The 2018 Alabama-Mississippi Bays and Bayous Symposium Program Committee has released a call for abstracts and sessions for the Nov. 28-29 event in Mobile, Alabama.

Scientists, resource managers, elected officials or agency representatives, community action group members, industry representatives and others are invited to highlight their research findings and environmental efforts through oral presentations, individually or in group sessions, or poster presentations at the symposium.

Track topics include the following:

• Water Quality: Assessing and improving water quality to support economies, ecosystem services, culture and community resilience
• Habitat Management: Conservation and restoration for resilient ecosystem service provision to support healthy populations and communities
• Living Resources: Understanding the flora and fauna of coastal ecosystems and their contributions to ecosystem function
• Resilient Communities: Adapting to environmental changes to maintain economies, ecosystem service provision, cultural values and quality of life in the face of natural and anthropogenic stressors
• Oil Spill Research, Recovery and Restoration: Sharing research results, recovery approaches and/or successful restoration efforts related to Deepwater Horizon or other oil spills impacting the northern Gulf of Mexico

A detailed description of each track can be found in the full call for abstracts.

Abstracts can be submitted for either oral and poster presentations. The oral presentations will be 10 minutes with a 5-minute question-and-answer session following each presentation.

The committee also encourages science, research and restoration practitioners to propose full thematic group sessions, focusing on different aspects of the same project or issue. Group sessions will include a 5- to 7-minute topic introduction, four or five individual 10-minute presentations and a single question-and-answer period for all presenters.

This year’s symposium will include the 2018 Mike deGruy Bays and Bayous Symposium Student Presentation Awards in both oral and poster presentations. First-place winners will receive a $300 award, second place will receive $200 and third place will receive $100.

Abstracts must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Aug. 31. To submit an abstract, go to the event website.

The 2018 Alabama-Mississippi Bays and Bayous Symposium is sponsored by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Environmental Science Associates, Gulf of Mexico Alliance, Alabama Power Company, Hydro, LLC, and Integrated Science and Engineering. To learn more about becoming a symposium sponsor, click here.