Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of Wave Exposure On Coral Community Development On Man-Made Breakwater Reefs, With A Comparison To A Natural Reef, John A. Burt, David A. Feary, Paolo Usseglio, Andrew G. Bauman, Peter F. Sale

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Breakwaters dominate shorelines in many coastal urban areas, providing substantial hard-bottom habitat upon which diverse and abundant reef communities develop. In recognition of their potential ecological and economic importance, there is increasing interest in understanding how design features can influence community development. We investigated the influence of wave exposure on breakwater coral communities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Coral community composition, cover, size structure, recruitment, mortality, and growth rates were compared quarterly between two windward and two leeward breakwater sites for 1 yr to explore the influence of wave exposure on coral community development. Comparisons also were made with a …

Evolution Of Host Associations In Symbiotic Zoanthidea, Timothy D. Swain

Oceanography Faculty Theses and Dissertations

Symbioses are pervasive in life and confer novel adaptive capabilities that enable ecological expansion into unexplored niches. Evolutionary transitions in symbiosis (terminations, origins, host shifts, or changes in relationship outcomes) can therefore have dramatic effects on the fitness, life history, and distribution of organisms. Because symbiotic interactions require coordination among traits that control recognition, colonization, and maintenance of symbiosis, transitions in symbiosis should generally be rare and conserved across evolutionary time. Cnidarians in the order Zoanthidea (class Anthozoa) are symbionts of taxa representing at least five invertebrate phyla and occur in most major benthic habitats from the intertidal to the …

Investigations Into The Application Of Single-Beam Acoustic Backscatter For Describing Shallow Water Marine Habitats, Greg Foster

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1

Producing thematic coral reef benthic habitat maps from single-beam acoustic backscatter has been hindered by uncertainties in interpreting the acoustic energy parameters E1 (~roughness) and E2 (~hardness), typically limiting such maps to sediment classification schemes. In this study acoustic interpretation was guided by high-resolution LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) bathymetry. Each acoustic record, acquired from a BioSonics DT-X echosounder and multiplexed 38 and 418 kHz transducers, was paired with a spatially-coincident value of a LIDAR-derived proxy for topographic complexity (Reef-Volume) and its membership to one of eight LIDAR-delineated benthic habitat classes. The discriminatory capabilities of the 38 and …

Fall 2010, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.