Eldo Roza
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Surya Eldo Virma Roza about his participation in the 12th International Conference of Dinoflagellate Cysts (DINO12) in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain from 4 to 8 July 2022
The 12th edition of the International Conference of dinoflagellate cysts (DINO12) was hosted by the Canarian Observatory of Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs). The purpose of this meeting is to maintain a good connection and collaboration between the researchers on the living dinoflagellates and the paleontological aspects of this marine plankton. The conference was held on July, 4th - 8th, 2022 both virtual and on-site at a magnificent concert hall of Alfredo Kraus de Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain. DINO12 was a part of multiple marine research conferences organized in the same venue in the same week to celebrate the 40th anniversary of marine sciences studies in Spain.
I was so excited to attend this conference because it was not only the first major international meeting after the long covid lockdown but also the first conference I attended that required traveling. It took around 15 minutes to walk from my hotel to the conference venue. But I did not mind doing this because throughout the walk I could enjoy the calming sound of the wave and the view of the unoccupied beach in the morning. My supervisor introduced me to many amazing colleagues who are very experienced in the field of dinoflagellates research. In total, only around 30 attendees came in person, which could be caused by some restrictions that were still not lifted up in many countries.
I presented my talk on the first day, opening the afternoon session. My talk was about our result from the long record of a sediment traps located offshore Mauritania upwelling region that contained export flux of dinoflagellate cysts over 18 years period from 2003 to 2020. I received many questions and feedback about our research and the potential of this unique dataset for future observation. The discussion continued during lunch break and coffee break which gave me the opportunity to get to know those senior scientists and other doctoral candidates from all over the world. The first day was wrapped up with the old town tour guided by a local guide. The next days continued with more oral presentations plus short talks from the poster presenters since many attendees joined this conference via zoom. This provided an advantage to those who presented on-site because our performances were recorded, you can see the setup in the picture. We could take a look at the on-site poster as well at the ground floor hall of this auditorium, where the afternoon coffee break was located.
On Thursday, the conference organizers arranged social activities for the attendees to visit several interesting sites on the island of Las Palmas, I chose to go to Maspalomas dunes. This place was so beautiful, and we walked for around 30 minutes toward the beach. I played and sunbathed for a couple of hours. In the evening I went to the conference dinner at the first building that was built by the Spanish government on Las Palmas island. The series of DINO12 conference was closed by a workshop on Monitoring, Control, and management of Toxic Marine Algal Blooms on this Island. During this workshop, I was encouraged by a professor at the University of Lisboa to present our research at the 20th Harmful Algae Conference in 2023. Immediately, I felt the advantage of attending an International Conference.
Therefore, I am greatly thankful to MARUM and the University of Bremen for the funding support that allows me to attend this conference. I also thank my supervisor for the encouragement and GLOMAR who provide this platform to share my experience.