UK participation at the IGBP Congress

The 4th IGBP Congress was held in Cape Town, South Africa from 5-9 May 2008. IGBP Congresses are held every four years and bring together the leadership of the IGBP community to discuss forward-looking scientific issues that cut across the programme and aid integration and synthesis. The 4th Congress was designed to aid the development of the scientific agenda for the period 2008-2013. Attendance at the Congress was by invitation only, and there were many participants from the UK IGBP community, including several sessions chaired by UK scientists. Below is a list of sessions co-convened by UK participants (highlighted).

Session A1
Coordination of intercomparision of apsects and models of the land-surface under modern and palaeo-conditions
Natalie de Noblet, Sandy Harrison, Pascale Braconnot and Pierre Friedlingstein

Session A2
Social-ecological systems analysis in a changing earth system
Laurence Mee, Bernhard Glaeser and Marion Glaser

Session A3
Interface between biogeochemistry and ecosystems
Dennis Hansell and Carol Turley

Session B4
Methane in the earth system: sources, sinks and concentrations
Torben Christensen, Stuart Piketh (tbc), Colin Prentice (tbc) and Pierre Friedlingstein (tbc)

Session C2
Climate influences and biological controls in high latitude marine ecosystems
Eugene Murphy and Eileen Hofmann

Session C3
Fire in the landscape
William Bond, Guy Midgley, Colin Prentice, Sandy Harrison and Pierre Friedlingstein

Session D2:
Modelling in coupled human-environmental systems. Integrative models for land change science and market based instruments for integrated modelling
Richard Aspinall, Tom Veldkamp and Suzi Kerr

Session D4:
Water cycle, water resources, floods and drought
Pavel Kabat, Richard Harding, Cathrine Prigent, Lydia Dümenil Gates, Dennis Lettenmeier, Jan Polcher, Eric Odada, Zbyzsek Kundzewich, Daniel Jacap and Mohammed Umer

UK Invited speakers:
Eleanor Blythe (CEH, Session A1)
Mitch Power (University of Edinburgh, Session C3)