaeus, 1767), is the only native colonial and obligate zooxanthellate coral in the Mediterranean Sea, listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List.
For MAF-WORLD COST Action 20102, it is a pleasure to announce the partnership in the Cold-Water Coral Taxonomy training school/workshop organised by iAtlanticthat will be held in Brazil from 15th to 17th of October, which is now open for registration.
Coinciding with the 15th International Coral Reef Symposium in Bremen, the ZMT - Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research welcomes our first Management Committee to set the future activities for the following years and strengthen our networking COST Action.
