Abstracts

IAB 2013 Abstract submission

Abstracts:

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15th June 2013

The format is specified below, please also see example provided

Please indicate at the top of your abstract whether it is intended as an "Oral" presentation or a "Poster" presentation and whether you are a student

Please indicate when submitting your abstract, which of the following broad categories you feel your presentation best fits: 1) Bryophyte phylogeny and systematics, 2) Museums, Botanic Gardens and bryophyte conservation in the 21^st Century, 3) Bryophyte ecology and biogeography, 4)  Bryophyte biology, 5) Tropical bryology or 5) Bryophytes and climate change.  Presentations outside these categories will also be considered.

Abstract submission
Submit the abstract as a Word document to: j.wilbraham@nhm.ac.uk/s.pressel@nhm.ac.uk by 15 June 2013. Queries can be submitted to the same address. The document should be single spaced, Times New Roman and font size 12.

Abstract format
Abstract not to exceed 300 words.

1.      Oral/poster: Designate whether the abstract is intended for an oral or a poster presentation.  A blank line should follow this information.

2.      Title: Lower case, bold. It should be concise and informative. A blank line should follow the title.

3.      Author(s): Lower case bold. Initials before surname and without full stop and spaces. Underline the presenting author's name. Commas between names and "and" before last author. A blank line should follow the author names.

4.      Address(es) of authors: Lower case, italics. If more than one address, give number in superscript followed by address. See example. A blank line should follow the addresses.

5.      Text: No indents. Separate paragraphs with a blank line. No references in abstract. No pictures or graphs in abstracts. Please indicate word count at end of abstract.

6.      Formatting: Do not use special spacing or tabs. Make sure that the font for all text apart from special symbols is Times Roman 12 pt.

Abstracts which do not confirm to the guidelines will be returned to the authors for editing.

Abstract example
An example of a correctly formatted abstract is presented below:

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Oral presentation – Bryophyte biology.  I am a PhD student at the Natural History Museum, London

Key land plant innovations in the bryophyte clade: considerations of homology and function

S Pressel¹, JG Duckett¹, KS Renzaglia² and M Bidartondo³

¹Life Sciences, Plants Division, the Natural History Museum, London, UK; ²Plant Biology Department, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA; ³Imperial College London and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew TW9 3DS, UK

Bryophytes are the closest living relatives to the first land plants.  In this seminar we will address major questions pertaining to homology and function of some of the key innovations that drove plant terrestrialization:  stomata, intercellular spaces and fungal associations, in the bryophyte clade. 

Our data on the physiology, anatomy and development of bryophyte stomata and those of the subtending intercellular spaces, although not confirming nor negating their likely homology with the same in tracheophytes, strongly suggest a different function.  We will argue that the lack of active regulation coupled to striking anatomical and developmental features favours an ancestral role for bryophyte stomata in sporophyte dehiscence leading to spore dispersal rather than gaseous exchange.  We will conclude with a brief overview of bryophyte fungal symbioses.

Our latest discovery  that an early fungal lineage, the Mucoromycotina,  are widespread in primitive liverworts, hornworts and lycophytes  challenges  the long held paradigm that Glomeromycota formed the ancestral land plant-fungal symbioses and suggests that ancient terrestrial plants  relied on a more versatile and wider repertoire of fungi than hitherto assumed. [Word count: 175]

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Presentations

Instructions for posters

1.      Maximum size: Portrait A0 Width 841mm and Height 1189mm.

2.      Include your name and affiliation on the poster. A small photograph would aid in identification of the presenting author.

3.      Poster must remain on the poster boards for the entire duration of the conference and should be erected and removed by yourself. 

Instructions for paper presentations

A computer (PC) will be provided. If your PowerPoint presentation was created on a Mac, we recommend that you save it as a pdf file – to avoid possible changes when uploading onto a PC.

1.      Oral presentations will take the form of platform papers.

2.      15-20 minutes will be allocated for the presentation (excluding key note presentations – 30-40 minutes) followed by 5 minutes for discussion.  The exact length of the presentation will depend on demand and will be communicated to you as soon as the conference programme is finalised.

3.      Digital presentations should be submitted as a MS PowerPoint presentation.

4.      Presentations should not be larger than 25 MB.

5.      Presentations can be saved either onto a flash disk or onto a CD. If saved onto a CD, save your presentation on CD-R and NOT CD-RW DISCS. When writing your CD, ensure that it is readable on all CD drives. To be on the safe side duplicate your CD; some CD drives and written CDs simply don't communicate with each other! If using a flash disk, please make sure that standard Windows XP systems can access the flash drive without additional drivers being required.

6.      Presenters are responsible for making sure that their presentations are loaded and work on the computers in the designated venue prior to the sessions in which they will present. The projectionists will assist with this operation prior to the sessions.