Meiofauna approaching 2020: Knowledge gaps and new avenues

The 16th edition of the International Meiofauna Conference, codenamed IςIMCo, will be held from 3 to 8 of July 2016 at the Aquila Atlantis Conference Centre, in Heraklion, Crete.

The prefix of the conference name (Iς = 16) was inspired by the ancient Greek numerical system, where the letter I represents the number ten (10) and the letter stigma (ς), which is a ligature of the Greek letters sigma (Σ) and tau (Τ), represents the number six (6).

What was once an almost completely neglected component of aquatic ecology, meiofaunal studies are rapidly gaining in popularity by becoming an important tool for scientific research. Today, there is hardly any conference on any specific aspect of modern aquatic research, such as biodiversity, environmental impacts, deep sea, special habitats etc., without at least some contributions from the opulent fields of meiobenthology.
Nevertheless, the triennial International Meiofauna Conference offers an invaluable opportunity for networking among the participants and a forum where the exchange of ideas and information on the most recent activities of its members takes place in a friendly atmosphere. The conference is, as always, open to the wider scientific community and students are particularly encouraged to attend.

Under conditions of global change and increasing use of aquatic ecosystems and resources, we need to advance scientific knowledge on ecosystems dynamics, function and processes on the basis of an interdisciplinary approach. In this context, meiofauna researchers should identify scientific knowledge gaps, key areas of research, new avenues for the discipline, and discuss the role and place of meiofauna research as part of a holistic ecological approach in environmental studies. We therefore encourage contributions from every aspect of meiofauna research but we are particularly looking forward to receiving contributions that place meiofauna into a broader, interdisciplinary, applied context of aquatic science.

We greatly look forward to your participation and to warmly welcome you in Crete in 2016.