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LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

2003

Microhabitat

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Abundance Trends And Environmental Habitat Usage Patterns Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In Lower Barataria And Caminada Bays, Louisiana, Cara Edina Miller Jan 2003

Abundance Trends And Environmental Habitat Usage Patterns Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In Lower Barataria And Caminada Bays, Louisiana, Cara Edina Miller

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The paucity of research into the environmental requirements, stock membership, abundance and residency patterns of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in coastal Louisiana creates difficulty in understanding how local ecosystems and threats (such as fishery interactions, habitat degradation and pollution) affect populations. This study combined fine-scale environmental measurements and photo-identification techniques to describe patterns of habitat usage and abundance of bottlenose dolphins in lower Barataria Basin from June 1999 to May 2002. In addition I investigated the validity and limitations of using mark-recapture models to estimate abundance from cetacean photo-identification data. Bottlenose dolphins were present year-round in a wide range of …


The Ecology Of Two Estuarine-Dependent Tonguefishes, The Blackcheek Tonguefish (Symphurus Plagiusa) And The Offshore Tonguefish (S. Civitatium), In Coastal Louisiana, Theodore Scott Switzer Jan 2003

The Ecology Of Two Estuarine-Dependent Tonguefishes, The Blackcheek Tonguefish (Symphurus Plagiusa) And The Offshore Tonguefish (S. Civitatium), In Coastal Louisiana, Theodore Scott Switzer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The pattern and process of wetland loss in coastal Louisiana has the potential to influence the distribution and abundance of fishes and macroinvertebrates that utilize inshore estuarine habitat as nurseries during their early life histories. Current management plans designed to stabilize marsh elevations, such as freshwater diversions, may also influence the distribution and abundance of estuarine-dependent nekton. Given the importance of nursery function of inshore estuaries in coastal Louisiana, it is of interest to explore the response of estuarine-dependent organisms to environmental gradients. To this end I examined the ecology of two sympatric tonguefishes, the blackcheek tonguefish (Symphurus plagiusa) and …