Do pollution events facilitate biotic invasion in marine systems?

这个项目的目的是确定污染是否会影响生物群落对入侵的抵抗力。向沿海沃茨排放有毒物质是一个日益重要的干扰源，有可能使海洋生物群更容易受到生物入侵。该项目将确定污染事件是否促进了非本地物种的殖民化，持久性和传播，以及初始组合多样性如何改变这种反应。在植物群落中开发的几个重要的生态假说的一般性进行了测试，在海洋系统中的第一次，并扩展到包括有毒干扰的作用。

This project aims to determine whether pollution affects the biological resistance of assemblages to invasion. The discharge of toxicants into coastal waters is an increasingly important source of disturbance that has the potential to make marine assemblages more susceptible to biotic invasion. The project will determine if pollution events facilitate the colonisation, persistence and spread of non-native species and how initial assemblage diversity modifies this response. The generality of several important ecological hypotheses developed in plant communities are tested in marine systems for the first time and extended to include the role of toxic disturbances.