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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

An Ecosystem-Based Approach To Reef Fish Management In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michelle D. Masi Nov 2016

An Ecosystem-Based Approach To Reef Fish Management In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michelle D. Masi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fisheries managers have the potential to significantly improve reef fish management in the Gulf of Mexico through the use of ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management. Ecosystem-based approaches are needed to address the effects of fishing on trophodynamic interactions, to better account for ecosystem-scale processes in model projections, and to recognize the short and long-term biomass tradeoffs associated with making regulatory choices. My research was concentrated around three objectives: (1) characterizing the trophodynamic interactions between Gulf of Mexico fishes, in order to construct an invaluable tool (a Gulf of Mexico Atlantis model) to be used in ecological hypothesis testing and policy …


Pepper Mild Mottle Virus As A Surrogate For Enteric Viruses: Implications For Assessing Water Quality, Erin Michelle Symonds Nov 2016

Pepper Mild Mottle Virus As A Surrogate For Enteric Viruses: Implications For Assessing Water Quality, Erin Michelle Symonds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Less than 10% of the world’s domestic wastewater is disinfected prior to discharge into surface waters; therefore, human exposure to diverse wastewater-related pathogens results in millions of cases of illness each year. Among the enteric pathogens, viruses represent an important group of emerging pathogens and are frequently the cause of food- and water-borne outbreaks of illness. Although the World Health Organization and many government agencies mandate the use of bacterial indicators to identify poor microbial water quality, it is well known that these indicators poorly correlate with fecal pollution contamination events and risk of disease. The field of public health-related …


Whiting Events Off Southwest Florida: Remote Sensing And Field Observations, Jacqueline Long Nov 2016

Whiting Events Off Southwest Florida: Remote Sensing And Field Observations, Jacqueline Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Whiting” is a term used to describe a sharply defined patch of water that contains high levels of suspended, fine-grained calcium carbonate (CaCO3). These features are named for their bright (at times white) appearance when compared to surrounding waters, and have been found to occur globally, persisting for multiple consecutive days. Although whitings have been widely studied using chemical, biological, geological, and physical techniques, there has been little effort to document their spatio-temporal distributions in a systematic way, not to mention the lack of consensus on what generates whitings and allows them to persist for days to weeks …


Monitoring And Mitigation Of Elevated Co2 Impacts Using Microalgae, Terry-Rene Wiesner Brown Jul 2016

Monitoring And Mitigation Of Elevated Co2 Impacts Using Microalgae, Terry-Rene Wiesner Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is arguably the greatest environmental and economic challenge of our time. There are considerable documented and projected impacts to both human and natural systems as a result of climate change. These impacts include changes in temperature, sea level, precipitation patterns, and biogeography of ecologically and economically relevant species, including pathogens. One of the main drivers of climate change is elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric CO2 levels have increased from approximately 280 ppm to over 400 ppm, as a result of fossil fuel combustion, cement production and …


The Effect Of Home Range Estimation Techniques On Habitat Use Analysis, Brendon Quinton Jun 2016

The Effect Of Home Range Estimation Techniques On Habitat Use Analysis, Brendon Quinton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The term “home range” refers to the area in which an animal spends most of its time during everyday activities. This study examined the effects of four different home range estimation techniques on the proportions of habitats located therein. The study utilized a point dataset collected for twenty individual Florida Black Bears (Ursus americanus floridanus), occurring in five different areas throughout the state of Florida. Each dataset was used to create home ranges using the following techniques: (1) Minimum Convex Polygon, (2) Kernel Density Estimation, (3) Characteristic Hull Polygon, and (4) Time-Geographic Density Estimation, a new home range …


Evaluation Of Pulmonary Function Among Workers Engaged In The Manufacture Of Hydraulic Fracking Ceramic Proppant, Humairat H. Rahman Apr 2016

Evaluation Of Pulmonary Function Among Workers Engaged In The Manufacture Of Hydraulic Fracking Ceramic Proppant, Humairat H. Rahman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Workers involved in hydraulic fracking processes are exposed to various types of chemicals and dusts in their workplaces, such as proppants, which hold open the fissures created in the fracking process. Recently, ceramic proppants have been developed that may be less hazardous to workers than traditional proppants. Pulmonary function testing of workers producing ceramic proppant was used to assess the potential inhalation hazards of ceramic proppant. Male workers (n = 100) from a producer of ceramic proppant were evaluated with pulmonary function test data collected and evaluated using The American Thoracic Society (ATS) acceptability criteria. A comparison group was selected …


Human Health Risk Characterization Of Petroleum Coke Calcining Facility Emissions, Davinderjit Singh Apr 2016

Human Health Risk Characterization Of Petroleum Coke Calcining Facility Emissions, Davinderjit Singh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Calcined coke is a high quality carbon material produced by calcining green petroleum coke. Calcining is the process of heating green petroleum coke in a kiln to remove excess moisture, extract all remaining hydrocarbons, and modify the crystalline structure of the coke into a denser, electrically conductive product. The final product, calcined coke, is primarily used to make carbon anodes for the aluminum industry and recarburizing agent for industries such as the steel industry. If not appropriately controlled, the calcining process could lead to excess production of particulate emissions from either handling or storing of raw coke, or from the …