SILICAMICS 4 : Biogeochemistry, ecology and genomics of silicifiers

The SILICAMICS interdisciplinary conferences series was launched in 2015 under initiative of the international Silica Group. This group, based in LEMAR-IUEM, networked with top researchers of America, Asia, and Europe experts on the silicon cycle and the silicifiers. These conferences series aim to develop an integrative approach that includes chemistry, biogeochemistry, ecology, physiology and genomics to better understand biosilicification and silicifiers in past, contemporary and future oceans. Since 2015, a second conference (SILICAMICS 2) was held in Victoria, Canada in 2018, and a third conference (SILICAMICS 3) was organized online by colleagues in Hangzhou, China in 2021. SILICAMICS 4 will be held, once again, near Brest, France in October 2024. Among the outcomes of the three first SILICAMICS conferences are synthesis articles in Nature Geoscience (2018) and in Biogeosciences (2021) and two special issues of Frontiers in Marine sciences (2019 and 2022) that hosted more than 24 articles. The 4-day SILICAMICS 4 will focus on (1) the evolution of silicifiers during the past, (2) silicification processes and omics, (3) the ecology and biology of marine and terrestrial silicifiers, (4) processes and fluxes that control the biogeochemical cycle of silicon in the modern ocean, (5) the links between physics and biology to explain and model the success of siliceous plankton as key players of the carbon biological pump, (6) polar challenges. Built on a Gordon-like conference scheme the SILICAMICS 4 conferences invites international keynote speakers, and organises working groups of PhD students, which debate with senior scientists to build their own understanding of science.