The Marine Biology Research group Ghent University will organize a workshop on bathyal nematodes in Ghent, Belgium in February 2008.

Nematodes represent the most abundant metazoan group in deep-sea sediments. In general, their relative importance in the benthos and their diversity increases with water depth from the continental shelf to the bathyal regions. However, this high bathyal biodiversity is not yet well understood especially when local diversity estimates are extrapolated to regional or even global scales.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together all currently active deep-sea nematologists in order to unravel worldwide large scale patterns in deep-sea nematode diversity, distribution and community composition.

A similar initiative  is taking place at European scale in the context of the European network MarBEF (MANUELA RMP).  However several gaps were identified in our knowledge on ocean based comparisons like the Pacific margins, the Indian ocean and the West and the SE Atlantic.

Recently several national to international projects started to investigate these previously unknown areas generating a collection of data which allow a better understanding of different aspects of global patterns in bathyal nematodes.

Strategy for further progress:

1. To identify interested parties (Before 15th of September 2007).
2. To collect all data in a database (Before 1st of December 2007). The collection will take place under strict conditions in such way that all contributors are guaranteed that their data are not used without their approval and knowledge.
3. To identify possible research questions based on the available data (before 15th of January 2007).
4. Workshop in order to refine research questions (papers), identify working groups, start data-analysis and identify time schedule for further progress ( February 2008).
5. Writing up papers on large scale patterns (before end 2008).

If you are interested in attending this workshop please contact Dr Ann Vanreusel (ann.vanreusel@ugent.be) by 15 September 2007 with information regarding the kind of data you will be able to provide (i.e. geographical area, depth range, habitat, taxonomic level of identifications).