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| April 2007 |
Feature |
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Student takes close look at alien species traveling to Antarctica
Stellenbosch University student Jennifer Lee can't wait to spy through the luggage of her fellow scientists going along with her to Marion Island in April. Or to use her remote controlled submarine-camera to see what alien species are carried from South Africa to the sub-Antarctic on the hull of the South African National Antarctic Programme support vessel, SA Agulhas. Lee, whose passion for the Antarctic brought her from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom to Stellenbosch University, recently returned from her first visit to the icy continent. She will be leaving for her third visit to Marion Island in April along with the rest of the visiting scientific team. An MSc student in zoology in the Department of Botany and Zoology's DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology (CIB), Lee's research entails quantifying and describing the propagule load carried into the Antarctic region by the South African logistics operation. Her project, part of the International Polar Year 2007 (IPY) project "Aliens in Antarctica", studies the movement of alien species across the Antarctic region through time and space. Her research, which is concerned primarily with conservation biogeography, is one of the few officially endorsed IPY projects in which South African scientists are involved. She works on both terrestrial introductions, in the form of seeds, insects and plant material transported within cargo containers, fresh food and the field equipment of expedition members; as well as marine organisms which are associated with the hull of the Red Taxi.
During each voyage she literally goes through the luggage of passengers with tweezers to see what they unwittingly bring with them. She doesn't miss a corner of a pocket or a piece of Velcro - that's prime research territory! "It's usually the adventurous types, who use the same equipment on Marion that they used to do research in other Antarctic regions, who are responsible for most of the finds," she explains. In a later part of her research she will also look at the cargo of the ships that will assist with the construction of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Halley VI research station in Antarctica. Many of the material for this project are sourced in South Africa. Her project is the first to track the development of hull fouling assemblages from immediately after a vessel leaves the dry dock through all annual relief voyages. She looks at what alien species the SA Agulhas couriers to the region and what happens to the diversity and abundance of these species as the ship passes through the rough and icy waters. Species that survive the ride could become invasive and disrupt the sensitive ecosystems of the Prince Edward islands and Antarctica. One of her main findings so far has been that the SA Agulhas has gone to Antarctica and Marion Island several times with a sea-chest packed with the highly invasive Mediterranean mussel. Although this species is unlikely to be able to reproduce in the icy waters of Antarctica, there is a chance it could become established in the comparatively warmer waters off Marion Island. This work will be published later in the year in the journal Marine Ecology Progress. Ultimately, the research is aimed at creating a map of risk, containing the routes and quantity of all vessels, aircraft and passengers that enter and move through the Antarctic.- Stellenbosch More information:
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Engela
Duvenage, Media: Faculty of Science, Stellenbosch University