International conference in cooperation with SER Europe and the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) Lower Saxony.

Open Landscapes 2013 will bring together researchers from all over the world that have a focus on open landscape habitats. The conference will cover a wide range of topics including ecological pattern and processes in undisturbed and disturbed ecosystems; consequences of global change for biodiversity and/or ecosystem services; plant-animal relationships; tools and targets for ecosystem restoration and innovative strategies for nature conservation. The focus will be given to all kinds of open landscapes including wetlands, coastal ecosystems, grasslands, wood-pastures, mountain ecosystems, agricultural landscapes and other open habitats.

The opening plenary session will be given by Paul Keddy. Other keynote speakers include Roland Bobbink, Michael Kleyer, Jan Lepš, Iris Möller and Osvalo Sala.

For more information, please visit www.open-landscapes2013.de.  Deadline for early registration and abstract submission is May 19, 2013.

Sessions cover topics such as:

1. The role of expansive native and invasive alien plants in the functioning of intact, degraded and restored freshwater wetlands
2. Climate change and mitigation in coastal ecosystems
3. Future challenges for the conservation and restoration of river landscapes
4. Conservation and restoration of grassland biodiversity at multiple scales
5. Fragmentation and management of calcareous grasslands
6. Global change impacts on European heathland ecosystems
7. The role of megaherbivores for open landscapes in Europe
8. Rewilding as tool and target in the management of open landscapes
9. Global change and nature conservation of open landscapes
10. Nutrient deposition into open landscapes
11. Ecology and conservation of open landscape habitats in Madagascar
12. Long-term sustainability of dynamic open habitats as biodiversity hotspots
13. Grazing effects on biodiversity and/or ecosystem services
14. Ecology and management of high mountain ecosystems
15. European wood-pastures in transition
16. Openness in temperate and Mediterranean forests
17. Importance of semi-natural habitats for ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes
18. Biodiversity, structure and management of arable fields across Europe
19. Target species introduction for improving the conservation status of Natura 2000 grasslands and evaluation of restoration success