Digital Commons Network^™

Fish Introductions And Light Modulate Food Web Fluxes In Tropical Streams: A Whole-Ecosystem Experimental Approach, Sarah M. Collins, Steven A. Thomas, Thomas Heatherly, Keeley L. Macneill, Antoine O. H. C. Leduc, Andres Lopez-Sepulcre, Bradley A. Lamphere, Rana W. El-Sabaawi, David N. Reznick, Catherine M. Pringle, Alexander S. Flecker

Arts & Sciences Articles

Decades of ecological study have demonstrated the importance of top-down and bottom-up controls on food webs, yet few studies within this context have quantified the magnitude of energy and material fluxes at the whole-ecosystem scale. We examined top-down and bottom-up effects on food web fluxes using a field experiment that manipulated the presence of a consumer, the Trinidadian guppy Poecilia reticulata, and the production of basal resources by thinning the riparian forest canopy to increase incident light. To gauge the effects of these reach-scale manipulations on food web fluxes, we used a nitrogen (N-15) stable isotope tracer to compare basal …

Atlantic Coast And Inner Shelf, David E. Krantz, Carl H. Hobbs Iii, Geoffrey L. Wikel

VIMS Books and Book Chapters

The continental margin of Virginia, and of North America more broadly, is the physical transition from the high elevation of the continent to the low of the ocean basin. This transition was created as rifting pulled apart the ancient supercontinent Pangaea to create the Atlantic Ocean basin. Tectonic forces fractured and stretched the bedrock to create a stair-step ramp that subsequently would be mantled with sediment built up by erosion and transport off the continent.

The Coastal Plain and Continental Shelf of Virginia are contiguous and discrete physiographic provinces of the continental margin delimited by the present elevation of sea …

Assemblage Dynamics Of Larval Fishes In The York River Of Virginia And The Chesapeake Bay, Cindy Marlene Marin Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This thesis developed from the VIMS Larval Fish Monitoring Program, which began in 2007 as part of a study comparing the larval fish assemblages of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. Ribeiro et al. (2015) analyzed data from the first three years of this time series to describe the temporal variation in the larval fish assemblages. After this initial study was completed (three years in duration), the sampling continued at the fixed station near the mouth of the York River, which was used to represent the Chesapeake Bay. For this thesis, therefore, eight years of data (2007-2015) were available to investigate temporal …

Beyond The Benchtop And The Benthos: Dataset Management Planning And Design For Time Series Of Ocean Carbonate Chemistry Associated With Durafet (R)-Based Ph Sensors, Emily B. Rivest, M O'Brien, L Kapsenberg, Cc Gotschalk, Ca Blanchette, U Hoshijima, Ge Hofmann

VIMS Articles

To better understand the impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems, an important ongoing research priority for marine scientists is to characterize present-day pH variability. Following recent technological advances, autonomous pH sensor deployments in shallow coastal marine environments have revealed that pH dynamics in coastal oceans are more variable in space and time than the discrete, open-ocean measurements that are used for ocean acidification projections. Data from these types of deployments will benefit the research community by facilitating the improved design of ocean acidification studies as well as the identification or evaluation of natural and human-influenced pH variability. Importantly, the …

Plant Characteristics Associated With Widespread Variation In Eelgrass Wasting Disease, Ml Groner, Ca Burge, Cjs Kim, E Rees, Kl Van Alstyne

VIMS Articles

Seagrasses are ecosystem engineers of essential marine habitat. Their populations are rapidly declining worldwide. One potential cause of seagrass population declines is wasting disease, which is caused by opportunistic pathogens in the genus Labyrinthula. While infection with these pathogens is common in seagrasses, theory suggests that disease only occurs when environmental stressors cause immunosuppression of the host. Recent evidence suggests that host factors may also contribute to disease caused by opportunistic pathogens. In order to quantify patterns of disease, identify risk factors, and investigate responses to infection, we surveyed shoot density, shoot length, epiphyte load, production of plant defenses (phenols), …