Australian Freshwater Molluscs Workshop
Location: Morton Bay Research Station on North Stradbroke Island
Dates: 27th November (late afternoon) to 29th November 2009 immediately following the Molluscs 2009 meeting.
Workshop organizer: Dr Winston Ponder
Other scientists participating in running the workshop were Dr Frank Koehler and Dr Hugh Jones.
Freshwater molluscs are important components of many Australian freshwater ecosystems. Some are common and widespread but many have very short ranges. A number are currently endangered, some are recently extinct and exotic species are increasingly a problem. A few native and exotic species are implicated as disease carriers for stock and in Asia some are important carriers of diseases in humans. Some are important environmental indicators for monitoring impacts and others are indicators of the long-term environment.
Outline of Workshop topics
- General introduction – including the Australian fauna in a global context and diversity
- Overview of the main groups
- Identification – families, genera and, in some groups, species.
- Resources for species-level identification
- Environmental constraints
- Biogeography
- Conservation – general and special issues
- Exotic species and their impacts
- Freshwater molluscs as disease carriers
- Collection methods (with demonstrations in the field)