Home arrow Staff arrow Dave Schoeman
Prof. Dave Schoeman PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 21 November 2006

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Dave Schoeman (aka Boz)

Contact

Room 03-023, Biological Sciences Building, Westville Campus

Private Bag X5400, Durban, 4000, South Africa

Tel: +27 31 260 3183(w) +27 78 4587666 (m)

Fax: +27 31 260 2029

E-Mail: schoeman(at)ukzn.ac.za

 

Qualifications

B.Sc. Cum Laude (University of Port Elizabeth)

B.Sc. Hons. Cum Laude (University of Port Elizabeth)

M.Sc. Cum Laude (University of Port Elizabeth)

Ph.D (University of Port Elizabeth)

 

Modules taught

2006:

 BIOD340 — Marine Science

 BIOL381 — Ecology, Diversity and Conservation

 BIOL884 — Coastal Ecology

2007-present

BIOL300 — Professional Communication for Biologists (also Module Coordinator)

BIOL341 — Marine Systems (also Module Coordinator)

BIOL884 — Coastal Ecology

 

Research Interests

  The central theme in my research thus far has been anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems. This leads from my belief that ecologists have a responsibility to ensure that their work holds broad relevance not only to contemporary society, but also to that of future generations. I have therefore actively sought opportunities to engage with environmental issues of wide social interest, focusing particularly on those operating over large spatial and temporal scales, such as fishing, climate change and conservation initiatives. My past and current research initiatives include:

Impacts of global climate change on marine ecology

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The area of the North Atlantic for which we have data that can be used to test hypotheses regarding the impacts of climate change and overfishing; also illustrated are various players in the food web.
Working at the near-basin scale with large biological and environmental data sets, Anthony Richardson and I demonstrated that marine planktonic communities of the North-east Atlantic experience predominantly bottom-up forcing and that region-specific responses to climate change are mediated by historical oceanographic conditions (Richardson and Schoeman 2004).
  Ongoing collaborations with Anthony Richardson (CSIRO, Brisbane), Reg Watson (Fisheries Center, UBC) and Richard Matear (CSIRO, Brisbane) are extending this type of analysis to global scales and including higher trophic levels (fish). The intent is to model biotic-abiotic relationships over the past 50 years (complete) and to use these, in combination with GCM outputs under different climate-change scenarios (nearing completion) to investigate potential impacts on the future distribution of productive fishing grounds. This work is ongoing, with many analyses well advanced.

Sandy beach ecology

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Maitlands River beach; my intellectual home.
  Globally, amongst the most heavily utilized of coastal habitats are ocean-exposed sandy beaches. They face not only climate-change impacts, but also encroachment by urban development (Schlacher et al. 2006, 2008, Defeo et al. fin prep), as well as other often-conflicting demands from recreational, subsistence and commercial sectors (Schoeman 1996). At the same time, beaches are among the least understood of marine systems in an ecological sense (Schlacher et al. 2008). My work has concentrated on critically evaluating and improving sampling (Schoeman et al. 2003, 2008, Schlacher et al. 2008), experimental (Schoeman et al. 2000, Schlacher et al. 2008) and analytical (Schoeman and Richardson 2002, Schoeman et al. 2008) approaches to beach ecology.
  My current research on beaches aims to build from these theoretical advances to quantify the impacts of coastal squeeze (the phenomenon whereby beaches are trapped between rising sea levels and coastal development) on beaches, not only in terms of habitat loss (using GIS-based analyses, with MSc student Linda Harris), but also in terms of ecosystem services (biodiversity, filtration of coastal water, remineralisation of nutrients, etc, with MSc Student Natasha Govender) and food-web structure (with Dr AJ Smit and MSc student Brett Smith).

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A commercial west-coast rock-lobser trap is hauled aboard a deckboat.

Mitigation measures for fishery-related impacts

  Given the depleted state of most marine living resources, wasteful fishing practices are to be avoided at all costs. In South Africa’s largest crustacean fishery, that for the west-cost rock lobster, most of the commercial catch is made with traps covered in polyethylene mesh (Pollock et al. 2000). Despite changes to size and gear restrictions (Schoeman et al. 2002a), indirect field experiments suggest a fortuitous match between selectivity of the legislated mesh size and minimum legal carapace length (Schoeman et al. 2002b). This impression has been confirmed by direct laboratory and field experiments (Groeneveld et al. 2005). Together these results have been used to motivate the discontinuation of traps modified to include steel “escapement” grids. These traps both failed to facilitate better escapement of undersized lobster (Schoeman et al. 2002b, Groeneveld et al. 2005) and also caused more damage to the benthic ecology.

 Systematic planning for marine conservation

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During a participatory workshop, divers talk about the reefs they visit.
 Efforts at developing integrated networks of marine conservation areas have lagged somewhat behind those for the terrestrial environment, in large part because of the relative paucity of knowledge regarding patterns and processes in the marine environment. Nevertheless, using sparid reef fish populations as a model, we have developed a suite of interactive and participatory methods (based on the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques used in social development research) for channelling expert knowledge from users of marine resources (divers and fishers) into conventional systematic conservation planning algorithms (Wheeler et al. fin prep).
    In addition to this, I am working with the Provincial Conservation Authority (EKZN Wildlife, specifically Dr Jean Harris and MSc student Tamsyn Livingston) in developing a systematic conservation plan for the EEZ of KwaZulu-Natal (SEAPlan).

Other research

  Besides the work outlined in detail above, I have conducted research and published papers on the effects of large-scale shifts in climate, land-use practices and fishing on rock lobsters (Cockcroft  et al. 1998, Hazell et al. 2002), on crustacean larval morphology, systematics and ecophysiology (Schoeman and Cockcroft 1993, 1996, Popadopolous et al. 2006) and on terrestrial conservation biology (Whitehouse and Schoeman 2003, Landman et al. 2008). At present, I am also co-supervising a PhD student (Camilla Floros), who is studying indicators of disturbance on KZN coral reefs.

Publication List (please email me for PDF reprints)

  • Defeo O, McLachlan A, Schoeman DS,  Schlacher TA, Dugan J, Jones A, Lastra M, and F Scapini (Final revisions, after review) Threats to sandy beach ecosystems: a review. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.
  • Wheeler M, Sims-Castley R, Cowling RM, Chambers FMJ and DS Schoeman (In Press, 2008) Beans to breams: feeding expert knowledge generated through participatory workshops into marine conservation planning.  African Journal of Marine Science 3.
  • Schoeman DS, Nel R and AG Soares (2008) Measuring species richness on sandy beach transects: extrapolative estimators and their implications for sampling effort. Marine Ecology 29s1: 134-149.
  • Schlacher TA, Schoeman DS, Dugan J, Lastra M, Jones A, Scapini F and A McLachlan (2008) Sandy beach ecosystems: key features, management challenges, climate change impacts, and sampling issues. Marine Ecology 29s1: 70-90.
  • Landman M, Kerley GIH and DS Schoeman (2008) Relevance of elephant herbivory as a threat to Important Plants in the Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa. Journal of Zoology, London 274: 51-58.
  • Schlacher TA, Dugan J, Schoeman DS, Lastra M, Jones A, Scapini F, McLachlan A and O Defeo (2007) Sandy beaches at the brink. Diversity and Distributions 13: 556-560.
  • Schlacher TA, Schoeman DS, Lastra M, Jones A, Dugan J, Scapini F and A McLachlan (2006) Neglected ecosystems bear the brunt of change. Ethology, Ecology & Evolution 18: 349-351.
  • Papadopoulos I, Newman BK, Schoeman DS and TH Wooldridge (2006) Influence of salinity and temperature on the larval development of the crown crab, Hymenosoma orbiculare (Crustacea: Brachyura: Hymenosomatidae), and implications of estuarine management. African Journal of Aquatic Science 31(1): 43-52.
  • Groeneveld JC, Khanyile JP and DS Schoeman (2005) Escapement of the Cape rock lobster (Jasus lalandii) through the mesh and entrance of commercial traps. Fishery Bulletin 103(1): 52-62.
  • Richardson AJ and DS Schoeman (2004) Climate change impact on the plankton community in the Northeast Atlantic. Science 305: 1609-1612.
  • Schoeman DS, Wheeler M and M Wait (2003) The relative accuracy of standard estimators for macrofaunal abundance and species richness derived from selected intertidal transect designs used to sample exposed sandy beaches. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 58s: 5-16.
  • Whitehouse AM and DS Schoeman (2003) Ranging behaviour of elephants within a small, fenced area in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa. African Zoology 38: 95-108.
  • Hazell RW, Schoeman DS and MN Noffke (2002) Do fluctuations in the somatic growth rate of rock lobster (Jasus lalandii) encompass all size classes? A re-assessment of juvenile growth. Fishery Bulletin 100(3): 510-518.
  • Schoeman DS and AJ Richardson (2002) Investigating biotic and abiotic factors affecting the recruitment of an intertidal clam on an exposed sandy beach using a generalized additive model. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 276: 67-81.
  • Schoeman DS, Cockcroft AC, van Zyl  DL and PC Goosen (2002a) Changes to regulations and gear used in the South African commercial fishery for Jasus lalandii. South African Journal of Marine Science 24: 365-369.
  • Schoeman DS, Cockcroft AC and DL van Zyl (2002b) Trap selectivity and the effects of altering gear design in the South African rock lobster (Jasus lalandii) commercial fishery. South African Journal of Marine Science 24: 37-48.
  • Shackleton AL, Schoeman DS and BK Newman (2002) Bioassays for coastal water quality: an assessment using the larval development of Haliotis midae L. WaterSA 28(4): 457-461.
  • Pollock DE, Cockcroft AC, Groeneveld JC and DS Schoeman (2000) The commercial fisheries for Jasus and Palinurus species in the South-east Atlantic and South-west Indian Oceans. In Spiny lobsters: fisheries and culture. Phillips BF and J Kittaka (Eds). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. pp. 105-120.
  • Schoeman DS, McLachlan A and JE Dugan (2000) Lessons from a disturbance experiment in the intertidal zone of an exposed sandy beach. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 50: 869-884.
  • Cockcroft AC, Schoeman DS, Pitcher GC, Bailey GW and DL Van Zyl (1998) A mass stranding, or “walkout”, of West Coast Rock Lobster Jasus lalandii in Elands Bay, South Africa: causes, results and implications. Crustacean Issues 12(2): 673-688.
  • Schoeman DS (1996) An assessment of a recreational beach clam fishery: current fishing pressure and opinions regarding the initiation of a commercial clam harvest. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 26(4): 160-170.
  • Schoeman DS and AC Cockcroft (1996) A description of Ovalipes trimaculatus (De Haan, 1833) (Brachyura: Portunidae: Polybiinae) zoeae reared in the laboratory. South African Journal of Marine Science 17: 113-134.
  • Schoeman DS and AC Cockcroft (1993) On the misidentification of a common sandy beach crab belonging to the genus Ovalipes Rathbun, 1898. South African Journal of Zoology 28(2): 124-125.

 

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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 September 2008 )
 
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