KRUG LAB - EVOLUTIONARY AND LARVAL ECOLOGY OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES
Jamal Asif, M.S. 2007
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Jamal used molecular techniques to study invasive species along the U.S. Pacific coast, to reveal how many times a species was introduced and from where, helping us understand and combat the spread of non-native pests. The invasive bay mussel Arcuatula (=Musculista) senhousia forms dense mats disrupting communities on shallow mudflats. Jamal found two genetically distinct populations, one from San Francisco north and one in southern California. Different source populations contributed to the northern invasion, versus to the invasion of southern CA and also New Zealand. Our analyses indicated pre- adaptation to water temperatures predicted which lineages would colonize non-native areas, and may explain the lack of gene flow across central CA.
Acid-secreting, invasive sea slugs in the genus Philine were reported from California in the 1990s, and rapidly spread along our coast, profoundly altering benthic community composition. Up to four species were proposed to be non-native based on morphology, including a species tentatively identified as the New Zealand native P. auriformis, but this ID was controversial. Colleagues Wilma Blom and Margaret Morley collected both native New Zealand Philine species (P. auriformis and P. angazzi) for us, while specimens of the Asian species P. orientalis obtained from the British Museum. Jamal used DNA barcoding and phylogenetic approaches to show that the widespread invasive Philine in California was indeed P. auriformis, which reaches incredible densities in habitats ranging from intertidal mudflats to the L.A. Harbor and deep water of the Channel Islands. He also found that P. orientalis was present in the Bay Area, but not in southern sites. Notably, northern Japan and northern CA shared the same mtDNA lineages of A. senhousia and P. orientalis, while New Zealand and southern CA shared lineages of A. senhousia and P. auriformis; biogeography and pre-adaptation may be important predictors of marine invasion success.
See Krug et al. 2012, Biological Invasions
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Jamal gave presentations as the American Malacological Society 2006 (Seattle, WA); Larval 2006 (Oregon Institute of Marine Biology); and the Western Society of Naturalists 2007 (Ventura, CA).