Denise Müller

From 22-27 February 2015, I attended the Aquatic Sciences Meeting sponsored by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) in Granada, Spain. More than 2400 people from 64 countries attended. Many renowned scientists in my and related fields were invited as speakers, they chaired sessions or gave presentations. It was a demanding, yet extremely interesting week full of inspiring talks and informative poster presentations. Every day, there were a number of plenary talks, some of which were directly relevant to my own research, and others which got me interested in other topics.

My own presentation was very well placed in a session about “Aquatic gas fluxes: measurements, drivers and implications for ecosystem processes”. This session went on for two days. It gave me a very good overview about the different institutes that are involved in the study of aquatic gas fluxes and enabled me to anticipate which direction the research of this topic might take in the future.
With this said, it was interesting to see that most of this research was concerned with inland waters, just like mine. In this context, a session on “Freshwater ecosystems and the carbon cycle” provided me with further insights into recent research on inland waters. People from the United States, Canada, and all over Europe are engaged in this hot topic. My participation in this conference definitely helped me to strengthen my existing network and to introduce myself to other colleagues in the field.

Additionally, I listened to a couple of talks and talked to a number of people who are involved in other areas of research which I found interesting. For example, although I conduct my field work in Southeast Asia, I found it extremely interesting to learn about the biogeochemistry of African inland waters – or similarly, although I do not work on marine pollution, I found myself interested in the newly arising topic of microplastics pollution.

Ultimately, ASLO had come up with a number of workshops and discussion forums, which was not only interesting but also entertaining. I took the opportunity to practice “Scientific Speed Networking” during a workshop and attended a Panel Discussion on how to inform the public about environmental science. These workshops were great opportunities to exchange thoughts and ideas with colleagues in a very different way, in that you get to know their personal views and opinions about certain topics.

And as a side note, Granada is a really nice place with an interesting history in an amazing landscape. The Alhambra, for which Granada is particularly famous, is a very impressive sight that I got to explore during the little free time the conference allowed for. Overall, it was a successful and inspiring week. I am grateful for the funding that GLOMAR provided in order for me to be able to attend this meeting.