The first joint meeting of the gtö and the ATBC will be held in the medieval city of Marburg, located in the center of Germany, from July 27-30, 2009. Concentrating the strength of two renowned international societies is an excellent opportunity to profoundly foster international collaboration in the field of tropical ecology. For that reason, gtö has decided to postpone the traditional February meeting to late July 2009, the common date of the annual ATBC conference.

The University of Marburg, particularly the faculties of biology, geography and ecomomy will host the meeting at the main lecture hall building of the university.

The truly interdisciplinary theme of the meeting will be "IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMS - CROSS-CUTTING THE ABIOTIC, BIOTIC AND HUMAN SPHERES".

Tropical biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services are directly and indirectly threatened by a broad variety of human activities, especially by land use and global climate change. Concerning these threats, a great challenge in current ecological research is to gain a sound scientific understanding of biotic-abiotic-human interactions and feedback processes in the complex and highly diverse tropical ecosystems. Comprehensive knowledge in these fields forms the basis to halt the accelerating biodiversity loss in the tropics, and to mitigate impacts of global change on the abiotic, biotic and human spheres. Moreover, sustainable management options particularly adapted to the vulnerable tropical ecosystems are needed to conserve biodiversity and its underlying ecosystem processes. Only this can retain and regain ecosystem goods and services, necessary to improve livelihood of local communities and to contribute to global human well-being. Recently, the controversial discussions concerning agrofuels as well as the progressive proliferation of invasive species and tropical diseases highlights the rapidly increasing interrelations between tropical ecosystems and concerns of outer tropical societies. Consequently, the joint annual meeting of gtö and ATBC hold in Marburg will provide an interdisciplinary platform for intensive discussion on the following main topics.

1. Biodiversity and ecosystem processes
2. Interactions in a changing world
3. Consequences of land use changes in the tropics
4. Ecosystem demands and services

Conference key figures:

Time schedule:

Sunday July 26, 2009:	Registration, 10:30 to 18:00 at the Hörsaalgebäude Biegenstrasse 18:30 Ice Breaker at Landgrave Castle, Marburg
Monday July 27 to Thursday July 30, 2009:	Scientific program

Venue:
Main Lecture Hall Building "Hörsaalgebäude" Audimax, University Marburg, Biegenstr.7, Marburg, Germany

Organization committee:

Chairpersons: Jörg Bendix, Gerhard Kost

Members:
Michael Kirk
Prija Davidar
Nina Farwig
Elisabeth Kalko
Eduard Linsenmair
Miguel Martinez-Ramos
Pia Parolin
Hans ter Steege