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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Evaluating The Capacity Of Ascophyllum Nodosum Habitats To Act As Carbon Sinks In The Gulf Of Maine, Megan Sinclair
Evaluating The Capacity Of Ascophyllum Nodosum Habitats To Act As Carbon Sinks In The Gulf Of Maine, Megan Sinclair
Honors College
Some coastal ecosystems are defined as being carbon sinks for their ability to absorb more carbon than they release as a result of their high primary productivity. There has been support for the claim that macroalgal communities can act as carbon sinks and reduce levels of CO2in seawater through photosynthesis and potentially mitigate some local effects of climate change (Chung et al., 2011; Chung et al., 2013; Hill et al., 2015; Sondak et al., 2017). Within the state of Maine, rocky intertidal zones are coastal ecosystems that are particularly vulnerable to climate change and dominated by Ascophyllum nodosum (rockweed) communities …
Sediment Microbiomes Associated With Critical Habitat Of The Juvenile American Horseshoe Crab; Limulus Polyphemus, J. Petersen, Christina P. Colon, J. L. Joyner
Sediment Microbiomes Associated With Critical Habitat Of The Juvenile American Horseshoe Crab; Limulus Polyphemus, J. Petersen, Christina P. Colon, J. L. Joyner
Publications and Research
Plumb Beach, Brooklyn, New York in USA is an important horseshoe crab breeding and nursery ground that has experienced substantial anthropogenic influence, including pollution, erosion and subsequent restoration. Since little is known about the relationship between sediment microbial communities and juvenile horseshoe crab survival, next generation sequencing was used to characterize and compare the sediment microbiome of three distinct areas of Plumb Beach:- a tidal creek with abundant juveniles, East Beach with moderate number of juveniles, and West Beach- a highly disturbed area where juvenile crabs are rarely seen. The microbiome of juvenile crab intestinal content (both dissected gut content …
Quantifying The Top-Down Effects Of Grazers On A Rocky Shore: Selective Grazing And The Potential For Competition, Diana Lascala-Gruenewald, Luke Miller, Matthew Bracken, Bengt Allen, Mark Denny
Quantifying The Top-Down Effects Of Grazers On A Rocky Shore: Selective Grazing And The Potential For Competition, Diana Lascala-Gruenewald, Luke Miller, Matthew Bracken, Bengt Allen, Mark Denny
Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences
The effect of grazers on the diversity, distribution, and composition of their principal food source has rarely been described for the high intertidal zone of rocky shores, a model system for studying the potential effects of climate change. Along rocky, wave-swept shores in central California, the microphytobenthos (MPB) supports diverse assemblages of limpets and littorine snails, which, at current benign temperatures, could potentially partition food resources in a complementary fashion, thereby enhancing secondary productivity. Two limpet species in particular, Lottia scabra and L. austrodigitalis, may partition components of the MPB, and are likely to affect the composition of the …
Effects Of Ecologically Realistic Heating Profiles On Feeding In The Intertidal Hermit Crab, Pagurus Sameulis, Paige Davis
Effects Of Ecologically Realistic Heating Profiles On Feeding In The Intertidal Hermit Crab, Pagurus Sameulis, Paige Davis
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
The intertidal zone is an ideal habitat to investigate effects of global warming because species living in it are very close to their physiological limits. Initial studies of invertebrate physiological responses to heat stress have employed relatively abrupt increases in temperature. My research investigates effects of ecologically more realistic temperature profiles on feeding in the intertidal hermit crab, Pagurus sameulis. Recent work in the Wright lab showed that feeding in this species is inhibited by an abrupt increase in temperature. Because temperature change in the natural environment of Pagurus is much more gradual, I hypothesize that such a gradual temperature …
Organismal Climatology: Analyzing Environmental Variability At Scales Relevant To Physiological Stress, Brian Helmuth, Bernardo R. Broitman, Lauren Yamane, Sarah E. Gilman, Katharine Mach, K. A.S. Mislan, Mark W. Denny
Organismal Climatology: Analyzing Environmental Variability At Scales Relevant To Physiological Stress, Brian Helmuth, Bernardo R. Broitman, Lauren Yamane, Sarah E. Gilman, Katharine Mach, K. A.S. Mislan, Mark W. Denny
Faculty Publications
Predicting when, where and with what magnitude climate change is likely to affect the fitness, abundance and distribution of organisms and the functioning of ecosystems has emerged as a high priority for scientists and resource managers. However, even in cases where we have detailed knowledge of current species’ range boundaries, we often do not understand what, if any, aspects of weather and climate act to set these limits. This shortcoming significantly curtails our capacity to predict potential future range shifts in response to climate change, especially since the factors that set range boundaries under those novel conditions may be different …
The Movement Of The Gastrop Littorina Littorea In The Intertidal Zone During The Onset Of Winter, Jon Lefcheck
The Movement Of The Gastrop Littorina Littorea In The Intertidal Zone During The Onset Of Winter, Jon Lefcheck
Undergraduate Research Symposium (UGRS)
The movement of the snail Littorina littoreaon the North Atlantic coast is poorly understood. Most research has concentrated on the vertical distribution of the snail, and suggests that it prefers the low intertidal zone where its food source is most plentiful. In the winter, this distribution is reinforced by a documented seaward migration of snails from the high intertidal zone in response to falling temperatures. From October 14, 2006 to January 22, 2007, I examined the individual movements and recovery of snails in response to the onset of winter. I proposed that falling water and air temperatures drive the majority …