Preface: Biogeography and spatial patterns of biodiversity of freshwater phytoplankton

Abstract

The 17th workshop of the International Association for Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology (IAP) was held in Greece, in the Municipality of Kastoria from 14th to 21st September 2014, and its main ecological theme was the biogeography of phytoplankton and the importance of spatial scales. The main IAP objectives are to get together preeminent as well as young scientists and students working on various aspects of phytoplankton taxonomy and ecology to discuss topics of current interest, to jointly examine water samples under the microscope and practice species identification under the guidance of leading experts, and to encourage young scientists to engage in taxonomy research—a field where expertise is vanishing. Following the traditions of the IAP, close to 100 participants attended the workshop, more or less equally divided between professional scientists and students. The venue where the meeting was held provided a spectacular site located on the shore of Lake Kastoria surrounded by Macedonian mountains. The microscopy sessions in the afternoons were guided by established taxonomists and attended by keen-to-learn young scientists who jointly examined fresh and preserved samples brought by the participants. The IAP was established in 1979 (Kristiansen, 2003), and since then 16 workshops were held at different locations. Since 1991, each workshop had a well-defined ecological theme, and taxonomic topics. Proceedings of all these workshops have been published in journals with peer-reviewed articles and have played a leading role in advancing phytoplankton community ecology. Since the early 1990s, the following proceedings volumes appeared in special issues of Hydrobiologia: