Pests and Biosecurity

Growing global populations and increasing international trade are leading to the spread and proliferation of pest species around the world at unprecedented rates. Our team works closely with industry and government agencies to help manage emerging and established pest species impacting aquatic and terrestrial environments and agrosystems.

Population genomics, eDNA, and quantitative experimental approaches we focus on improving knowledge of:

Invasion pathways and invasive distributions
Pest interactions with endemic flora and fauna
Pest evolution and responses to environmental change
Vector competencies in pathogen carrying pests
Modes of reproduction and host ranges
Developing genomic resources to assist the detection and monitoring of pest and native species

Published Work

Sherman, C.D.H., Lotterhos, K.E., Richardson, M.F., Tepolt, C.K., Rollins, L.A., Palumbi, S.R. and Miller, A.D., 2016. What are we missing about marine invasions? Filling in the gaps with evolutionary genomics. Marine Biology, 163(10), p.198.

Richardson MF, Sherman CDH, Lee RS, Bott NJ, Hirst AJ (2016) Multiple vectors drive range expansion in an invasive marine species. Molecular Ecology. 25: 5001-5014. DOI 10.1111/mec.13817

Hill M. P., Hoffmann A. A., Umina P. A., Cheng X. and Miller A. D. (2016) Genetic analysis along an invasion pathway reveals endemic cryptic taxa, but a single species with little population structure in the introduced range. Diversity and Distributions 22, (57-72).