Information about GAP

GAP organizes periodic Meetings that bring scientists and students of disparate backgrounds and experience together to work in diverse aquatic environments. The Meetings involve hands-on, joint field and laboratory experiments to which participants contribute state-of-the-art equipment and multiple methodologies for estimating primary productivity. This facilitates sharing of knowledge in an effective and attractive way.

GAP arose in 1980 from discussions during the SIL Congress in Kyoto. After a long day of plenaries, Zvy Dubinsky, Max Tilzer, Mitsuro Sakamoto and Tom Berman discussed possibilities for a “different kind of meeting” and the idea of GAP took shape. The GAP format is a hands-on Meeting, focusing on topics relevant to measuring aquatic primary production, intended to attract both freshwater and marine scientists. Participants bring cutting edge science equipment and methodology to actually run experiments that are later published in a peer-reviewed journal. Attendees are a mix of distinguished elder practitioners, younger scientists and students to enhance exchange of experience and expertise. In the 35 years since inception, there have been nine such GAP Meetings.

Attendees of 8th GAP meeting in Eilat, Israel

The most recent being held between 17-25 September, 2012 in Málaga (Spain) for whichthe themewas “Influence of the pulsed-supply of nitrogen on primary productivity in phytoplankton and marine macrophytes: an experimental approach”. The Meeting was coordinated by Félix L. Figueroa (Málaga University, UMA) and Jesús Mercado Carmona (Spanish Institute for Oceanography, IEO). The Meeting included oral presentations on general topics and experiments conducted in Málaga University and IEO facilities and the field (Cabo de Gata, Almería, Spain). GAP 9 attracted 85 scientists  and students  from different countries and they were organized in four working groups: (1) Phytoplankton of coastal waters, (2) microalgal biotechnology, (3) Macroalgae: experimental approach and (4) Macroalgae and seagrasses : field studies. Two years later (November, 2014) conferences and results of the experiments conducted during the meeting were published as open access papers in aspecial issue of Aquatic Biology entitled “Environmental forcing of aquatic primary productivity”. The issue contained  threereviews and fourteen original papers and it was dedicated in memoriam to Prof. Tom Berman co-founder and first Chairman of GAP who unexpectedly passed away in April 2013 during a trip to the Galápagos Islands.

The Intro of this chapter was written by Tom Berman