The NORA Historical Ecology Working Group will be meeting online on Monday 30th November and Tuesday 1st December 2020, from 10am-3pm CET (9am-14.00 GMT). The workshops are open to existing project partners and to new participants, who would like to bring new data, expertise and/or time to the project. Please contact the group chair, Dr. Ruth Thurstan to receive further information regarding the expected contribution by collaborators.
The online workshops will support the ongoing project launched in September 2020 by the Historical Ecology Working Group, to collate and analyse information relating to the historical distribution and importance of the native oyster in Europe. The project will result in at least one peer reviewed publication and short report which will benefit those seeking to engage with new stakeholders for restoration, with developing funding bids, with site selection, as well as with broader outreach about the historical importance of native oysters. At the workshops, the existing data will be reviewed and participants will be given time to work on the database in an open and collaborative setting, allowing any issues arising from collating the data to be addressed in the group setting. Chaired discussion of the potential collaborative projects arising from the data will also be tabled in the agenda. Participants are encouraged to attend the workshops on both days, although we appreciate this may not be possible in all cases.
The Historical Ecology Working Group is delighted to be bringing together such a diverse group of experts with a common interest in elucidating the past of the native oyster in Europe. We look forward to working together to collate data from scattered archives, historical news reports, naturalists reports and other sources from across the native range of the species.
Please save the date and contact r.thurstan@exeter.ac.uk for further information or to register your interest in attending the workshops.
