Most Porcelain crabs are tropical, so Prof George Branch was surprised to find a species he has never seen before under boulders in the cold waters of Saldanha Bay, a site he has sampled regularly over several decades.
A new study, led by C·I·B post-doctoral fellow Jeremy Shelton, has shown that water temperature plays a role in the impacts that an introduced fish has on native fishes.
Feral mammals impact the recipient environments in various and often devastating ways. The finding was the result of a study by former C·I·B Hons student Bianca Hagen and C·I·B core team member Dr Sabrina Kumschick at Stellenbosch University. The study, which was published in NeoBiota, classified impacts using three scoring schemes.
The most recent assessment suggests that the Cape platanna is Endangered, but that instead the decline being fuelled by habitat loss, it is now the threat from hybridisation, competition and predation by the African clawed frog.
Research conducted by C·I·B post-doctoral fellow Katelyn Faulkner demonstrates that to reduce invasions, ships travelling along high risk routes should be targeted for inspections.
