Contact details

Dr Wayne K. Florence
Curator:  Marine Invertebrate Collections

Natural History Department
Iziko South African Museum
Box 61, Cape Town 8000
South Africa

Phone: +27 (0)21 481 3919
Fax: +27 (0)86 636 7156
e-mail: wflorence@iziko.org.za

Research interests

Even though marine invertebrates such as polychaetes, hydroids, echinoderms, amphipods, decapods, nudibranchs, octocorals and ascidians have been given much attention, experts working on them are unanimous in their opinion that these taxa may be significantly more diverse than those documented. At the same time, other common groups such as nematodes, protists, porifera and bryozoans have been poorly studied in South Africa and the available literature on these taxa has become largely outdated and fragmented.

Bryozoans are sessile colonial animals, which may be found in most marine habitats. Many are small, often inconspicuous and easily overlooked. Bryozoans are potential indicators of environmental health, one of the top known groups of fouling organisms globally and a source of biomedical compounds.
The global bryozoan fauna is largely unknown. Furthermore, the oft-quoted figure of 4000 species appears to be unrealistic, as approximately 1000 new species of bryozoans were described in the second half of the twentieth century and the rate of discovery exhibits no signs of decreasing. The new level of taxonomic accuracy exhibited by modern day bryozoologists, the available technology (e.g., Scanning Electron Microscopy) and the increased number of unexamined habitats being examined, explain these leaps of discovery. The known South African bryozoan fauna constitutes approximately 269 species.

My current research thus aims to document the taxonomy, diversity and biogeography of South African Bryozoans. More specifically to investigate the:

• taxonomy of the South African shallow water bryozoan fauna.
• taxonomy of the South African deep water bryozoan fauna
• bryozoan fauna associated with pelagic plastics
• alien invasive bryozoan fauna associated with South African Ports
• current diversity and regional zoogeography of South African bryozoans