Bachelor of Science (1st Class Honours)
Contact details for Mr Andrew Bentley a.bentley@griffith.edu.au
Thesis
Contemporary and historical influences on current distributions of freshwater crayfish in SEQ
Description
As one of Australia’s freshwater biodiversity hotspots, SEQ contains over fifteen species of freshwater crayfish across three genera, all except one endemic to the region. In order to understand the possible causes of this high biodiversity and bio-geographic structure, I am examining the population structure of two freshwater crayfish, Cherax dispar and Cherax depressus. Using a combination of morphological, genetic and ecological analyses, I aim to determine the contemporary and/or historical causes of the high geographic structure present and ultimately determine their vulnerability in the future.
Supervisors
- Professor Jane Hughes
- Dr. Daniel Schmidt
Research Expertise
- Population genetics
- Phylogeography
- Phylogenetics
Teaching areas
- Cell Biology and Biological Systems
- Topics in Biosciences
- Statistics
- The Ecology and Conservation of Populations
Publications
- Bentley, A., Schmidt, D. & Hughes, J.M. (2010) Extensive intraspecific genetic diversity of a freshwater crayfish in a biodiversity hotspot. Freshwater Biology, 55: 1861-1873.
- Hughes, J.M., Bentley, A., Carini, G., Cook, B.D., Masci, K., Page, T.J. & Sharma, S. (2009) Application of molecular tools for managing wild genetic research in Australian freshwater crustaceans. Proceedings of Malaysian Fisheries Society Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 2008: 43-54.