Oral Sessions

All abstracts for the oral sessions may be found here.

Session 1: Patterns & Processes in Pondscapes

Chair: Matt Hill

Plenary speaker: Nigel Willby (University of Stirling, UK)

This session will focus on studies of pond metacommunities and and will consider the community assembly factors and processes that structure species assemblages across pond   landscapes and within pondscapes over time. The session will include both pure and applied studies and will cover a range of European settings.

Session 2: Advances in Pond Monitoring

Plenary speaker: Marlene Pätzig (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research)

Chair: Helen Greaves (Pond Restoration Research Group, UCL, UK)

In contrast to lakes, our understanding of seasonal, inter-annual and decadal changes to pond chemistry, biology and habitat structure are poorly understood. Nevertheless, effective pond conservation relies on our understanding of the how and why of ponds change over time. This session will focus on recent advances in pond monitoring including use of eDNA, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), eco-acoustics and advanced logger systems and their potential uses in pond research and monitoring work, alongside and combination with traditional monitoring approaches. 

Session 3: Urban and Artificial Ponds

Plenary speaker: Beat Oertli (HEPIA, CH)

Chair: Richard Walton (Newcastle University, UK)

This session will gather together experiences from diverse European cities to demonstrate how urban waterbodies can contribute to biodiversity conservation, and at the same time provide multiple ecosystem services. Presentations will include cases studies, and more integrative investigations and will cover fundamental and applied research on biodiversity, hydrology and chemistry, technical aspects, social sciences and policy.

Session 4: Pond Conservation and Management

Plenary speaker: Jeremy Biggs (Freshwater Habitats Trust, UK)

Chair: Alan Law (University of Stirling, UK)

This session will focus on pond conservation science and practice including new pond creation, re-wilding, pond restoration and management and the resurrection of ghost ponds. The aim of the session is to showcase pond conservation work as it is being undertaken across a range of European situations and habitat types and to exchange science findings and ideas on best practice.