The West Coast National Park (WCNP) is a unique marine protected area along the west coast of South Africa. Unfortunately the park faces many threats including pollution, urbanization, industrialization and invasion by marine alien species. One such an alien species is Sagartia ornata, a sea anemone native to the Mediterranean, Britain and Western Europe.
What would researchers at the Centre for Invasion Biology and students of the UCT’s new Environmental Humanities MPhil course have to say to each other?
Making decisions about the clearing of invasive alien plants is not an easy process. Despite a plethora of academic literature and practical examples, managers continue to rely on experience and anecdotes instead of using scientific findings.
The alien barnacle Balanus glandula has been rapidly spreading down the South African west coast and recently moved east around Cape Point. This left researchers wondering how it is able to spread so far and why it is spreading so fast.
A new study led by C·I·B associate Franz Essl (University of Vienna) and published in Ecography provides the first comprehensive assessment of the environmental and anthropogenic (caused or produced by humans) factors driving bryophyte invasions worldwide.
