Try these databases and search resources to get started. 

These are more specific to  fisheries and wildlife information than the general science ones above.  That makes them more efficient to search for information related to fish and wildlife topics.

One way to understand the complexity of aquatic biological invasions is delving into the information and sythesizing what you find. 

You need to find a general topic on invasives that grabs you and explore it through available information.  You will create a 3-5 page paper or a poster summarizaing what you discovered.  Dr. Chapman will be looking for how well you explored the literature and then organized your findings. Be sure to go beyond the first screen of a Google search.  The tools listed here are efficient ways to find relevant information.

Dr. Chapman expects that you will find an interesting story, tell that story by finding relevant information, and document the information appropriately.

Look through  Oregon Estuarine Invertebrates (latest edition) for a species.  This will be the animal that you explore and create your story around.

This is a good basic guide to invertebrate species.  You can download the entire guide or selected species descriptions.  Each description covers the basics, includes a black & white drawing and points to other relevant information.

The beginning of your story is only one to three sentences - a description, where it lives, what it does, etc.

Take your story and explore it by finding more information.  You need to find at least two articles by two different authors. You can start in several places:

Academic Search Premier is a basic but broad database of all sort of topics and resources.  You can often find full text of articles.

Web of Science is more sophisticated and just has peer-reviewed science material.

Google Scholar provides a more focused way to search using the familiar Google interface.  Try the Advanced Search if you get overwhelmed.

Ask questions about your story.  What do you want to find out?   Try searching for the animal or plant in your story.  Or you might want to explore habitat or survival strategies.

Other places to check:

World Register of Introduced Marine Species (WRIMS)

Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species management and information

U.S. Geological Survey Data Base

Take the articles you found above and draft questions that you would like to ask the author.

Consider their methods and results. Did you understand them?  Are you curious about the next steps they took in their research?  Did you agree or disagree with their findings?

Do you want to know more about the species or maybe more about where the animal lives?

Bring your questions to class.