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<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><img apple-inline="yes" id="36A2F674-F340-4E39-8EDD-61FD813E6B9B" class="" height="213" width="852" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:730FE504-E814-4D6B-A26C-98ABF28BE69E@uvic.ca"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Dear colleagues,</font></p><div class="">Please find below the announcement of the SILICAMICS 2 conference.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This email is to remind you that <font color="#ff2600" style="font-weight: bold;" size="4" class="">registration is open! </font><span style="color: rgb(255, 38, 0); font-size: large; font-weight: bold;" class="">Deadline for early registration and abstract submission is April 15 (late registration closes on April 30).</span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In addition, we would like to urge you to book <font color="#e32400" class=""><b class="">accommodations</b></font> as soon as possible. June is a really busy time of the year. In addition to being tourist/cruise season, the ASLO meeting is taking place shortly after, therefore hotel space is limited.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Please consider coming to the conference! Registration is limited to 70 participants and priority is given to those making a presentation. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Conference site: <a href="https://silicamics2.sciencesconf.org" class="">https://silicamics2.sciencesconf.org</a> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Registration and abstract submission: <a href="https://silicamics2.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/1" class="">https://silicamics2.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/1</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><i class="">Feel free to distribute this email to other interested people.</i></div><div class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div class="">We hope to see you in beautiful BC!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best regards,</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p class="MsoNormal"><b class="">The Organizing Committee:</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Diana Varela (Conference Chair), <i class="">University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada</i></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Aude Leynaert, <i class="">CNRS, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Paul Tréguer, <i class="">UBO, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Brivaela Moriceau, <i class="">CNRS, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Jill Sutton, <i class="">UBO, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Kate Hendry, <i class="">University of Bristol, Bristol, UK</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Karine Leblanc, <i class="">CNRS, Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie, Marseille, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Manuel Maldonado, <i class="">Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes, Blanes, Spain</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Chris Bowler, <i class="">CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France</i></font></p></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________</div><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="" size="4"><b class=""><u class="">First announcement</u>:</b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="" color="#ff2600" size="4"><b class="">It is our pleasure to announce that the <span class=""><i class="">SILICAMICS
2 conference</i></span> will take place in early June 2018 at the University of
Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada).</b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">The first SILICAMICS conference held in l'Aber
Wrac'h (near Brest, France) in September 2015 provided an extraordinary
opportunity to develop interdisciplinary connections between researchers with
expertise and interest in silicification and silicifiers, and to learn about
the latest advances in the silicon world.
This conference concluded with the organization of a special issue in
Frontiers in Marine Science, that includes 14 manuscripts, currently in review
or accepted, and a review paper in Nature Geoscience (Tréguer <i class="">et al., </i>2017).</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">We would like to build on the success of this
first conference and hold a follow-up gathering from 6-8 June 2018 in Victoria,
BC.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Please note that SILICAMICS 2 will take place
on the week before the ASLO 2018 conference at the Victoria Conference Center
in the same city.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class="">Please find below the list of
sessions, invited speakers and the aims of SILICAMICS 2.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">The website for the conference <a href="https://silicamics2.sciencesconf.org/" class="">https://silicamics2.sciencesconf.org</a> will be updated as we gather more information (it is still under development). We will send another
announcement by mid-February as soon as registration opens, but at this stage
we wanted to reach out to let you know about the conference and to encourage you to participate!
Registration will be limited to 70 participants.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i class="">Feel free to distribute this email to other interested people.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Please mark your calendars to attend SILICAMICS
2 in beautiful BC!</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Best regards,</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class="">The Organizing Committee:</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Diana Varela (Conference Chair), <i class="">University
of Victoria, Victoria, Canada</i></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Aude Leynaert, <i class="">CNRS, Institut Universitaire
Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Paul Tréguer, <i class="">UBO, Institut Universitaire
Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Brivaela Moriceau, <i class="">CNRS, Institut
Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Jill Sutton, <i class="">UBO, Institut Universitaire
Européen de la Mer, Brest, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Kate Hendry, <i class="">University of Bristol, Bristol,
UK</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Karine Leblanc, <i class="">CNRS, Institut Méditerranéen
d'Océanologie, Marseille, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Manuel Maldonado, <i class="">Centro de Estudios
Avanzados de Blanes, Blanes, Spain</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Chris Bowler, <i class="">CNRS, Ecole Normale
Supérieure, Paris, France</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="" size="4"><b class=""><u class="">Sessions and Invited Speakers</u></b><b class="">:</b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><i class="">Introduction</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i class=""> Mark Brzezinski, University of
California Santa Barbara, USA</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><i class="">Silicification (processes and properties)
in diatoms / Eco-physiology of diatoms</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><i class=""> Mark Hildebrand, Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, USA</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><i class="">Silicification in other silicifiers</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><i class=""> Sally Leys, University of Alberta,
Canada</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><i class="">Genomics/proteomics in silicifiers</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><i class=""> Kimberlee Thamatrakoln, Rutgers
University, USA</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><i class="">Isotope chemistry providing tools for
processes and fluxes</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><i class=""> Gregory De Souza, ETH Zurich,
Switzerland</i><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b class=""><i class="">The silica cycle: key players and
processes / The biogeochemistry of silicon and modeling</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><i class=""> Paul Tréguer, Université de Bretagne
Occidentale, Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, France</i></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="" size="4"><b class=""><u class="">Aims of SILICAMICS 2</u></b><b class="">:</b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">The conference aims to develop an integrative
approach that includes chemistry, biogeochemistry, biochemistry, physiology and
genomics to better understand biosilicification and silicifiers in past,
contemporary and future oceans.<o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">Silicifiers are among the most important
organisms on planet Earth. They are able to take advantage of the abundance of
silicon (the second-most-abundant element in the Earth's crust) to build silica
structures, which can help for protection against predators, for motility, or
for facilitating the penetration of light and nutrients. At the same time,
silicifiers have a paramount impact on the cycling of silicon and other
nutrients in marine waters.<o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">This transdisciplinary conference focuses on
the marine realm, for which numerous unknowns still remain regarding the global
marine silica cycle. Marine diatoms have dominated over siliceous sponges and
radiolarians over the last 150 M years. Today diatoms play a key role in the
trophic networks of the most productive coastal and open-ocean ecosystems, as
well as in the biology-mediated transfer of CO2 from the surface to the ocean
interior (the so-called biological carbon pump). The physiology and
biochemistry of biosilicification have been studied in diatoms and other
silicifiers but many gaps remain regarding mechanisms, evolutionary
significance, variations in response to environmental change and the impact of
these processes on marine biogeochemistry.
Moreover, benthic diatoms and their role in coastal ecosystems have been
largely overlooked despite significant contributions to coastal primary
production. Along the same vein, the roles of other siliceous organisms, such
as benthic sponges, radiolarians and silicoflagellates in the silica cycle need
to be quantified at a global scale. Accumulation of silica in non-siliceous
picocyanobacteria has also been shown but the reasons and mechanisms behind
such process are still unknown.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="">In the last 25 years, the genomes of several
diatom species have been sequenced. Scientific programs (such as Tara Oceans
and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s projects) have provided additional
DNA sequence information from diatoms as well as from other silicifying
organisms. Genomics data can now be exploited to address fundamental research
questions about the role of different silicifiers in coastal and open-open
ecosystems, and their controls on C, N, P, and Si biogeochemical cycles. Additional
knowledge is also being acquired about interactions between silicifiers and
other organisms at different spatial and temporal scales, and their impact on
nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning are beginning to be addressed. It is
an exciting time for seeking new opportunities to study the biology of ocean
silicification processes. This
conference will facilitate the exchange of information between scientists from
different ‘silicon’ disciplines and expertise with the aim of moving forward in
our understanding of the impact of silicifiers on Earth.</font></p></div></div><br class=""></body></html>