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University of Miami

Theses/Dissertations

2008

Growth

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The Influence Of Habitat Quality On The Community Structure, Distribution Pattern, Condition, And Growth Of Coral Reef Fish: A Case Study Of Grunts (Haemulidae) From Antigua B.W.I, A Small Island System, Sherry Lynette Constantine Jul 2008

The Influence Of Habitat Quality On The Community Structure, Distribution Pattern, Condition, And Growth Of Coral Reef Fish: A Case Study Of Grunts (Haemulidae) From Antigua B.W.I, A Small Island System, Sherry Lynette Constantine

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of this research was to determine the relative quality of near shore marine areas by investigating their influence on Haemulidae community structure, distribution pattern, condition, and growth. Habitat was defined at the small spatial scale of individual habitat types such as seagrass beds, mangroves and coral reefs, and at the broader spatial scale of the interconnection of these individual habitat types within a mosaic (IHM). Ten spatial, biotic and abiotic parameters (percentage coverage of sand, mangroves, hard substrate, and seagrass, turbidity, pH, salinity, temperature, average depth, and predator density) were investigated. These environmental characteristics acted as proxies for …


The Effects Of Maturation And Experience On The Predatory Efficiency Of The Whitespotted Bambooshark, Chiloscyllium Plagiosum, Jennifer Louise Ciaccio Jun 2008

The Effects Of Maturation And Experience On The Predatory Efficiency Of The Whitespotted Bambooshark, Chiloscyllium Plagiosum, Jennifer Louise Ciaccio

Open Access Dissertations

Foraging presents a significant challenge for neonatal predators. Both physical maturation and predatory experience may improve predatory abilities. To tease apart which improvements in predatory abilities were due to increased maturation and which to increased experience, several experiments that isolated the effects of maturation and experience were conducted. Individual whitespotted bamboosharks, Chiloscyllium plagiosum, improved predatory efficiency with both maturation and experience. Physical maturation, when isolated from experience, improved predatory efficiency of naïve sharks foraging on shrimp, an elusive prey, but not of sharks foraging on worms, a non-elusive prey. Predatory experience, when isolated from maturation, improved predatory efficiency of sharks …