Seventh Workshop on Trait-based Approaches to Ocean Life

The trait-based approach describes ecosystems as consisting of functional types rather than species, characterising them by a few key traits that are interrelated through trade-offs. Examples of traits are organism’s body size, feeding mode, predator-prey size ratios, optimization for fast growth due to proteome allocation, or defence characteristics. The rationale is that the spatio-temporal distribution of organisms and their functional role in ecosystems depend on their traits rather than on their taxonomical affiliation. As such, the trait-based approach has the potential to describe complex ecosystems in simple ways and to assess the effects of environmental change on ecosystem structure and function.

This workshop aims to discuss the latest research in trait-based ecology of the ocean encompassing all realms of life (e.g., phytoplankton, bacteria, fish, whales, corals). We invite scientists that use either experimental, statistical, or modelling approaches to investigate topics related (but not limited) to the following:

• Traits and trade-offs of aquatic organisms
• Distribution of organisms and/or traits in space and time
• How organisms and their traits shape ecosystem functions