Life Sciences Commons^™

Spatial And Temporal Variability Of PCo2, Carbon Fluxes, And Saturation State On The West Florida Shelf, L. L. Robbins, Kendra L. Daly, L. Barbero, R. Wanninkhof, R. He, H. Zong, J. T. Lisle, W. J. Cai, C. G. Smith

C-IMAGE Publications

The West Florida Shelf (WFS) is a source of uncertainty for the Gulf of Mexico carbon budget. Data from the synthesis of approximately 135,000 p CO₂ values from 97 cruises from the WFS show that the shelf waters fluctuate between being a weak source to a weak sink of carbon. Overall, the shelf acts as a weak source of CO₂ at 0.32 ± 1.5 mol m⁻² yr⁻¹. Subregions, however, reveal slightly different trends, where surface waters associated with 40–200‐m isobath in the northern and southern WFS are generally weak sinks all year, except for summer …

Laboratory Growth Of Denitrifying Water Column Microbia Consortia From Deep-Sea Shipwrecks In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Dhanya Haridas, Justin C. Biffinger, Thomas J. Boyd, Preston A. Fulmer, Leila J. Hamdan, Lisa A. Fitzgerald

Faculty Publications

Background: Shipwrecks serve as a rich source for novel microbial populations that have largely remained undiscovered. Low temperatures, lack of sunlight, and the availability of substrates derived from the shipwreck’s hull and cargo may provide an environment in which microbes can develop unique metabolic adaptations.

Methods: To test our hypothesis that shipwrecks could influence the microbial population involved in denitrification when a consortium is grown in the laboratory, we collected samples proximate to two steel shipwrecks in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Then under laboratory conditions, we grew two independent denitrifying microbial consortia. Each consortium was grown by …

Evolutionary And Population Dynamics Of Crustaceans In The Gulf Of Mexico, Laura Timm

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evolution occurs and can be conceptualized along a spectrum, bounded on one extreme by the relationships between deep lineages – such as phyla, classes, and orders – and on the other by the molecular dynamics of operational taxonomic units within a species, defined as population genetics. The purpose of this dissertation was to better understand the evolutionary and population dynamics of crustaceans within the Gulf of Mexico. In the second chapter of my dissertation, I provide a guide to best phylogenetic practice while reviewing infraordinal relationships within Decapoda, including the promise held by next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches such as Anchored …

A Phylogeographic Analysis Of Black Coral (Antipatharia) On Artificial And Natural Reefs In The Northwestern Gulf Of Mexico, Heather Otte

Theses and Dissertations

NOAA's Islands in the Stream concept (IitS) of designating networks of marine protected areas as refugia in the Gulf of Mexico depends on genetic connectivity. Isolated habitats like those proposed by the IitS occur naturally off the Texas coast where hard-bottom structures protrude from mudflats, offering a small-scale study of the IitS feasibility. Two sequences, mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA and nuclear internal transcribed spacer, were used to build haplotype networks of Antipatharians (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia), corals with planktonic larvae that can act as a proxy for connectivity of other organisms. Two species showed no significant genetic differentiation or pattern of genetic …

Descriptive Density Models Of Scyphozoan Jellyfish In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Katrina T. Aleksa, Redwood W. Nero, Jerry D. Wiggert, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

Jellyfish play an important role in the food web of many coastal environments but are generally considered a nuisance to scientific fieldwork and industrial and economic trades. A better understanding of how jellyfish densities and distributions are affected by environmental parameters could elucidate population trends and provide assistance in ecological research and undesirable human interactions. In this study, abundance data for scyphozoan medusae, Chrysaora sp. and Aurelia spp., were extracted from Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program trawling surveys for the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGoM) during the summer and fall months. Both in situ and satellite oceanographic measurements were …

Preliminary Age Estimates For Female Southern Stingrays (Hypanus Americanus) From Southwestern Florida, Usa, Abigail H.P. Hayne, Gregg R. Poulakis, Jason C. Seitz, James A. Sulikowski

Gulf and Caribbean Research

No abstract provided.