The 5th Congress of the International Society for Applied Phycology: strengthening algal industries for the future. (Sydney, Australia)

Abstract

Hosted for the first time in Australia, Sydney welcomed 285 delegates from 34 countries to the 5th Congress of the International Society for Applied Phycology. Australia has maintained a strong representation within ISAP membership as well as on the executive committee; most notably with two presidents, Prof Michael Borowitzka a past president, and Dr. Susan Blackburn, the current president. By hosting the Congress in Australia ISAP was able to actively engage more of the Australian phycological research activities into the community of applied phycologists; in order to grow the society in its role to increase and disseminate the knowledge of algae and its applications. In Australia, as elsewhere, there are many phycologists who do not regard their work as applied. However the term Bapplied^ could effectively be considered a metaphor for multidisciplinary research where basic phycological disciplines such as taxonomy, biology and photophysiology cross into environmental management, climatic processes, animal and plant biochemistry, bioremediation and cultivation. In this way it is hoped that the Society can continue to cross fertilise knowledge across continents and fields of research through its triennial congresses, that progress applied phycology to real world outcomes. Previous ISAP Congresses represent a trajectory of development towards increasing the role of applied algal biotechnology in a commercial, remedial or regulatory context; starting in 2002 with the theme of BA Sea of Opportunity . The scope at this Congress was to appreciate the phycological diversity and an abundance of potential applications. This was further developed towards the third congress with the agenda for novel applications of algae in 2008, while in 2011 in Halifax the challenges of taking the ideas from the beaker to the world were addressed as the challenges of scaling. In 2014, the theme of ISAP was chosen to reflect on the actual successes of algae applications. We are no longer talking about the potential for algae to be applied in relevant ways for a future of sustainable biotechnologies, but that algal applications already represent a sustainable and relevant field of biotechnology with successful industry development. However there remain gaps that block the specific adoption or potential strength of algal industries and regulatory applications. Thanks to the global community of ISAP on the Executive Committee as well as local recruitment to the Local Organising Committee, ISAP2014 featured a record 189 presentations and 123 posters across twelve themes; ten of these themes are represented in this volume of the Journal of Applied Phycology (Fig. 1). Just by chance it turns out that these publications are equally represented across both microalgal and macroalgal articles (Fig. 1); representative of a shift that has seen the common ground emerge for applications of both macroalgae and microalgae under the banner of the ISAP. There had been somewhat of an historical divide in the research across these two classifications, but ISAP provides a unique framework where both of these fields of research can exchange ideas and learn from each other. Indeed the promotion of both microalgal and macroalgal applications has a bigger voice than each on their own; microalgae being smaller in production biomass but bigger on research effort in recent years, while macroalgae are a significant global crop in both biomass and value. Diverse algal applications were well represented across the fields of research and endeavour of the four eminent keynote speakers. To open the event, Prof Paul Falkowski of Rutgers * Pia C. Winberg pia@uow.edu.au