SPECIES ON THE MOVE 2019
International Conference Series

SOTM is hosted by Rhodes University, South Africa, and UTAS, Australia

Monday 22 to Friday 26 July 2019

Nombolo Mdhluli Conference Centre | Skukuza Rest Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Following the successful inaugural conference in 2016, the 2019 Species on the Move conference will be held in Kruger National Park from Monday 22nd to Friday 26th July 2019.

The global redistribution of our planets’ species is widely recognised as a fingerprint of climate change, however, the mechanisms that underpin such range shifts are poorly understood. Additionally, the pervasiveness of range shifts, from poles to the equator, and depths of oceans to tops of mountains, provides us with unique opportunity to advance our theory of biogeography, evolutionary ecology and macroecology.

Our move into the ‘anthropocene’ allows unprecedented opportunity to understand the mechanisms that drive species distributions across ecosystems and address the fundamental tenet of ecology: what lives where and why?  However, such dramatic changes also pose significant challenges for sustainable management of our natural resources.

The conference brings together scientists and natural resource managers working in the disciplines of global change, biogeography and evolution, and relevant in contexts of natural resource management, biodiversity management and conservation, and theoretical ecology.

Species responses to climate change is a rapidly evolving research field, however, much of our progress is being made in independent research areas: e.g. understanding the process vs responding to the implications, terrestrial vs marine ecosystems, global meta-analyses vs in depth species-specific approaches. This interdisciplinary conference develops connections between these parallel streams, and across temporal and spatial scales.

Professor Warwick Sauer & Professor Gretta Pecl
Conference Co-Convenors

ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES

To minimise the environmental impact of hosting the conference:

• we will avoid the use of single-use items
• we encourage attendees to include a carbon offset in their flights
• please bring a water bottle, we will have filling stations
• please bring a reusable coffee cup
• we will be minimising printed material before and during the conference
• catering will be supplied on reusable plates
• lanyards and name badge pouches will be collected for reuse at other events
• registration will be online and confirmations will be sent by email
• updates prior to the conference will be sent by email
• presentations and handouts will be provided on the conference website

HSH PRINCE ALBERT II OF MONACO

The conference organisers are pleased to announce that HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco will be officially opening the Species on the Move conference at Kruger National Park. HSH the Prince is dedicated to the protection of the environment and understands how important it is to fully explore the effects of climate change on biodiversity, and the implications of climate-driven changes in species distributions on human health and well-being and is pleased to support the conference.

Supporting SOTM 2019

Species on the Move is an interdisciplinary conference series crossing many research areas that are focussed on climate-driven changes in biodiversity and human well-being. As such, the conference is not supported by an individual association or organisation. If you or your association or organisation would like to support the conference, including broadening the participation of early career attendees and researchers from lower income countries, please see our Supporting SOTM 2019 page formore information.