Foreword
This special volume of the Italian Journal of Zoology contains a selection of the contributions presented at the 10th International Polychaete Conference, which was held 20–26 June 2010 at Lecce, Italy. The Conference organizing committee was comprised of Adriana Giangrande (University of Salento, DiSTeBA, Lecce), Maria Cristina Gambi (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Napoli), Margherita Licciano, Luigi Musco, Roberto Schirosi (University of Salento, DiSTeBA, Lecce), Loredana Stabili (CNR, IAMC, Taranto), and Luisa Nicoletti (ISPRA, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Roma).
The International Polychaete Conference (IPC) is a congress organized every three years by the International Polychaetological Association (IPA) to facilitate the exchange of experience and results among people working on different systematic, biological and ecological aspects of polychaetes. The first IPC edition was held at the Australian Museum in Sydney (Australia) in 1983, and this publication represents the latest of a series of IPC Proceedings devoted to the advances in polychaete research (see also Blake, this volume).
The topics of the 10th IPC were divided into several sections including Taxonomy, Phylogeny and Evolutionary Biology, Morphology, Reproduction and Ecology. The theme of the Conference was: ‘Polychaetes as Biological and Ecological Models: from taxonomy to applied research’, which was also the theme of a successful international polychaete course organized in 2002 at the University of Salento.
A total of 170 scientists from 24 countries around the world attended the Conference in Lecce, of which 64 were students. The attendees were housed in local hotels and B&B with the Conference taking place at the ‘Officine Cantelmo’, a facility located in downtown Lecce. The Conference was held over a six-day period with a mid-week break for an excursion along the Salento coast (S. Maria di Leuca and Otranto). During the sessions of oral contributions, plenary invited lectures, poster discussions, and the excursion, a remarkably intense and fruitful scientific exchange took place. There were 68 oral presentations at the Officine Cantelmo and 115 posters were displayed at the ‘Palazzo Turrisi’ location, an ancient magnificent building within the historical town center of Lecce. One or two invited review papers were presented daily to introduce the main themes for the oral presentations of that day.
Each paper submitted for publication in the Proceedings was peer reviewed by at least two referees and then scrutinized by the Editors. A total of 26 manuscripts were finally approved for publication. They were arranged in the Proceedings according to the following topics: Taxonomy and Systematics, Morphology and Reproduction, Ecology and Distribution. An introductory paper on the origin and history of the IPA was prepared by the past IPA's President, J. Blake, while two obituaries conclude the volume to recall and honor the memory of two great and esteemed colleagues: Phyllis Knight-Jones and Lucien Laubier.
At the end of this effort we wish to say that it has been a privilege to organize this meeting and we want to warmly thank the many people (collaborators and students) who helped in various ways with the 10th IPC organization. In addition to the committee we would like to nominate, in particular, B. Mikac, B. La Porta and Tommaso and Bruno Borsi (Area 24 s.r.l.). We are also grateful to the Bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the University of Salento, as well as to the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn for financial support for the Conference and the Proceedings.
Last but not least, we wish to thank all the reviewers of the submitted papers who helped in increasing the scientific quality of the published contributions, as well as Julie Weston (Taylor & Francis) for her constant kindness, thorough help and infinite patience during the Proceedings production process.
Ad majora semper!
The Editors of the 10th IPC Proceedings
Adriana Giangrande (University of Salento,
DiSTeBa, Lecce, Italy)
Maria Cristina Gambi (Stazione Zoologica
Anton Dohrn, Napoli, Italy)
Greg W. Rouse (Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, CA, USA)