Foreword: Proceedings from The 13th International Conference on Copepoda

Abstract

The 13th International Conference on Copepoda was held from 16–21 July 2017, at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium (CMA) in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Approximately 150 participants from 29 countries convened at CMA to share their personal fascination and research interests on copepods. There was also a workshop on the Morphology and Systematics of Copepods from 10–14 July 2017, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, in conjunction with the conference. The scientific program consisted of 22 presentations in five symposia, 45 oral presentations in five contributed sessions, and 62 poster presentations. Three symposia were dedicated to Dr. Janet Bradford-Grieve, Dr. Janet W. Reid, and the late Prof. George W. Benz for their outstanding scientific contributions to marine planktonic, freshwater, and parasitic copepods, respectively. We would like to express our gratitude to Mike Schaadt (former Director of CMA), the local organizing committee (Dr. Julianne Kalman Passarelli, Dr. Danny Tang, Joey Pallares, Anthony Chan, Mildred Ronquillo, Ed Mastro, Caroline Brady, Bruno Passarelli, Shelly Moore, Prof. Ju-Shey Ho, Prof. Mark Ohman, and Dr. Regina Wetzer), the symposia organizers (Prof. Hans Dam, Prof. Mark Ohman, Prof. Rony Huys, Dr. Eduardo Suárez-Morales, and Dr. Leocadio Blanco-Bercial), and the staff and volunteers at CMA for their efforts and support. We also thank the conference sponsors, namely City of Los Angeles: Recreation and Parks, Port of Los Angeles, Friends of CMA, World Association of Copepodologists (WAC), Orange County Sanitation District, DoubleTree by Hilton San Pedro – Port of Los Angeles, Griffith Observatory, Battleship Iowa Museum, and California Science Center, for their generous patronage. This issue contains selected papers on topics ranging from behavior, symbiosis, genetics, and stress tolerance that were presented at the conference. Furthermore, the Maxilliped Lecture presented by Dr. Eduardo Suárez-Morales (Past-President of WAC) during the mid-conference tour is provided. As co-editors of this issue, we are grateful to the reviewers for their efforts which improved the quality of the manuscripts. We also extend our appreciation to the Southern California Academy of Sciences for sponsoring the publication of this issue.