I have a PhD in Fisheries Science, from Rhodes University, with a research focus on the reproduction of a sabellid polychaete worm that is a pest on farmed abalone locally an internationally. Over the last 20 years, my research focus has shifted mainly to resolving the taxonomy of polychaetes in South Africa. Although this taxon received much attention between the 1930s and 1960s, culminating in the publication of a >700 pp monograph on >700 species, recent work has shown that more than half these species had probably been misidentified, and may represent un discovered indigenous diversity. My research follows three main themes: 1) polychaetes that are pests on farmed molluscs; 2) polychaetes that are used as bait, and 3) polychaetes that are not indigenous to southern Africa. Within these themes, my team and I have explored aspects of taxonomy, but also reproduction and ecology.
My current research focuses on polychaetes in estuaries. In Knysna Estuary, this revolves around the reproduction and impacts of the large bait worm, Diopatra aciculata (estuarine moonshine worm), as an ecosystem engineer (i.e., how the species may influence biodiversity of other polychaetes in the estuary) and as a consumer (i.e., what does it eat, and is it competing with other invertebrate taxa in the estuary?). In the Berg Estuary, we are investigating the distribution of polychaetes in relation to environmental pollution. Exploration of the taxonomy of selected polychaetes collected both estuaries have already determined that some species reported as widely distributed in estuaries in southern Africa may have more restricted distributions, while also identifying species new to science.
There is a very small community of polychaete taxonomists in South Africa, and so I have collaborated with many international researchers, including Prof. W. Sato-Okoshi (Tohoku U); Prof. J. Williams (Hofstra U); Prof. R. Elias (Mar del Plata U); Dr E. Kupriyanova (Australia Museum); Prof. T. Struck (Oslo U); Prof. J. Zanol (Federal U of Rio de Janeiro), Prof. I. Idris (U Malaysia Terengganu), Dr W. Magalhaes (Federal University of Bahia), Dr M. Capa-Corrales (University of the Balearic Islands), Dr T. Bakken (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Dr D. Martin (Centre d'Estudis Avancals de Blanes), and Dr V. Radashevsky (A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Russia).
To date, my research team and collaborators have described 18 species new to science, with descriptions of several more currently in progress. Our next major project is to develop an online interactive key to identifying local polychaetes.