A Research Coordination Network to Study the Historical
Ecology of the Trans-Atlantic Biota

* NEW!! * CORONA Specimen Collection Network Order specimens from our network of 11 North Atlantic marine labs!

* NEW!! * NARMS website Searchable species lists for the North Atlantic, focussing on Canada and the Gulf of Maine!

 

Our Formal Meetings Have Ended!
Our Current Effort is to
Produce a Series of Synthetic Papers on
the North Atlantic Biota

Precis of CORONA network:

This research coordination network will conduct an annual meeting devoted to a coordinated synthesis of the historical ecology of the temperate North Atlantic Ocean. The massive invasion of marine organisms from the Pacific following the opening of the Bering Strait in the late Pliocene placed closely related organisms on both coasts of the North Atlantic in a grand natural experiment. Although there is great potential to compare the ecology of taxa found on the very different coasts of the NW and NE North Atlantic, this is rarely done. The major goals of this network are to encourage trans-Atlantic ecological research when closely related taxa are found in the NW and the NE Atlantic. This ecological research will be placed in a historical context by coordinating literally hundreds of molecular phylogeographic and systematic studies of the North Atlantic flora and fauna, with an emphasis of taxa found on both coasts. These historical molecular studies will then be placed in the context of knowledge about oceanography, paleoclimatology, and paleontology.

Although a comprehensive study of the North Atlantic requires cross-disciplinary and international cooperation, there is no annual meeting devoted to basic research attended represented by even a significant subset of these fields from both sides of the Atlantic. Even within specific fields such as phylogeography, scientists who study animals and algae rarely interact. This network brings together 118 scientists from 13 countries bordering the North Atlantic, and has already generated considerable excitement at the opportunity to carry out trans-Atlantic, multi-disciplinary collaborations.