Peter Kiss
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Peter Kiss about his participation in the Joint Formainifera and Nannofossil Meeting 2019 in Fribourg, Switzerland from 1 to 4 July
The Joint Foraminifera and Nannofossil Meeting is an annually organized conference for micropaleontologists coming from all over the world. This year it was organized from 1 to 4 July 2019 at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland. Similarly, as during the previous years, the conferences was attended by mainly early career researchers and therefore provided a favorable opportunity to network and build new working contacts with academics from various fields of geosciences. The conference was visited by approximately 60 participants, which created a friendly atmosphere. Everyone had the possibility to actively participate by presenting his/her poster or by presenting a 15 minutes talk for the audience composed of mainly benthic foraminifera and coccolithophore specialists. The oral sessions were scheduled in up to four blocks per days and each block started with a keynote presentation, which was followed by the talks presented by early career researchers.
I was glad to present the results of my first Ph.D. chapter about planktonic foraminiferal carbonate mass fluxes and their effect on the pelagic carbonate fluxes in the Cap Blanc upwelling area (Atlantic Ocean). My talk highlighted the importance of the species composition of the sinking foraminiferal assemblages from the sea surface to the seafloor and showed the most important morphological properties of their calcareous shells that can modulate the pelagic carbonate flux.
My presentation was welcomed by the audience which resulted in a fruitful discussion that gave me an inspiration for my further work. Despite the high number of presentations dealing with benthic foraminifera, I found many interesting posters concentrated on planktonic foraminiferal ecology and zooplankton calcification. I was especially happy to meet specialist on coccolithophores, whereas this group of phytoplankton together with planktonic foraminifera are the most important oceanic calcifiers. Furthermore, during the poster sessions I met Manual Weinkauf, who is an expert on foraminifera shell weight. His valuable advice will help me to improve my test weighing methodology applied throughout my future Ph.D. chapters. On the other hand, I have always been motivated to make understandable and clear my scientific work for people with various research background, thus this conference allowed me to master my science communication skills.
On the last day of the conference we visited the geological highlights of Fribourg. This tour was guided by structural geologists from the University of Fribourg, who gave us a brief but very educative insight into the Alpine geology.
All in all, it is always a great experience to attend a conference and meet new people and be updated by the most interesting studies. This conference fulfilled my expectations and I am planning to attend it in the next years. At the end of the conference the organizing committee invited all the participants to the next Joint Foraminifera and Nannofossil Meeting 2020 organized in Edinburgh (Scotland).
I am very grateful for GLOMAR for funding my conference visit in Switzerland and being the last bit of the funding puzzle of presenting my complex inter-university Ph.D. project for an international scientific committee.