Nominator's project description
| Transportation of alien species by global trade into new habitats is one of the major threats to global biodiversity and ecosystems. Some of these species experience rapid population growth after arrival in the new habitat, thereby extinguishing resident species and disrupting important ecosystem functions. The increase of global trade and climate change lead to an increasing probability of such harmful outbreaks. Dr. Briski has devoted her research to the ecology of biological invasion in aquatic ecosystems with particular reference to the Lawrentian Great Lakes. Interestingly, the Ponto-Caspian region has been identified as one of the most important donor regions of invasive aquatic biota both for North America and for central and northern Europe. Dr. Briski’s project at Kiel will perform comparative studies of the environmental requirements and ecophysiological abilities of phylogenetically related and functionally similar species from the Ponto-Caspian seas, the Baltic Sea and the North American coastal waters in order to explain the invasion success of Ponto-Caspian species. |
