General Themes

The conference themes include one topic for which we will have invited speakers discuss the current state of the science, including a review of Mars and comparison with terrestrial analog experience, strategies, datasets, types of observations, limitations, etc. Other invited talks will focus on geological settings of current candidate sites, instrumentation and operations capabilities of the Mars 2020 mission, and future instrumentation development. At the end of the conference there will also be a short session where, as a group, we will discuss a synthesis of the recommendations to come out of the conference in the form of a listing of key questions, future research directions, and urgent needs for life-seeking missions.

Submitted abstracts should discuss one of the following topic areas:

Signatures of past life as we know it:
Terrestrial biosignatures (organic molecules, minerals, macro structures/textures, micro structures/textures, chemistry and isotopes) and how they would look in a martian context. Within these six groups, specifically examining:

• Geologic settings and taphonomy:  Why do biomarkers dominantly occur in particular settings? What are the prospects for occurring in different settings?
• Micro- to macroscale evidence:  Biosignature detection and analysis from orbital, outcrop and sample-scale perspectives
• Extrapolation to Mars:  What do we think we can assume about a hypothetical Mars biosphere? What are the important differences for biosignature formation and preservation on Mars?

Fundamental comparison of Earth vs. Mars from a paleobiology perspective:

• Degrees of habitability and the impact on biosignature formation
• Habitable environments through time on Mars and Earth
• Preservation:  martian diagenetic processes and likely consequences for biosignature preservation (including analog studies)

Surface environments, shallow, and deep subsurface environments — paleobiological prospects:

• Terrestrial record of ancient microbial biosignatures in surface settings (including subaqueous and pedogenic), shallow crustal settings, and deep crustal settings
• Habitability and preservation potential of surface and subsurface settings
• Terrestrial case studies of ancient biosignatures in subsurface settings