20 year celebration of the Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society

Abstract

The Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS) is very active and plays a key role in helping developing regions such as China, India, Malaysia and Mexico, by organizing scientific conferences and subsequent publications. With the support of myself, three special issues of Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management journal were planned, two of which have been published using manuscripts based on oral presentations and posters originating from international workshops held in Guangzhou, China. Among them, Volume 15(1) was based upon the “5th international Workshop on Marine Environmental Change of the South China Sea (MEC 2009, Guangzhou),” which was organized by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO), sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology. This workshop has successfully been held every two years since 2001 and the resulting special issue covered a variety of topics including oceanic responses and influences on the monsoon climate in the South China Sea and surrounding Asia-Pacific region, the physical and biological environment in the Luzon Strait, and the hydrodynamic process (buoyant plume and salt water intrusion, etc.) in the Pearl River Estuary. Volume 15(2) was based on the session entitled “Linkages of lakes, rivers, estuaries and oceans: Asia-Pacific focus,” that was part of the 2010 SETAC Asia-Pacific Conference, held from 4–7 June, in Guangzhou, China. This session focused on an ecosystemic approach, emphasizing the connectivity between various aquatic ecosystems from lakes, rivers and estuaries to seas. The articles in this issue dealt with physical-biological interactions, impact of diverse environmental stressors on the South China Sea, the Pearl River Estuary, the Northern Yellow Sea, the Southern Yellow Sea, and the Yangtze River Esutary. A third special issue has been proposed based on the “12th Workshop on Ocean Color of Case 2 water in China,” which was organized by SCSIO, sponsored by the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This special issue will focus on ocean color remote sensing, including measurement and analysis of optical properties of waters, ocean color algorithm development, ocean color data application and data atmospheric correction over Case 2 water. The study area will cover inland lakes, Pearl River Estuary, South China Sea, as well as tropical Eastern Indian Ocean.Publication of these special issues appears to improve our understanding of the atmospheric and oceanic physics and ecosystem dynamics around the South China Sea and China marginal seas, and to gain worldwide attention of the environmental problems in this area, as well as to promote future academic co-operations. Future plans to establish a branch office of AEHMS in the Asia-Pacific region in Guangzhou with the help of SCSIO have been discussed, which would facilitate continuous scientific conferences and publications in the Asia-Pacific region.