Products of the conference and the workshops

The products of the conference and the workshops are planned to be:

• Background papers to be primarily published by the Encyclopedia of Earth. The background papers should describe the state-of-the-art in the respective research field, derive most important research questions and argue for topical questions to be discussed during the workshop (What do we know? Where are the main problems? How can we solve them?). All “theme coordinators” are asked to produce or coordinate a background paper and present it during the conference, and all participants are invited to submit a background article.
• The requested “authors” who are representing a more specialized research field, might also write such an article or a “commented hypothesis” paper which will hopefully be provoking and stimulating the workshop discussions focusing on “burning questions and issues”. Their contributions should be presented during the workshop and become part of the final text product.
• Updated background papers, selected articles from the workshop participants and joint synthesis chapters will be printed in a book or special issue(s). The workshop results as well as the best papers will be published in a consensual format. The different possibilities of publication (e.g. one edited book vs. one or two special issues [the journals “Biodiversity Science and Management” and “Ecological Indicators” are ready to publish special issues]) will be discussed during the workshop.
• Summarizing publication of a feature in the new journal Solutions.