Modelling growth and form of sessile marine organisms

Support is requested for a workshop on Modelling Growth and Form of Marine Sessile Organisms, such as stromatolites, algae, and metazoans including stony corals, hydrocorals, octocorals, sponges, etc. Simulation models of growth and form represent an important option, along with experimental observations, for studying morpholocial plasticity and the impact of the physical environment on growth and form of clonal organisms. A better understanding of this morpholocial plasticity is crucial for biodiversity and bio-monitoring studies. We believe that research in marine ecology will benefit enormously from new methods being produced by current research in computational science. For this workshop, to our knowledge the first on this topic ever organized, we propose to bring together about 20 scientists from a wide range of disciplines including developmental biology, paleontology, ecology, computer science, physics, and mathematics, who have research interests in modelling the development of algal and metazoan forms. The aim of the workshop is to discuss a number of fundamental questions in modelling and simulation of growth and form of marine sessile organisms, to give a state of the art view of this field, to exchange methods and ideas and to plan collaborative research.