PLEASE CONFIRM YOUR CHOICE OF RESEARCH PAPER

Hi Everyone

Please make sure that you have booked your Research Paper for reviewing
and preparing for Power Point by the end of today. Just to remind you
there are two "A" grade papers which if you do you will get 10% bonus
and there are some shorter ones which will only be marked to 90% but are
less work. There are however, at least 10 papers that are B graded
which will be marked out of 100%. Read through the abstracts and then
download the research paper. Once selected confirm by adding your
comment to the appropriate posting.

Cheers

Rich

Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological
Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za

Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za

TORCHIN ET AL. PLEASE REVIEW

Parasites and marine invasions


Introduced marine species are a major environmental and economic problem. The rate of these biological invasions has substantially increased in recent years due to the globalization of the world's economies. The damage caused by invasive species is often a result of the higher densities and larger sizes they attain compared to where they are native. A prominent
hypothesis explaining the success of introduced species is that they are relatively free of the eåects of natural enemies. Most notably, they may encounter fewer parasites in their introduced range compared to their native range. Parasites are ubiquitous and pervasive in marine systems, yet their role in marine invasions is relatively unexplored. Although data on parasites of marine organisms exist, the extent to which parasites can mediate marine invasions, or the extent to which invasive parasites and pathogens are responsible for infecting or potentially decimating native marine species have not been examined. In this review, we present a theoretical framework to model invasion success and examine the evidence for a relationship between parasite presence and the success of introduced marine species. For this, we compare the prevalence and species richness of parasites in several introduced populations of marine species with populations where they are native. We also discuss the potential impacts of introduced marine parasites on native ecosystems.

PLEASE REVIEW DAVID'S PRESENTATION (RIGHT UNDER MENU 'STUDENT PRESENTATIONS' AND ADD YOUR COMMENTS TO THIS POSTING. I WILL TRY AND MAKE A PRESENTATION OF RIGHT AND WRONG FORMATTING. PLEASE LOOK UNDER ATTACHMENTS FOR THE NOTES AND THE ORIGINAL PAPER. YOUR PRESENTATION SHOULD LOOK AS IF PREPARED BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND NOTE THAT OTHER PEER-REVIEWED MATERIAL IS PROVIDED!

Cheers

Rich



Dr Richard Knight
Co-ordinator: National Information Society Learnerships - Ecological Informatics
Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535

Phone 27 + 21 + 959 3940
Fax 27 + 21 + 959 1237

Email Rknight@uwc.ac.za
Web http://nisl.uwc.ac.za