Conference: Support student and early professional attendance to the Species on the Move international conference

Practically all species will be impacted by climate change. Some will be affected a lot and some a little, but there is much debate about which will be which because predicting responses to changing climate is enormously complicated. It will require the combined efforts of scientists from many disciplines, working together to develop new models and other cutting-edge tools. This award will fund a conference in Florida to foster international collaboration on ways in which ecological and evolutionary impacts of climate change can be predicted and perhaps mitigated. The conference will bring together scientists with expertise in molecular biology, genetics, physiology, microbiology, and the -omics fields, as well as evolution, ecology, and ecosystems biology to address pressing gaps in knowledge related to the evolution of traits, species, and communities in the context of climate change. Attendees will address cornerstone and emerging issues pertaining to who is moving due to climate change, where they are moving to and from, and why they are moving. The conference is organized with plenary talks each morning featuring cutting edge research across each of 12 core themes. Panel discussions during the morning plenary sessions will be designed and structured to maximize exchange between academics, managers and professionals by engaging on a shared topic of interest. Each afternoon will consist of 3-4 concurrent sessions, across the 12 themes. There will be mentoring events and a pre-conference workshop to attract, train and support early-career scientists. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.