Life Sciences Commons^™

Fall 2008, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.

Connecting Science And Management For Virginia's Tidal Wetlands, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Rivers & Coast is a periodic publication of the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The goal of Rivers & Coast is to keep readers well informed of current scientific understanding behind key environmental issues related to watershed rivers and coastal ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay

Grace Observes Small-Scale Mass Loss In Greenland, B. Wouters, D. Chambers, E.J. O. Schrama

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Using satellite gravity data between February 2003 and January 2008, we examine changes in Greenland's mass distribution on a regional scale. During this period, Greenland lost mass at a mean rate of 179 ± 25 Gt/yr, equivalent to a global mean sea level change of 0.5 ± 0.1 mm/yr. Rates increase over time, suggesting an acceleration of the mass loss, driven by mass loss during summer. The largest mass losses occurred along the southeastern and northwestern coast in the summers of 2005 and 2007, when the ice sheet lost 279 Gt and 328 Gt of ice respectively within 2 months. …

Portsmouth Vernal Pool Inventory, West Environmental Inc.

PREP Reports & Publications

West Environmental, Inc. (WEI) conducted a city-wide Vernal Pool Inventory to locate, document and map vernal pools in Portsmouth. This effort was coordinated with the Portsmouth Planning Department and Conservation Commission to help the City of Portsmouth in vernal pool identification and mapping. The goal of this project was to locate isolated wetlands that provide vernal pool habitat. Currently the City of Portsmouth’s wetland regulations exempt wetlands less than 5,000 square feet from the local 100’ buffer zone. This study identified smaller wetlands which have the potential to provide vernal pool habitat that may deserve the 100 foot buffer protection. …

Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve In Virginia Management Plan: 2008-2012, W. G. Reay, Sandra Erdle, Scott Lerberg, Sarah Mcguire, Ken Moore

Reports

No abstract provided.

Town Of Chester Stormwater Management Project, Nhep Community Technical Assistance Program

PREP Reports & Publications

Great Bay Environmental Consulting (GBEC) worked with the Town of Chester Planning Board to improve regulatory approaches to stormwater management. The project was conducted in two phases: Phase I involved an inventory and assessment of existing regulations for their treatment of stormwater management, with recommendations for an approach to improve stormwater management in the town. The Planning Board opted to focus on specific changes to existing subdivision and site planning regulations, so Phase II of the project involved the development of specific recommendations for those regulations.

Number 50 (October 2008), Southern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

(October 2008) - Use of Visible Implant Fluorescent Elastomer (VIE) Tag Technique on Darters (Teleostei: Percidae): Mortality and Tag Retention. By Joyce A. Coombs and J. Larry Wilson

Diversity and Distribution of Native Freshwater Mussels in Bayou Bartholomew, Arkansas. By Jeff A. Brooks, Russell L. Minton, Steven G. George, David M. Hayes, Ronnie Ulmer, and Frank Pezold

A Note on Three Collections of Cyprinodontid Fishes Housed in the British Museum of Natural History, Including Syntypes and Historically Important Specimens. By Royal D. Suttkus and James D. Williams

Minutes, Business Meeting, 33rd Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council

Regional Southeastern Fishes Council …

Front Matter, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Use Of Visible Implant Fluorescent Elastomer (Vie) Tag Technique On Darters (Teleostei: Percidae): Mortality And Tag Retention, Joyce A. Coombs, J. Larry Wilson

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Diversity And Distribution Of Native Freshwater Mussels In Bayou Bartholomew, Arkansas, Jeff A. Brooks, Russell L. Minton, Steven G. George, David M. Hayes, Ronnie Ulmer, Frank Pezold

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

A Note On Three Collections Of Cyprinodontid Fishes Housed In The British Museum Of Natural History, Including Syntypes And Historically Important Specimens, Royal D. Suttkus, James D. Williams

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Business Meeting Minutes, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Demographic Parameters Of Yellowfin Croaker, Umbrina Roncador (Perciformes: Sciaenidae), From The Southern California Bight, Daniel Pondella, John Froeschke, Lynne Wetmore, Eric Miller, Charles Valle, Lea Medeiros

Daniel Pondella

The yellowfin croaker, Umbrina roncador Jordan & Gilbert, 1882, is a common nearshore and surf-zone species in the southern California bight. Age was determined for individuals (n = 1,209) using annual increments in otoliths, and size at age was modeled using the von Bertalanffy growth curve (L∞ = 307.754 mm, k = 0.278 yr−1, t0 = −0.995 yr; maximum age = 15 yr). Females (L∞= 313.173 mm, k = 0.307 yr−1, t0 = −0.771 yr) grew significantly faster and larger than males (L∞= 298.886, k = 0.269 yr−1, t0 = −1.072 yr). Age and growth modeling based upon otolith length …

Using Moored Arrays And Hyperspectral Aerial Imagery To Develop Nutrient Criteria For New Hampshire's Estuaries, J. Ru Morrison, Thomas K. Gregory, Shachak Pe'eri, William H. Mcdowell, Philip Trowbridge

PREP Reports & Publications

Increasing nitrogen concentrations and declining eelgrass beds in Great Bay, NH are clear indicators of impending problems for the state’s estuaries. A workgroup established in 2005 by the NH Department of Environmental Services and the NH Estuaries Project (NHEP) adopted eelgrass survival as the water quality target for nutrient criteria development for NH’s estuaries. In 2007, the NHEP received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to collect water quality information including that from moored sensors and hyper-spectral imagery data of the Great Bay Estuary. Data from the Great Bay Coastal Buoy, part of the regional Integrated Ocean Observing …

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring In New Hampshire Estuaries, 2007, Phil Trowbridge

PREP Reports & Publications

Conducted by a committee of Canadian and US government and university scientists, Gulfwatch examines the effects of decades of development and industrialization on the water quality of the Gulf as it relates to human health primarily through assessing contaminant exposure of marine organisms. Gulfwatch scientists collect blue mussels at over 60 US and Canadian sites Gulf- wide, and analyze the organisms’ tissue for potentially harmful levels and concentrations of toxins including heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

New Hampshire increased the number of Gulfwatch sampling locations from two sites per year in 1997 to …

Water Quality Monitoring In North River And Little River In Nottingham, Nh, Deb Kimball

PREP Reports & Publications

The Town of Nottingham Conservation Commission (NCC) in New Hampshire purchased water testing equipment for monitoring the North and Little Rivers as part of the New Hampshire Volunteer River Assessment Program (VRAP). The equipment enabled NCC and Lamprey River Watershed Association (LRWA) volunteer water samplers to efficiently monitor water quality on the two rivers twice a month from May 2007 to June 2008.

Seasonal Variations In Nutrient Concentrations And Speciation In The Chena River, Alaska, Yihua Cai, Laodong Guo, Thomas A. Douglas, Terry E. Whitledge

Faculty Publications

To better understand the seasonal controls on nutrient abundances, speciation, and fluxes in a watershed underlain by discontinuous permafrost, we collected water samples biweekly from the Chena River during 2005-2006 to measure inorganic and organic N, P, and Si in dissolved and particulate phases. Nitrate concentrations were low (8-14 mu M) during the winter and summer dry seasons but were elevated during the spring freshet (15-24 mu M). Ammonium varied from 8 to 13 mu M during the winter but dropped dramatically during the ice-open season to 0.1-3 mM. Phosphate was very low throughout the year (ranging from 0.03 to …

Web-Based Information Management System For The Long Term Ecological Research Program In Kenting, Taiwan, Yang-Chi Chang, Meng-Tsung Lee, Kun-Chi Lai

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

This paper introduces a web-based information management system which has been set up as a collaborative facility to allow key environmental and ecological information access for the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) in Kenting, Taiwan. The coral reef ecosystem degradation in Kenting has concerned both public and private sectors, for which a LTER team was formed to investigate the problem. A multi-functional web-based system integrates diverse data collections and analyses efforts of team members during the project span. It also provides authorities with effective information and knowledge for sustainable coral reef management. Three information technologies, web Database Management System (DBMS), …

Critical Review Of The Literature On Marine Mammal Population Modelling, Edward O. Keith

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

A comprehensive literature review and modeling effort have been conducted in order to determine which vital rates are most important to determining the growth and sustainability of marine mammal populations. Also addressed are the impacts of life-history, ecological, and genetic variation on vital rates and population sustainability and how much each vital parameter can change before a change in population trend would be expected. Additionally, the influence of ecological energetics and foraging strategies on vital rates and their limits of sustainable change are examined, and the nature of how an increase in sound in the marine environment might influence marine …

Mapping Coral Reef Habitats In Southeast Florida Using A Combined Technique Approach, Brian K. Walker, Bernhard Riegl, Richard E. Dodge

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

To create maps of nearshore benthic habitats of Broward County, Florida, from 0 to 35 m depth, we combined laser bathymetry, acoustic ground discrimination, subbottom profiling, and aerial photography data in a geographic information system (GIS). A mosaic of interpolated, sun-shaded, laser bathymetry data served as the foundation upon which acoustic ground discrimination, limited subbottom profiling and aerial photography, and groundtruthing data aided in interpretation of habitats. Mapping criteria similar to NOAA biogeographic Caribbean mapping were used to allow for a comparable output. Expert-driven visual interpretation outlined geomorphological features at a scale of 1 : 6000 with a minimum mapping …

Danville Town Forest Stewardship Plan, Ellen Snyder

PREP Reports & Publications

As a community resource the Town Forest offers many benefits and values to residents and visitors. The Forest provides wildlife habitat, scenic beauty, clean air, cool temperatures, hiking trails and other outdoor recreation, wood products, water supply protection, flood storage, historical artifacts, among others. People value the Town Forest for many different reasons. Fortunately, most of these are complementary benefits, each available without compromising the integrity of the others. A goal of this Stewardship Plan is to understand and appreciate the values of the Town Forest and to guide the use and management of these resources over time. This is …

Phylogenetic Relationships Of Crown Conchs (Melongena Spp.): The Corona Complex Simplified, Kenneth Hayes, Stephen Karl

Department of Biology Faculty Publications

The larval stages of marine taxa are often assumed to have an overriding influence on the phylogeographical structure of a species as well as on rates of speciation. Phylogeographical disjunctions in high-dispersal marine taxa are generally attributed to historical events or contemporary ecological factors. The lack of genetic structure in low-dispersal marine taxa is often ascribed to rafting by juveniles, yet few studies discuss the effects of historical conditions. Around peninsular Florida, there are three species of the crown conch, Melongena, which have direct-developing, crawl-away larvae. One of these species, M. corona, is subdivided into three subspecies. We refer to …

Technical Support In Engineering Construction Phase Of Craney Island Eastward Expansion, Mac Sisson, Harry V. Wang, Yuepeng Li, Jian Shen, Albert Y. Kuo, Wenping Gong

Reports

No abstract provided.

Estimating Geocenter Variations From A Combination Of Grace And Ocean Model Output, Sean Swenson, D. Chambers, John Wahr

Marine Science Faculty Publications

In this study, we estimate a time series of geocenter anomalies from a combination of data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission and the output from ocean models. A matrix equation is derived relating total geocenter variations to the GRACE coefficients of degrees two and higher and to the oceanic component of the degree one coefficients. We estimate the oceanic component from t wo state-of-the-art ocean models. Results are compared to independent estimates of geocenter derived from other satellite data, such as satellite laser ranging and GPS. Finally, we compute degree one coefficients that are consistent …

Assimilation Of High-Frequency Radar Currents In A Nested Model Of The West Florida Shelf, Alexander Barth, Aida Alvera-Azcarate, Robert H. Weisberg

Marine Science Faculty Publications

High‐frequency radar currents are assimilated in a West Florida Shelf (WFS) model based on the Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS), which is nested in the Atlantic Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) for the purpose of including both local and deep‐ocean forcing, particularly the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current. Tides are not included in this model. An ensemble simulation of the WFS model is carried out under different wind‐forcings in order to estimate the error covariance of the model state vector and the covariance between ocean currents and winds. Radial currents measured by high‐frequency radar antennas near Saint Petersburg and Venice, …

Spiny Lobsters Detect Conspecific Blood-Borne Alarm Cues Exclusively Through Olfactory Sensilla, Shkelzen Shabani, Michiya Kamio, Charles D. Derby

Peer Reviewed Articles

When attacked by predators, diverse animals actively or passively release molecules that evoke alarm and related anti-predatory behavior by nearby conspecifics. The actively released molecules are alarm pheromones, whereas the passively released molecules are alarm cues. For example, many insects have alarm-signaling systems that involve active release of alarm pheromones from specialized glands and detection of these signals using specific sensors. Many crustaceans passively release alarm cues, but the nature of the cues,sensors and responses is poorly characterized. Here we show in laboratory and field experiments that injured Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, passively release alarm cues via blood …

Hampton Falls' Prime Wetlands Designation, West Environmental Inc.

PREP Reports & Publications

West Environmental Inc staff (WEI) worked with Hampton Falls Conservation Commission to prepare a zoning amendment to designate 10 Prime Wetlands in the town, totally 1,270.8 acres. The amendment was approved by the citizens of Hampton Falls at the March 2008 town vote and WEI compiled and submitted the Prime Wetlands Designation application to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services on August 4, 2008.

Summer 2008, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.

Relative And Interactive Effects Of Plant And Grazer Richness In A Benthic Marine Community, Jf Bruno, Ke Boyer, Je Duffy, Sc Lee

VIMS Articles

The interactive effects of changing biodiversity of consumers and their prey are poorly understood but are likely to be important under realistic scenarios of biodiversity loss and gain. We performed two factorial manipulations of macroalgal group (greens, reds, and browns) and herbivore species (amphipods, sea urchin, and fish) composition and richness in outdoor mesocosms simulating a subtidal, hard-substratum estuarine community in North Carolina, USA. In the experiment where grazer richness treatments were substitutive, there were no significant effects of algal or herbivore richness on final algal biomass. However, in the experiment in which grazer treatments were additive (i.e., species-specific densities …

Review Of The Genus Polycheria Haswell, A Symbiotic Group Of Amphipods (Crustacea: Dexaminidae) With Descriptions Of New Species From Florida, The Caribbean Sea, And The Indo-Pacific Region, John Milton Foster

Dissertations

Systematics and taxonomy of the dexaminid amphipod genus Polycheria Haswell (Dexamindae: Amphipoda), whose members are cosmopolitan associates of tunicates and sponges, are confused. This is due in large part to the many inadequate and incomplete descriptions and poorly some executed illustrations, especially for the early studies on the group. Previously, 22 nominal species or forms have been described or designated in the literature. The purpose of this study is to critically review and clarify the systematics of this enigmatic genus. Based on personal collections and on specimens from museums, five new species are designated and 22 species or forms are …