You are invited to participate in, and contribute to, the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. To maintain the excellent scientific quality of this meeting, you are encouraged to begin your preparation early.

The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto. The hotel is located in scenic downtown Toronto, connected to the Toronto Underground, featuring a large variety of shops and restaurants.

There will be an exhibition at the Annual Meeting. For further information on exhibiting, contact Lori Strong (LStrong@BurkInc.com) or Sue Burk (SBurk@BurkInc.com)at the SICB Business Office 800-955-1236; (703) 790-1745; FAX (703) 790-2672.

The Annual Meeting will encompass three types of scientific sessions.

Poster sessions will be grouped by subject and presented at times designated by the SICB Program Officer. There will be three different poster sessions, two occuring on different evenings from 7-9 pm and the other session in the afternoon from 1-5 pm. Authors will be assigned to one of the three poster sessions and must be present to stand by their posters for questions and answers during this session. For poster presentations, submit an abstract and check the appropriate box.

Oral presentations will be grouped by subject and assigned a session chair by the SICB Program Officer. Each oral presentation should be a maximum of 15 minutes long, followed by 5 minutes for audience questions and comments. Speakers will be required by session chairs to adhere to time limits. For oral presentations, submit an abstract and check the appropriate box.

Symposia are pre-arranged sessions in which the speakers have been invited by the symposium organizers. If your presentation is scheduled for one of the listed symposia, check the appropriate box. There are currently 12 symposia planned for the Toronto meeting. A complete list of symposia can be found further below.

Attendees who are members of one of the contributing societies may present one oral and/or one poster presentation (two presentations total). An additional presentation may be given under any of the Integrative and Comparative Issues topics. Symposium speakers also may give one contributed oral and/or one poster presentation, in addition to their symposium presentation. Abstracts for each presentation should be submitted separately.

Students who are not members of SICB or an affiliated/cosponsoring society need the approval of a member to submit an abstract, or they may join SICB as student members. Contact the SICB Business Office or the SICB website for membership applications or help in finding a member sponsor.

Questions concerning eligibility to make a presentation should be directed to the SICB Program Officer, Stacia Sower, at sasower@cisunix.unh.edu or Sue Burk at SICB@BurkInc.com.

Abstracts can only be submitted via the World Wide Web. Please follow carefully any special instructions for inserting special characters (e.g., italics, diacritical marks, or other symbols) into abstracts submitted via the Web. SICB cannot be responsible for inserting such special characters and symbols.

Enter your name, institution, department, mailing address, telephone and FAX numbers, and e-mail address in the appropriate boxes on the Abstract/Transmittal Form. SICB will send all correspondence for the 2003 Annual Meeting to the e-mail and mailing addresses provided. If you change your address during the period between submission of your abstract and the meeting, please contact the SICB Business Office to update your records.

If you are a member of SICB, check your primary division.

If you belong to an affiliated or cosponsoring society, please indicate CSZ, ABS, AMS, TCS.

Following is the list of 2003 Symposia:

1. SICB-Wide Symposium: Selection and Evolution of Performance in Nature. Organized by: Joel Kingsolver and Ray Huey
2. Official CSZ Symposium: Biology of the Canadian Arctic. Organized by: Saber Saleuddin, Rudy Boonstra and David Hik
3. Co-Sponsored CSZ and SICB Symposium: Comparative Biology of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conduc- tance Regulator. Organized by: William Marshall
4. Co-Sponsored CSZ and SICB Symposium: Hormones and Metabolism-A Fishy Perspective. Organized by: M.M. Vijayan and Thomas W. Moon
5. PAC Sponsored Symposium: Recent Developments in Neurobiology. Organized by: Rich Satterlie
6. PAC Sponsored Symposium: NSF Integrated Research Challenge in Environmental Biology: Biological Stoichiometry from Genes to Ecosystem. Organized by: Jon Harrison
7. DCE Symposium: Mechanisms Underlying Life-History Transitions. Organized by: John Hatle
8. DCE Symposium: New Millennium Approaches to Comparative Endocrinology. Organized by: Sunny Boyd and Miles Orchinik
9. DNB Symposium: Firefly Flash Communication: Physiology and Behavior at Fifty. Organized by: Jonathan Copeland
10. DCPB Symposium: Comparative and Integrative Vision Research. Organized by: Mason Posner, Todd Oakley and Sonke Johnsen
11. DCPB Symposium: 30 years of Biochemical Adaptation: A Symposium Honoring Peter W. Hochachka. Organized by: Raul Suarez
12. DSEB Symposium: Patterns and Processes in the Evolution of Fishes. Organized by: Francesco Santini and Gustavo Ybazeta

Select whether your presentation is to be oral only, poster only, or either. Checking the "either" box will give the program officers greater flexibility.

Computer projectors will be present in all presenting and practice rooms. Please indicate if you will need a video projector (VHS and monitor) and/or slide or overhead projector for your presentation. Note that you are responsible for providing a computer for the presentation and are expected to bring slides or overheads as a backup. You are also respon- sible for computer set-up and will be expected to visit the Ready Room prior to your presentation to ensure that your presentation will work on the projector that is provided.

SICB Contributed Papers and Posters will be arranged by topic. There are eight major topic groups and each topic group contains sub-topics. It is mandatory that you select three and rank them in order of preference (e.g. A.1, A.12, D.12.1) that best characterize your presentation, so it can be grouped with similar abstracts when scheduling. The topic list is as follows:

1 cell differentiation
2 development of behavior
3 developmental morphology and morphogenesis
4 dispersal and recruitment
5 ecological development
6 larval biology and ecology
7 life cycles
8 metamorphosis
9 nervous system development
10 pattern formation in early embryos
11 regeneration
12 settlement
13 vision

B. Ecology and Behavior
1 animal communication
2 behavioral ecology
3 community ecology
4 mechanisms of behavior
5 navigation
6 non-reproductive social behaviors
7 population ecology
8 macroecology
9 predation and predator avoidance
10 reproductive behaviors
11 reproductive tactics
12 symbioses
13 vision

C. Environmental Biology
1 biodiversity
2 biogeography
3 bioindicators
4 conservation biology
5 coral reef biology
6 deep-sea biology
7 meiofauna
8 environmental ecology
9 environmental endocrinology
10 environmental toxicology
11 geographic surveys
12 pollution
13 UV irradiation

D. Evolution
1 adaptation
2 character development and evolution
3 cladistics/phylogenetic analysis
4 comparative evolutionary morphology
5 evolution of development
6 evolutionary ecology
7 evolutionary paleobiology
8 evolutionary physiology
9 historical biogeography
10 life history evolution
11 microevolution
   11.1 population genetics
   11.2 species and speciation
   11.3 sexual selection
   11.4 co-evolution
12 macroevolution
13 molecular evolution

1 biology education and teaching

2 conceptual and methodological studies

3 promise of integrative biology

4 historical studies

5 monographic systematics

6 public policy

1 adaptation

2 adhesion

3 biomechanics

4 feeding, intake, and digestion

5 functional morphology

6 growth and form

7 locomotion and movement

8 nervous system structure and function

9 sensorimotor function

1 cardiovascular physiology

2 cell and molecular physiology

3 comparative biochemistry

4 digestion and nutrition

5 energetics

6 immunology

7 metabolism

8 muscle physiology and biochemistry

9 osmotic and ionic regulation

10 respiration and acid base

11 thermobiology

12 reproductive physiology

13 signal transduction

14 vision

H. Regulatory Biology

1 comparative endocrinology

2 environmental endocrinology

3 hormone-binding proteins

4 molecular evolution of hormones and receptors

5 neuromodulators, neurotransmitters and receptors

6 osmoregulatory hormones

7 regulation of metabolism

8 regulation of growth

9 regulation of development

10 regulation of reproduction

11 regulation of behavior

12 sensory systems

13 signal transduction

14 stress

Best Student Paper Awards are given by most SICB divisions and affiliated societies. Visit the SICB website ( www.sicb.org/awards.php3#bsp) for information, and if you wish to compete, check the Best Student Paper box. If a letter is required from your advisor, forward it to the SICB Business Office indicating that it is for the award, and giving your name, e-mail address, and title of your abstract. Each submission must select a division in which to compete. You must be a member of the division which you select.

Type each author(s) name all in upper case, last name followed by initials, in the appropriate box i.e., PEARSE, J.S. (Author Box 1), BURK, B. (Author Box 2) and WAKE, M.* (Author Box 3). Use an * (asterisk) following the name of the presenting author if more than one author is listed.

Type the institution(s), and location(s) in upper and lower case in the box. DO NOT include your department, or repeat the city or state when they are already part of the institution(s) name, or the zip code when listing the address(es) of the author(s). Capitalization and punctuation must be as shown in the sample (University of California, San Diego and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC).

Enter your email address in the box.

Enter the title of your abstract in the box in upper and lower case.

Keywords are used to develop the index in the Final Program. You must use at least one, but no more than three keywords to submit your abstract. Enter them in the Keyword 1, Keyword 2, and Keyword 3 boxes. The complete keyword list will appear when you click the button.

The abstract will be published as submitted in the Final Program and in the abstract issue of Integrative and Comparative Biology . There should be no margin at the top; keep all text flush left. Enter only the single-paragraph body of the text in the abstract box. DO NOT re-enter your name(s) or institution(s)

The total number of characters including authors, institutions, email address, title, spaces, and abstract body is 2000. The abstract text-body will not be accepted if the total exceeds that number.

To be considered for inclusion in the Program, all poster, oral, and symposium submissions must be received by the SICB Business Office by September 6, 2002. Submissions for posters, oral presentations, and symposia MUST be made using the SICB website, www.sicb.org/meetings/2002/abstracts/.

The full schedule of presentations, with dates and times, will be posted on the SICB website by the end of October.

For the 2003 Annual Meeting, no abstract fee will be charged. However, those submitting abstracts for contributed papers and/or posters must register for the meeting by the deadline of November 1, 2002 in order to qualify for the discounted "Early Bird" registration rate.

SICB Program Officer: Stacia Sower, Email: sasower@cisunix.unh.edu

SICB Business Office: Toll free: 800-955-1236, FAX: 703-790-2672, Email: SICB@BurkInc.com