CERF 2023 Call for Abstracts

The 2023 Call for Abstracts is Now Closed. Thank you for your submissions.

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After a successful virtual conference in 2021, we will be meeting in person as a CERF community for the first time in four years. The CERF 2023 theme is “Resilience and Recovery” in consideration of what we’ve all been through over the past few years. The conference theme reflects not only the resilience and recovery of ecosystems, but also the resilience and recovery of our own scientific society and community. The CERF 2023 Scientific Program Committee (SPC) invites you to submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation in one of the range of CERF sessions that examine new findings across CERF’s traditional scientific, management, and education disciplines. We invite attendees to submit an abstract for the jointly sponsored sessions on Estuarine and Coastal Modeling (ECM)

List of CERF 2023 Sessions and Descriptions

Register for CERF 2023

To maximize accessibility and impact of CERF 2023, all presentations will be available in an online archival library for six months after the conference. This will allow attendees who missed a specific presentation to view it after the conference. Based on our experience with CERF 2021 and the 2022 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting, we have found that there are hundreds of post-conference views of archived presentations, providing your research with greater visibility and reach. All presenters will be required to record and upload their oral presentation or provide an electronic version of their poster by the conclusion of the conference for inclusion in the conference library.


One Presentation Policy and Special Topic Sessions

To ensure that conference sessions contain contributions from as many people as possible, the Federation has a one presentation per person policy. This means that each participant is permitted to be the lead author or presenter on only one poster OR oral presentation. You may be a co-author on other presentations. The only exception to this limit is for a second abstract submitted to an education, coastal heritage/coastal humanities; or diversity, equity, and inclusion session. If you intend to submit a second abstract in any of these categories, please submit your other abstract first. You will receive a confirmation email that provides instructions on how to submit an additional abstract and the abstract fee for this second abstract will be waived.

The CERF 2023 Scientific Program Committee (SPC) invites you to submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation for CERF 2023. More information about submitting will be posted soon. 

Education Sessions

The goal of the education sessions is to highlight the role that many attendees play as educators. Presenters can be professionals at any level, including K-12, university, and informal science education. Education sessions are:

  • Artistic pathways to scientific understanding

  • Analysis and communication strategies for coastal ecosystem health report cards

  • High-impact practices in coastal and estuarine science education

Cultural Heritage and Coastal Humanities (CH/CH) Sessions

We encourage abstracts that highlight cultural stewardship and human dimensions of coastal ecosystems and communities, including working with indigenous and other subsistence coastal communities; efforts to understand climate change impacts on coastal communities; and mitigation and adaptation strategies to address coastal hazards. The CH/CH sessions are:

  • Not just checking a box: inclusive communication as a tool to engage in resiliency

  • Weaving traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and coastal science for management applications

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Sessions

Diversity, equity, and inclusion sessions highlight projects that build on or leverage inclusive culture practices or showcase the multifaceted relevance of incorporating DEI into science. Abstracts for these sessions may also highlight projects that strive toward deliberate collaboration with historically marginalized or minoritized groups, thereby strengthening coastal and estuarine research and management. The DEI sessions are:

  • Building resilience in communities, programs, and the workforce through inclusion

  • Stories from the braided river: nonlinear, enriching workforce pathways and narratives in coastal science and management

  • Case studies on inclusive opportunities

  • Growing a diverse estuarine research and management workforce


Policies and Procedures for Submitting Abstracts to CERF 2023

The abstract submission deadline is 15 May 2023 at 11:59 PM PDT (04:59 GMT). 

Any abstracts received after the deadline may not be eligible for inclusion in the conference program. Please review the following guidelines before submitting your abstract. If the guidelines are not followed, your abstract may not be accepted.

  1. SESSION: Choose your first and second choice of sessions. If you cannot find a session that is suitable for your abstract submission, select “Other” as your first choice, and we will work to find or create a suitable session for you. 

  2. TITLE: There is a limit of 15 words for the title. The title should be entered in sentence case (i.e., only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized). 

  3. PREFERRED PRESENTATION TYPES: Descriptions of each format are provided below: traditional oral is a 15-minute talk, and lightning is a 5-minute talk. Select one:

  • Traditional oral preferred, lightning or poster are acceptable

  • Lightning preferred, traditional oral or poster are acceptable

  • Traditional oral preferred, poster is acceptable (no lightning)

  • Lightning preferred, poster is acceptable (no traditional oral)

  • Poster only

  1. STUDENT PRESENTATION AWARDS: If you are a student, you can choose to have your presentation judged for the Student Presentation Awards. If so, please designate if you are a K-12, undergraduate, or graduate student. Recent graduates (i.e. within one year of graduation and without a permanent job) are eligible for awards. 

  2. RELEASE OF ABSTRACT: You must agree to the publication of your abstract in conference-related materials where it will be publicly available. 

  3. AUTHOR INFORMATION: Enter authors in the order they should appear in the abstract. Provide institutional affiliations and contact information. There is a 12 author limit per abstract. 

  4. KEYWORDS: Select up to five keywords for your submission from the drop-down menu. 

  5. ABSTRACT: All abstracts must be in English and metric units are preferred. There is a limit of 400 words for the text of your abstract.

  6. ABSTRACT FEE: Abstracts will not be accepted into the scientific program without payment. The CERF 2023 fee is $75 USD. Secure online payment is available at the end of the submission process. Please note that abstract fees are non-refundable. If the abstract fee presents a barrier that prevents you from submitting an abstract, please contact [email protected] to inquire about a waiver.

  7. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION OF PRESENTATIONS: You must agree to upload a recording of your oral presentation or electronic version of your poster presentation by the end of the conference. These will not be shown during the conference but will be available via the conference archive for six months following the conference. Details on uploading presentations will be provided after abstracts are accepted.

Presentation Formats 

There are three presentation formats:

Traditional oralEach presentation will be assigned a total of 15 minutes encompassing a 12-minute talk and a 3-minute discussion period. Given the number of abstracts the SPC expects will be submitted, some participants who request an oral presentation may be assigned a poster or lightning talk; please consider selecting these options during your abstract submission process.

Lightning: Lightning talks are 5-minute fast-paced presentations requiring the presenter to focus on the essence of what they want to communicate. To keep with the timing of other sessions, two lightning talks will occur within a 15-minute time block, with 2 minutes for questions following each lightning talk.

Poster presentationsPosters will be displayed in the exhibit hall, with poster sessions on Monday and Wednesday from 4:30pm to 7pm to allow plenty of time for interaction. Poster presenters are expected to attend their assigned poster session to meet with attendees and discuss their posters. 

The SPC reserves the right to assign abstracts to either poster or oral sessions; assignment to an oral or lightning presentation will only occur if the applicant indicates their willingness on the abstract submission form. Your understanding and cooperation are greatly appreciated. Oral sessions may consist of all traditional oral presentations, all lightning presentations, or a mix of the two.

Presenter Confirmation/Cancellation Policy

The presenting author of accepted abstracts must confirm their participation and register for the conference by 29 September 2023. For details, please see the Conference Presenter Cancellation policy


Questions/Support 

Technical questions or concerns about your submission should be directed to Todd Fake at [email protected]. Questions or concerns related to the scientific program should be directed to the SPC chairs at [email protected].


Conference Co-Chairs

John Callaway, University of San Francisco, [email protected]

John Rybczyk, Western Washington University, [email protected]


Scientific Program Co-Chairs

Treda Grayson, US Environmental Protection Agency, [email protected]

Drew Talley, University of San Diego, [email protected]

Christine Whitcraft, California State University Long Beach, [email protected]

 

Important Dates/Deadlines

Call for Abstracts Opens

Wednesday

8 March 2023

Call for Abstracts Closes

Wednesday

15 May 2023

Abstract Notifications

Wednesday

9 August 2023