Welcome to EUROLAG11 in Iceland

18 – 21 of August 2026

EUROLAG11 will take place in Reykjavík, Iceland, 18 – 21 of August 2026, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and managers working on lagoons, estuaries, and coastal transitional waters. The conference will include three days of presentations, posters, and discussions, followed by an optional excursion.

Lagoons, estuaries and coastal transitional waters play an important, buffering role between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Those complex, dynamic, and diverse waterbodies are usually under great anthropogenic pressure due to their productivity and location at the coastline at the same time they provide numerous goods and services.

EUROLAG is being held in Iceland for the first time, and we warmly invite contributions from across Europe and beyond. We are particularly interested in research exploring how warming trends and their associated impacts are shaping lagoons and coastal waters, including the growing occurrence of non‑native species.

We welcome studies examining how these changes influence ecological quality elements in lagoon and coastal ecosystems—what we have learned so far, the challenges we face, and the implications for the future. Contributions addressing monitoring, conservation, management, and integrated assessment of lagoons, estuaries, and other transitional waters are also highly encouraged.

Keynote speakers

Henn Ojaveer

International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)

Keynote lecture

Human-induced Changes in Marine Coastal Ecosystems: Climate Change Impacts and Non-indigenous Species Invasions

Marine ecologist and internationally recognised expert in marine biodiversity, ecosystem change and biological invasions, with a particular focus on climate change and human pressures on coastal and marine ecosystems.

Jónas Páll Jónasson

Head of Demersal Division, Marine and Freshwater Research Institute

Keynote lecture

Coastal lagoons and transitional waters of Iceland

Research expertise includes Icelandic scallop, Nephrops and other commercially important invertebrates, as well as the life history of juvenile fish.

Guðbjörg Ásta Ólafsdóttir

University of Iceland Research Centre of the Westfjords

Keynote lecture

Nearshore Nursery Habitats and Their Role in Sustaining Fish Populations

Research expertise spans marine fish ecology and conservation, coastal nursery habitats, movement ecology, population resilience and marine management.

Programme

EUROLAG11 takes place in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, from 18–21 August 2026. Select a day below to view the programme. Presentation abstracts and further information are available in the conference abstract book.

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

09:15–09:45

Registration

09:45–10:00

Opening Remarks

10:00–10:30

Jónas Páll Jónasson — Keynote

10:30–11:00

Coffee break

11:00–11:15

Sæmundur Sveinsson — Icewater - Implementation of the first River Basin Management Plan in Iceland

11:15–11:30

Eva Margrét Jónudóttir — From Good Intentions to Public Investment: Evidence Needs for Nature-Based Solutions Management

11:30–11:45

Donata Canu — Interactions between hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry and mercury cycling in the Venice Lagoon under climate change and adaptation scenarios

11:45–12:00

Burak Kaynaroglu — EUTROPY: An Open-Access Ecological Model for Nutrient Dynamics and Ecological Quality Assessment in the Curonian Lagoon

12:00–12:15

Matteo Zucchetta — Satellite-Based Monitoring of boat traffic in coastal lagoons: Multi-Year Dynamics in the Venice lagoon.

12:15–12:30

Anita Lewandowska — PM1 and PM2.5 aerosols in the atmosphere of the Port of Brest (2023-2024)

12:30–13:30

Lunch break

13:30–13:45

Sergej Olenin — Arctic paraglacial lagoons as emerging transitional ecosystems: lessons from Eidemlaguna, Svalbard

13:45–14:00

Aurore Moulin — Integrated approach combining spatial analyses, statistical relationships and hydro-thermo-saline modelling to investigate the future trajectories of small Mediterranean coastal lagoons

14:00–14:15

Marija Kataržytė — Microbiological Water Quality in the Recreational Waters of the Curonian Lagoon

14:15–14:30

Marijn Tangelder — Ecosystem Response of Enclosed Former Estuaries to Damming and Sluice-management: Case of Lake Veere and Lake Grevelingen in the Netherlands

14:30–14:45

Luísa Magalhães — Environmental drivers of parasite spillover in a coastal lagoon: the case of Mytilicola orientalis in Ria de Aveiro

14:45–15:05

Coffee break

15:05–16:30

Poster Presentations

16:30

Poster Session

Wednesday, 19 August 2026

09:30–10:00

Henn Ojaveer — Keynote

10:00–10:15

Ragna Guðrún Snorradóttir — Transitional waters in Iceland – Defining typology and developing a classification system.

10:15–10:30

Sindri Gíslason — Marine and Estuarine NIS in Iceland: Current Overview

10:30–11:00

Coffee break

11:00–11:15

Coline Jotz — Inlet, mouth or channel : An investigation into the terms used to refer to the same geographical feature

11:15–11:30

Laure de Montety — MADEinIce: Maerl Bed in Iceland, the hidden biodiversity hotspot.

11:30–11:45

Bylgja Sif Jónsdóttir — Baseline Assessment of Pelagic and Benthic Ecosystems in Hvalfjörður, with Emphasis on Shallow Water Habitats

11:45–12:00

Francesco Zangaro — eDNA metabarcoding to assess Albanian Narta Lagoon biodiversity and ecological communities dynamics under natural and anthropogenic pressures

12:00–12:15

Karl Gunnarsson — Gilsfjörður; from fjord to coastal lagoon

12:15–12:30

Artūras Razinkovas-Baziukas — Coupling individual-based fish dynamics with social-ecological systems analysis along the river–lagoon–sea gradient: integrating Salmopy and MosaicSES

12:30–13:30

Lunch break

13:30–13:45

Jón S. Ólafsson — Biodiversity of saltmarsh ponds and the linkage between fresh- and brackish water ecosystems

13:45–14:00

Erna Lava Olsen — Project sampling in a Faroese fjord becomes monitoring

14:00–14:15

Sissal Vágsheyg Erenbjerg — Investigating Shelf-Fjord Processes in the Faroe Islands on the Faroe Shelf in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean with a Nested Version of FarCoast version 2 (ROMS) from 2 km to 130 m

14:15–14:30

Hermann Dreki Guls — Harbours of Iceland: anthropogenic pressures in sheltered coastal waters

14:30–14:45

Célia Laurent — Modelling benthic vegetation and sediment dynamics and biogeochemistry in shallow coastal waters with the SEABED library coupled to SHYFEM-BFM

14:45–15:05

Coffee break

15:05–15:20

Svanhildur Egilsdóttir — From introduction to establishment: Tracking the progress of Melanochlamys diomedea in Iceland

15:20–15:35

Marco Bajo — Simulating Venice Lagoon Dynamics: The Impact of Salinity and Temperature Assimilation

15:35–15:50

Pierpaolo Campostrini — An integrated framework for assessing risk and resilience along the land-coast-lagoon continuum under climate change in the Venice Lagoon (IT)

16:45

Visit to the local swimming pool
Take a dip in the local geothermal pool Suðurbæjarlaug and experience Iceland's unique swimming pool culture, recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

18:15

Social event at Ægir Brugghús
Food & drinks served. A chance to unwind, meet fellow participants and enjoy the evening together.

Thursday, 20 August 2026

09:30–10:00

Guðbjörg Ásta Ólafsdóttir — Keynote

10:00–10:15

Áki Jarl Láruson — Diversity across small scales: do coastal areas harbour intraspecific genetic diversity? An exploratory case study with Icelandic sugar kelp.

10:15–10:30

Anja Katrin Nickel — Divergent thermal modulation of juvenile cod and saithe in subarctic nearshore nurseries

10:30–11:00

Coffee break

11:00–11:15

Ingibjörg G. Jónsdóttir — The importance of Icelandic fjords as nursery grounds for juvenile fish

11:15–11:30

William Butler — A haul-level Bayesian state-space model for estimating juvenile cod abundance and mortality from survey data

11:30–11:45

Elzbieta Baranowska — Nursery grounds of juvenile plaice in Icelandic waters

11:45–12:00

James Kennedy — Don´t blame it on the moonlight: How does daylight, depth and lunar cycle influence migratory behaviour of lumpfish around the coast of Iceland

12:00–12:15

Magnús Thorlacius — Assessing the impact of bridges across fjords on juvenile gadoids

12:15–12:30

Hildur Magnúsdóttir — Far-field impacts of sea-pen aquaculture of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in an Icelandic fjord

12:30–13:30

Lunch break

13:30–13:45

Irene Guarneri — The last two millennia: an oyster narration

13:45–14:00

Kamila Styrcz-Olesiak — The macrozoobenthic role to the coastal filtering capacity of the Vistula River plume

14:00–14:15

Lilja Gunnarsdóttir — Ascophyllum nodosum (Rockweed) harvesting in Iceland – history and global context

14:15–14:30

Elisabeth J.M.H. Bernard — Peatland

14:30–14:45

Pierpaolo Campostrini — Waterbirds as early indicators of Nature-based Restoration in the Venice Lagoon (REST-COAST project)