Life Sciences Commons^™

Phytoplankton Community Distribution And Light Absorption Properties In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Sumit Chakraborty

Dissertations

The theme of this dissertation was to understand the spatio-temporal dynamics of the phytoplankton community, its light absorption properties, and its relationship to underlying physicochemical processes. Understanding these phenomena will benefit efforts to predict pathways of carbon transformation in the ocean, to estimate primary productivity (PP) and to characterize distributions of phytoplankton communities using ocean color remote sensing.

This research entailed four different studies, which address different objectives. The first two studies dealt with phytoplankton community composition and its relationship to environmental variables. A chemotaxonomic approach was used, which was successful in revealing distinct phytoplankton assemblages in distinct water mass …

What Is Known About Species Richness And Distribution On The Outer-Shelf South Texas Banks?, Harriet L. Nash, Sharon J. Furiness, John W. Tunnell Jr.

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The outer-shelf South Texas Banks, also known as the snapper banks, are known by fishermen to be excellent fishing grounds. However, few scientific studies have been conducted to describe the ecology of these uncommon but distinctive habitats. This paper describes results of a literature review and an assessment to determine what is known about the biota of the South Texas Banks and to assist in developing renewed interest and focus on these topographic highs. The outer-shelf South Texas Banks include relict coralgal reefs and relict barrier islands, and we also include data for a nearshore site, which is geographically and …