Laura Rix

The ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting is held every two years and is organized by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology & Oceanography. This year’s meeting took place in the sunny location of Granada, Spain and attracted thousands of scientists from around the globe. The meeting featured 143 sessions covering a wide range of topics in marine and freshwater research from the micro- to macro- scale with a special focus on global and regional patterns in aquatic systems in a changing environment.

Each day of the 5 day conference featured an awards ceremony followed by a plenary session. Award recipients provided insight into their success, giving useful advice to young researchers, and it was inspiring what they had achieved. The plenary talks were given by excellent speakers and covered a diverse range of topics from the state-of-the-art in microbial ecology and the role of black carbon in the global carbon cycle to calls for the need for more transdisciplinary research in the Anthropocene and for scientists to put their research to work solving real-world problems in management and conservation. All the talks were informative and provided unique perspectives on the current challenges in the field of aquatic research.

I had the opportunity to present some of the results of my PhD work in the session “Addressing regional or global questions about trophic ecology using lipids or stable isotope ratios”. My talk was entitled “Tracing 13C and 15N enriched coral and algal-derived dissolved organic matter into reef sponges: Evidence for a Red Sea sponge loop?” and it was fun to be able to share my work with a wide audience. I received a lot of valuable feedback about the presentation from the audience and session chairs, and some of the discussions resulting from the talk are still ongoing. The meeting also provided me with the opportunity to meet with one of my co-authors from another country and discuss the paper that we are currently working on together, as well as discuss plans for a future publication.

Overall the meeting was an enjoyable and extremely valuable experience. I presented my first talk at a large international conference and had the opportunity to meet a variety of enthusiastic researchers working in exciting fields which allowed me to strengthen my scientific network. I also gained a broader perspective about the work being conducted in marine sciences, including emerging global themes. I learned new techniques that I may be able to apply to my future research and developed numerous ideas for future projects. The contacts that I made will benefit both my publications and I hope my future career. Additionally, the many conversations and exciting presentations have left me motivated for the last few months of my PhD. I am extremely grateful to GLOMAR for their generous support in providing me with the opportunity to attend this conference and would encourage other students to consider attending future ASLO meetings.