Submit Your Abstracts for the AFS 150th Meeting

Some outstanding symposia are planned for Columbus, Ohio. Don’t forget to prepare and submit your abstracts for the FITS-hosted symposium “Merging Data Science and Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences to Solve Big Problems.”

Advancing technologies and software have allowed us to collect and process enormous amounts of data (aka “big data”). Big data are data that are too large in volume, high in velocity, and/or varied in structure to share, manipulate, or analyze using traditional software tools or analytical techniques. The quantity and rate of data collection in some instances have outpaced our technological capabilities for data transfer and analysis. These challenges may discourage or prohibit the exploration of research and management questions that have the potential to collect or synthesize large datasets. In theme with the 150th meeting of the American Fisheries Society to “Learn from the past to meet the challenges of the present”, this symposium will highlight case studies in which research is harnessing the potential of big data to provide new approaches and perspectives into the management of fisheries and aquatic systems, that in the past, may have been overambitious or simply unattainable. All stages of research and development in this area are welcomed. Along with fisheries examples, we greatly encourage non-fisheries examples that involve, but are not limited to, water quality, climate, habitat, and geospatial datasets.

Or, the FITS-supported symposium “Bayesian Inference: Applications and Interpretation.”

Bayesian inference has become a common tool used by fisheries managers, scientists, and researchers. However, many are still learning about the utility of this tool to make decisions about their study system and appropriately handle messy ecological data. Bayesian inference permits modeling complex relationships, provides a transparent method of incorporating prior information, and model results provide a rich suite of information about the study system. This session will demonstrate applications of Bayesian inference in the fisheries field and highlight the appropriate use and interpretation of results. The objective of this symposium is to provide fisheries managers, scientists, and researchers examples of how Bayesian inference can be used and interpreted in a range of basic and applied ecological research questions. This symposium will include topics such as stock assessment, phylogenetics, age & growth, genetics/genomics, diet studies, community assessment, movement studies, meta-analysis, and hierarchical models.

Or, the follow-up symposium from last year’s success, “Marking, Tagging, and Tracking.”

Tracking data inform how individual organisms and populations distribute locally, utilize habitat, migrate over larger scales, and evolve over time. Analyzed carefully, these data may indicate changes in climate and land use, biodiversity, invasive species, predict spread of diseases or parasites, and correspond to effectiveness of stocking efforts.

Successful approaches not only involve proper tagging and placement of monitors to detect movements, but also require robust analyses and effective communication of large datasets. This symposium will share technologies, methodologies, findings, analytical approaches, and troubleshooting tips to highlight more recent developments and encourage collaboration. Talks will focus on the following topics:

Description of novel tagging methods or monitoring approaches
Description of novel combinations of technologies for improved data quality or quantity, including metadata collection
Connection of tracking data to environmental data, such as climate, habitat, or water quality
Explanation and demonstration of useful software for tracking data management and analysis
Explanation and demonstration of robust analytical approaches used with tracking data
Application of tracking data to inform decision-making processes in fisheries policy