9418018 Hixon This award will support the participation of ten American marine ecologists at a workshop entitled "The Recruitment and Population Dynamics of Coral Reef Fishes" to be held near Townsville, Queensland, Australia, July 10 through 14, 1995. The American organizer is Dr. Mark A. Hixon from the Department of Zoology at Oregon State University. The Australian principal organizer is Dr. Geoffrey P. Jones from the Department of Marine Biology at the James Cook University of North Queensland. Both the United States and Australia have become increasingly concerned about the health of their coral-reef resources. Coral-reef fishes have become recognized as ideal model systems for furthering insight into the dynamics of marine fish populations. The idea that populations of coral-reef fishes are recruitment limited by larval supply has become both popular and increasingly controversial. Researchers from both countries have become polarized in their thinking about recruitment limitation, resulting in a conceptual stalemate that seems to be inhibiting scientific progress. By bringing together top investigators from both countries, including a selected few from Canada, Japan, France and the United Kingdom, the workshop will seek to begin the resolution of this controversy. Among the topics to be considered are appropriate spatial scales for reef fish studies, competition effects on survivorship, predation and density-dependence, recruitment limitation, and the management and conservation of reef fisheries. Australian support for this workshop is provided by the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Technology (DIST).
