The Interim Executive Board Meeting of LifeWatch-ERIC took place in Melpignano, Lecce, during 26-29 June 2017. This meeting was the first operative session of the ERIC infrastructure, where representatives from Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Italy, decided on the strategical lines to the operative construction of the infrastructure.

A new publication implemented within the LifewatchGreece RI has just been released in Aquatic Microbial Ecology by Pavloudi C, Oulas A, Vasileiadou K, Kotoulas G, De Troch M, Friedrich MW and Arvanitidis C. 

Diversity and abundance of sulfate-reducing microorganisms in a Mediterranean lagoonal complex (Amvrakikos Gulf, Ionian Sea) derived from dsrB gene (https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01829).

Many people are unaware that the great Greek philosopher Aristotle can also be regarded as “the father of marine biodiversity”. Indeed, this “Linnaeus avant la lettre” spent a considerable part of his life studying marine species. In fact, more than 40% of the animals he studied in his zoological works had a marine origin. If Aristotle was still alive today, he would have made an excellent ambassador for modern marine biodiversity research. In recognition of Aristotle’s important contribution to philosophy and science, UNESCO declared 2016 (the year of his 2400th birth anniversary) as the “Aristotle Anniversary Year”.
 

The development of the micro-CT vLab of LifewatchGreece was presented in the 12th International Polychaete Conference that took place in Cardiff - Wales form 1st August to 5th August 2016 at the National Museum of Cardiff.

Dr Christos Arvanitidis, the scientific responsible of LifewatchGreece presented "Micro-CTvlab: A web based virtual gallery of biological specimens using micro-computed tomography". The presentation and the Book of abstracts can be found below.

The Greek Taxon Information System (GTIS), an initiative developed by the LifeWatchGreece Research Infrastructure, was presented to the 16th International Meiofauna Conference (IsIMCo) that was hosted by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Heraklion, Crete, Greece during 3-8 July 2016.

The IsIMCo conference included 69 oral presentations and 94 posters presented by 133 authors from 33 countries. They covered a wide range of research fields, such as the response of meiobenthos to environmental changes, climate change and acidification, biodiversity and ecosystem function, phylogeny and biogeography, amongst many other “hot” topics.