Molluscs 2018

The conference was held at The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (aka ‘Te Papa’), in Wellington, New Zealand, from December 2-5, 2018.

This was the first time the MSA’s triennial conference will be held in New Zealand, and we warmly welcomed malacological scientists, students, managers, and enthusiasts!

Download the Molluscs 2018 Program and Abstract Handbook

Conference Report:

A great triennial MSA conference was held in early December 2018 at the Museum of New Zealand Te
Papa Tongarewa in the beautiful city of Wellington.

This was well attended with excellent plenary and concurrent sessions covering many interesting topics.
Keynote speakers at Molluscs 2018 were: Dr. Phil Ross (University of Waikato, New Zealand), a marine
ecologist focussing on human impacts on the environment and sustainable use of natural resources. His talk looked at the endangered surf clam Paphies ventricosa, known as Toheroa, its distribution and cultural significance and the factors impeding its recovery from past overharvesting; Dr. Serean Adams (Cawthron Institute, New Zealand), an aquaculture scientist, spoke on the green-shell mussel Perna canaliculus and the Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas; Associate Professor Amy Moran (University of Hawaii) a malacologist and ecologist, discussed physiologic effects of temperature and oxygen availability on molluscan development by comparing Antarctic to temperate species (the former have
increased growth through oxygen-rich colder water but with often extreme cold-related slowing of metabolism) and the implications of climate change on these processes; Dr. Satoshi Chiba (Tohoku University, Japan), discussed direct and indirect effects of multiple invasive species on the extinction of native lad snails in the Ogasawara Islands, Japan; Professor Robert Cowie, University of Hawaii, discussed the current biodiversity extinction phenomemon (differing from previous earth history extinction events by being caused solely by human activities) and how molluscs (being widespread and leaving behind lasting traces of their presence through their shells) have informed this study; and Professor Pauline Ross, University of Sydney, spoke on molluscan resilience to the environmental stressors of increasing temperatures and ocean acidification, using the Pacific Rock Oyster and the
Sydney Rock Oyster as experimental models.

The standard of student presentations was exceptional at the 2018 conference – several long-term attendees were overheard making this observation! This certainly gave our much-appreciated judges a bit of a headache, but in the end there were two joint winners:

• Kara Layton (The University of Western Australia), for her presentation ‘Using exon capture to tease apart recently radiated mimetic seaslugs’, and
• Priscila Salloum (The University of Auckland), for her talk entitled‘Understanding local adaptation of Onithochiton neglectus (Polyplacophora: Chitonidae) across an environmental gradient based
  on genetic, genomic and morphological data’.

An honourable mention was also given to Regan Fairlie (Manaaki Te Awanui) for his presentation on ‘The environmental history of Tauranga Moana’, with the judges commenting on his excellent presentation style. Congratulations to all of our student presenters!