Event Category

PhD Appraisal

Date

June 5, 2026

Time

11:00 am

Location

UTM, DV 3129 & Zoom

Biological invasions represent a major threat to biodiversity and are understudied in the marine environment. One effective way to characterize invasions is through genomic approaches, which can provide insight into where invasions originate from, whether species threaten novel ecosystems, and what the future geographic extent of the invasion may be.

For their PhD, Forbes will explore the past, present, and future of the recent invasion of the European sea lemon (Archidoris
pseudoargus), a nudibranch, in the northwest Atlantic. The invasion was first documented in Cape Ann, Massachusetts in 2017 and has since spread from Connecticut northward to Nova Scotia.

The dissertation research will ask three major questions: (1) Where in Europe did the non-native population of A. pseudoargus
originate from and how does genetic diversity within the invasive and native ranges compare? (2) What are the predatory and competitive effects in the introduced range? and (3) What will the
future extent of the introduced range be?

Because A. pseudoargus is a novel sponge predator in a
region with a low abundance of spongivores, it may have detrimental effects in the region, therefore characterizing the invasion is important. Furthermore, because less than 10 percent of
marine invasions are estimated to have been studied, this characterization will help fill a major research gap. Finally, Forbes’s work will support fundamental invasion biology theory, tackling questions such as what allows for biological invasions, how much impact species have in novel environments, and what
factors may improve the success of invasive species.

Supervisors: Cassidy D’Aloia & Kara Layton

Chair: Rob Ness