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Project

 

Whenever I stand up in front of an audience, I describe my thesis as "a combination of old fashioned ecology and developing new computer techniques to rebuild the past and predict the future of impacts of invasive species on marine rocky shores".

 

Yeah...it's a bit of a mouthful.

 

My project revolves around the alien mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis, Aulacomya atra and the alien barnacle Balanus glandula, and their spread on Marcus Island, Saldanha Bay near the city of Cape Town, South Africa. They're ecosystem engineers so they change the actual habitat physically with their own structures and provide shelter and protection for other species. Think of it as going from bungalows to skyscrapers.

 

To explore the change in habitat complexity due to aliens and the subsequent impacts on native ecology, I employ historical data from 1980 to present, use the graphic modeling suite Blender to rebuild and measure samples from years gone past, and employ equation based modeling Ecopath with Ecosim to see what will happen to Marcus Island in the future.

About Me

 

I am a PhD student at the MaRe Institute of the University of Cape Town and I'm also affiliated with the Center of Excellence for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University. My supervisors are Associate Professor Coleen Moloney, Dr. Tamara Robinson, Dr. Lynne Shannon and Emeritus Professor George Branch. I've collected them over time and keep them happy with regular updates and semi-annual boxes of candy and chocolate.

 

Home is technically across the Atlantic in Toronto, Ontario and I'm keen to go back every summer and not so keen every winter. I enjoy digital sculpting, reading, looking up tutorials on YouTube and accidentally procrastinating for hours, and I'm always chuffed to design and build new experiments. I'm learning to like writing since I can't escape it.

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