Life Sciences Commons^™

Influence Of Surface Currents On Post-Nesting Migration Of Green Sea Turtles Nesting On Wan-An Island, Penghu Archipelago, Taiwan, I-Jiunn Cheng, Yu-Huai Wang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

The relationships between ambient flows and the migration corridors of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting at Wan-an Island, Penghu Archipelago in Taiwan Strait were determined. Six turtles deployed with Argos-linked satellite tags from 1996 to 2004 were used. The ambient flows were derived from the combination of ship board measurements, a global tidal model, and the geostrophic flows derived from sea surface height anomalies. The results showed that there were, basically, three migrating patterns. Turtles that migrated northeastward rode the main surface currents, traveling 2000 km in a month. The swimming speeds along the track were less than 0.5 m …

Analyzing Spatial Patterns In Reefscape Ecology Via Remote Sensing, Benthic Habitat Mapping, And Morphometrics, Shanna K. Dunn

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

A growing number of scientists are investigating applications of landscape ecology principles to marine studies, yet few coral reef scientists have examined spatial patterns across entire reefscapes with a holistic ecosystem-based view. This study was an effort to better understand reefscape ecology by quantitatively assessing spatial structures and habitat arrangements using remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS).

Quantifying recurring patterns in reef systems has implications for improving the efficiency of mapping efforts and lowering costs associated with collecting field data and acquiring satellite imagery. If a representative example of a reef is mapped with high accuracy, the data derived …

Conservation Genetics And Systematics Of Several Turtles Species In The Southeastern United States, Joshua Robert Ennen

Dissertations

Chelonians (i.e., turtles) are an imperiled group of reptiles with about 66% of the recognized species listed as threatened by the IUCN. Most chelonian species have a unique set of life history traits (i.e., longevity, delayed sexual maturity, and low juvenile survivorship), which makes their populations exceedingly sensitive to increases in adult and juvenile moralities. With numerous anthropogenic effects (e.g., habitat alteration, exploitation, and over harvesting) negatively influencing mortality rates, chelonians have experienced global precipitous declines and extinctions.

This dissertation focuses on species within two chelonian genera, Gopherus and Graptemys. Although these two genera are vastly different ecologically, they are …

Number 51 (December 2009), Southern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

(December 2009) - Post-impoundment Changes in the Cyprinid Fauna of the Lower Sabine River, Louisiana and Texas By Royal D. Suttkus and Maurice F. Mettee

The Desperate Dozen: Southeastern Freshwater Fishes on the Brink. By Bernard R. Kuhajda, Anna L. George, and James D. Williams

Prioritizing Areas of the Conasauga River Sub-basin in Georgia and Tennessee for Preservation and Restoration. By Seth J. Wenger, Megan M. Hagler, and Byron J. Freeman.

State Southeastern Fishes Council State Reports

Minutes, Business Meeting, 34th Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council

2008 Treasurer's Report for the Southeastern Fishes Council

Front Matter, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Post-Impoundment Changes In The Cyprinid Fauna Of The Lower Sabine River, Louisiana And Texas, Royal D. Suttkus, Maurice F. Mettee

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Prioritizing Areas Of The Conasauga River Sub-Basin In Georgia And Tennessee For Preservation And Restoration, Seth J. Wenger, Megan M. Hagler, Byron J. Freeman

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

The Desperate Dozen: Southeastern Freshwater Fishes On The Brink, Bernard R. Kuhajda, Anna L. George, James D. Williams

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Business Meeting Minutes, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

State Reports, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, And Management Options For Marine Protected Areas, Brian D. Keller, Daniel F. Gleason, Elizabeth Mcleod, Christa M. Woodley, Satie Airame, Billy D. Causey, Alan M. Friedlander, Rikki Grober-Dunsmore, Johanna E. Johnson, Steven Miller, Robert S. Steneck

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Marine protected areas (MPAs) provide place-based management of marine ecosystems through various degrees and types of protective actions. Habitats such as coral reefs are especially susceptible to degradation resulting from climate change, as evidenced by mass bleaching events over the past two decades. Marine ecosystems are being altered by direct effects of climate change including ocean warming, ocean acidification, rising sea level, changing circulation patterns, increasing severity of storms, and changing freshwater influxes. As impacts of climate change strengthen they may exacerbate effects of existing stressors and require new or modified management approaches; MPA networks are generally accepted as an …

Spatial Distribution Of Petroleum Hydrocarbons In Sediment Cores From Blind Pass, St. Pete Beach, Florida, Charles M. Featherstone, John Proni, Thomas P. Carsey, Cheryl J. Brown, Madeleine M. Adler, Patricia Blackwelder, Husain Alsayegh, Teresa A. Hood, Christina Piela, Donald S. Mccorquodale Jr.

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

One hundred and one sediment cores were collected to characterize the spatial distribution of petroleum hydrocarbons within and just outside Blind Pass, St. Pete Beach, Florida. Twenty-five percent of the cores exhibited levels of petroleum hydrocarbons above detection limits of the gas chromatograph/flame ionization detector (GC/FID) (0.01 mg/Kg), but at generally low concentrations. Petroleum hydrocarbon speciation studies of these samples (gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy [GC/MS]) indicate above-detection level (1 μg/Kg) petroleum hydrocarbons are similar to the non-volatile petroleum hydrocarbons found in a Bouchard 155 reference sample collected after the 1993 oil spill in the area, but are in a much degraded …

Remote Sensing Of Harmful Algal Blooms In The Mississippi Sound And Mobile Bay: Modelling And Algorithm Formation, Dan Martin Holiday

Dissertations

The incidence and severity of harmful algal blooms have increased in recent decades, as have the economic effects of their occurrence./The diatom Pseudo-nitzschia spp. caused fisheries closures in Mobile Bay during 2005 due to elevated levels of domoic acid. In the previous 4 years Karenia brevis counts of >5,000 cells L"1 have occurred in Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound. Population levels of this magnitude had previously been recorded only in 1996. Increases in human populations, urban sprawl, development of shoreline properties, sewage effluent and resultant changes in NP ratios of discharge waters, and decline in forest and marsh lands, …

Experimental Population Dynamics Of Amyloodiniumocellatum In The Spotted Seatrout, Cynoscion Nebulosus, And The Red Snapper, Lutjanus Campechanus, Ignacio Masson

Dissertations

Amyloodinium ocellatum is a parasitic dinoflagellate that infects warm water marine bony fishes and causes high mortalities in aquaculture settings. It has three life history stages: the feeding trophont, the reproductive tomont, and the infective dinospore. This dissertation describes the characteristics of A. ocellatum infections in juvenile spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, and red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, studies the survival and fecundities of the stages in the life cycle of the parasite and presents a population model for A. ocellatum.

At 25°C and 33 ppt, the peak of trophont detachment occurred on day 2 postinfection in spotted seatrout and day 3 …

Health Impacts Of Traffic Related Air Pollution, Amit U. Raysoni, Wen-Wahi Li

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ambient air pollution can be a serious cause of concern for any community. Anthropogenic ambient air pollutants can emanate from industries, traffic, geological sources and domestic heating and cooking. However, studies have shown that traffic related air pollution can have far more detrimental health effects than non-combustion sources. These adverse health effects are most profound in sensitive populations like the elderly and young children. The World Health Organization (WHO) attributes more than 300 million deaths every year to ambient air pollution. The WHO’s Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) and the United States Environment Protection Agency’s (USEPA) National Ambient Air Quality Standards …

Methods For Karyotyping And For Localization Of Developmentally Relevant Genes On The Chromosomes Of The Purple Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus Purpuratus, Celeste C. Eno, Stefanie A. Boettger, Charles W. Walker

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Extraction And Analysis Of Coral Reef Core Samples From Broward County, Florida., Anastasios Stathakopoulos

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The reefs off Broward County exist as three shore-parallel, sequentially deeper terraces named the "inner", "middle", and "outer" reefs and also a shallower, nearshore ridge complex. These structures span the continental coast of southeast Florida from Palm Beach County to southern Miami-Dade County and were characterized as relict, early Holocene shelf-edge and mid-shelf reefs along with limestone ridges. Presently, the reefs are colonized by a fauna characteristic of West Atlantic/Caribbean reef systems. Scleractinian coral cover is low except for a few dense patches of Acropora cervicornis, while Acropora palmata is absent except for a few individual living colonies.

Coral …

Evaluation Of Color Imagery And Direct Referencing For Mapping Submersed Aquatic Vegetation In Chesapeake Bay - Final Report, David J. Wilcox, R J. Orth, Jennifer R. Whiting, Anna K. Kenne, Amy L. Owens, Leah S. Nagy

Reports

The VIMS Annual Submersed Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Monitoring Program has used black and white aerial photography to map SAV in Chesapeake Bay each year from 1984 to the present, with the exception of 1988. In 2008, VIMS initiated a pilot project to address two potential enhancements identified by a recent external program review: color film and direct referencing technology. Simultaneous color and black and white imagery was captured for three regions. In addition, GPS/inertial mapping unit (IMU) direct referencing data was acquired for two of the regions.

Recruitment, Substrate Quality And Standing Stock Monitoring In Support Of Noaa-Acoa Oyster Restoration Projects In The Great Wicomico, Rappahannock, Piankatank And Lynnhaven River Basins, 2004-2006 : Supplementary Materials, Mark Luckenbach, Paige G. Ross

Reports

Many factors affect the success of oyster restoration efforts. This supplemental report details the VIMS effort under this NOAA-funded program to monitor some of those factors in the Great Wicomico, Rappahannock, Piankatank and Lynnhaven Rivers. Specifically, it details monitoring of (1) oyster settlement at two reefs in each of those tributaries from May to November from 2004 – 2006, along with additional widespread recruitment monitoring in the Lynnhaven River in 2005 & 2006, (2) substrate condition on the same eight reefs during spring, summer and fall of 2004 – 2006, (3) oyster abundance on Shell Bar reef in the Great …

Arsenic Transport By Zebrafish Aquaglyceroporins, Mohamad Hamdi, Marco A. Sanchez, Lauren C. Beene, Qianyong Liu, Scott M. Landfear, Barry P. Rosen, Zijuan Liu

HWCOM Faculty Publications

Background

Arsenic is one of the most ubiquitous toxins and endangers the health of tens of millions of humans worldwide. It is a mainly a water-borne contaminant. Inorganic trivalent arsenic (As^III) is one of the major species that exists environmentally. The transport of As^III has been studied in microbes, plants and mammals. Members of the aquaglyceroporin family have been shown to actively conduct As^III and its organic metabolite, monomethylarsenite (MAs^III). However, the transport of As^III and MAs^III in in any fish species has not been characterized.

Results

In this study, five members …

Influence Of Extreme Storm Events On West Florida Shelf Cdom Distributions, Robyn N. Conmy, Paula G. Coble, Jennifer P. Cannizzaro, Cynthia A. Heil

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) distribution and signatures provide vital information about the amount and composition of organic material in aquatic environments. This information is critical for deciphering the sources and biogeochemical pathways of organic carbon, and thus vital to the understanding of carbon cycling and budgets. Waters of the West Florida Shelf are heavily influenced by many river systems on Florida's Gulf Coast that, to the first order, control CDOM distributions on the shelf. Three storm events during 2004 and 2005 (Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Wilma, and a Winter Storm) profoundly altered the typical distribution of CDOM fluorescence and absorption …

Low-Frequency Exchange Of Mass Between Ocean Basins, Don P. Chambers, Josh K. Willis

Marine Science Faculty Publications

We examine the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data and output from an ocean model to quantify mass fluctuations for the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean basins from August 2002 until December 2008. The monthly spatial mean is removed to study interbasin mass exchange. We find a seasonal exchange of mass between the Atlantic and Pacific that is similar to one documented previously, although the amplitude observed by GRACE is about 20% lower than that simulated by an ocean model. There are also significant fluctuations with periods longer than 1 year. We find large interannual exchanges in 2005 and …

Diet Composition Of Swordfish, Xiphias Gladius, Within The Straits Of Florida, Amy Marie Heemsoth

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

A diet study of swordfish, Xiphias gladius, was conducted in the Straits of Florida from April 2007 to December 2008. The stomachs of 131 swordfish were analyzed. Thirteen species of teleosts, three species of cephalopods, and one species of crustacean were observed in the diet. Cephalopods dominated the swordfish diet by weight (73.38%), number (69.90%), and occurrence (80.91%) and ranked highest in importance in the diet when calculating the index of relative importance (IRI). Teleosts followed by weight (25.16%), number (26.34%), occurrence (68.18%), and IRI (3,510.97). The prey species with the greatest dietary importance was Illex sp followed by …

A Review Of The Lethal Spiny Lobster Virus Pav1 - Ten Years After Its Discovery, Donald C. Behringer, Mark J. Butler Iv, Jeffrey D. Shields

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

In 1999, we discovered that juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) in the Florida Keys were infected with PaV1 (Panulirus argus virus 1), the first naturally occurring pathogenic virus reported from lobsters. The virus profoundly affects their biology and ecology. PaV1 is probably wide-spread in the Caribbean with confirmed infections from the United States (Florida), St Croix, Mexico, and Belize; and anecdotal reports from the Bahamas and Cuba. Mean prevalence in the Florida Keys has been stable since 1999 (5 - 8%), but has risen from 2.7% to 10.9% in Mexico (Puerto Morelos), the only other country where …

Sensitivity Of The Carbon Cycle In The Arctic To Climate Change, A. David Mcguire, Leif G. Anderson, Torben R. Christensen, Scott Dallimore, Laodong Guo, Daniel J. Hayes, Martin Heimann, Robie W. Macdonald, Nigel Roulet

Faculty Publications

The recent warming in the Arctic is affecting a broad spectrum of physical, ecological, and human/cultural systems that may be irreversible on century time scales and have the potential to cause rapid changes in the earth system. The response of the carbon cycle of the Arctic to changes in climate is a major issue of global concern, yet there has not been a comprehensive review of the status of the contemporary carbon cycle of the Arctic and its response to climate change. This review is designed to clarify key uncertainties and vulnerabilities in the response of the carbon cycle of …

Career: Physiological Genetics Of The Dwarf Surf Clam, Mulinia Lateralis, Paul D. Rawson

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

Heterosis, or hybrid vigor, is a condition where more heterozygous individuals physiologically outperform more homozygous individuals. Although heterosis has often been reported for marine bivalves, as well as other taxa, the physiological and genetic bases of heterosis are still poorly understood. The proposed research will use a combination of quantitative and molecular genetic approaches to examine the physiological and genetic underpinnings of heterosis in the dwarf surf clam, Mulinia lateralis. The specific goals of this work are:

1) to determine the genetic and physiological basis of growth rate variation,
2) to estimate the degree to which the physiological components …

Trophic Structure Of The Northwest Hawaiian Islands And Resident Monk Seals (Monachus Schaundslandi) During The Twentieth Century, Nina M. Thompson, Amy Hirons, Charles W. Potter, Charles Littnan

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

The Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi) is an endangered species only found within the Hawaiian Archipelago. The majority of the breeding population for this seal is located around six islands in the Northwest Hawaiian Island chain (NWHI). Overall, both juvenile and adult seals have a wide range in δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N from 1912-2006 (δ¹³C: -12.5‰; δ¹⁵N: 12.6‰). Seals in the northern NWHI were enriched in δ¹³C by nearly 2‰ and depleted in δ¹⁵N by nearly 6‰ during the 96 years. Meanwhile, seals within the middle and …

Leucothoidae, Kristine N. White, James Darwin Thomas

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Four genera and 17 species of leucothoids, the majority of these belonging to the genus Leucothoe, are herein reported from the Great Barrier Reef. Fifteen species are new to science and only Anamixis bazimut has been previously reported from the Great Barrier Reef.

Stormwater Management Database For The City Of Dover, New Hampshire, Raymond E. Grizzle, Krystin M. Ward

PREP Reports & Publications

The overall goal of the project was to make a significant contribution to the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership goal of increasing oyster (Crassostrea virginica) bottom in New Hampshire, and to do so using methods that positively affect multiple species. The focus was on those organisms (mainly macroalgae, invertebrates, and fish) that spend most of their time on oyster reefs—the resident species. A 0.5 hectare (1.25 acres) area was restored in August 2007 by constructing twelve mini-reefs (each ~6 m in diameter) in an area protected from harvest using spat-on-shell (“spat seeding”) from remotely set larvae. There was a consistent trend …

The Lobster Bulletin, Fall 2009, Lobster Institute, University Of Maine

Lobster Bulletin

The Lobster Bulletin newsletter includes research updates, and information on lobsters and the lobster industry. The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine is dedicated to protecting and conserving the lobster resource, and enhancing lobstering as an industry and a way of life.

Headlines in the Fall 2009 issue include:

• Lobster Council of Canada Has Great Potential
• Lobster Institute Events of Interest
• 2010 Canadian/U.S. Lobstermen's Town Meeting
• Research Report: Lobster Health Coalition Makes Progress on Baseline Health Data
• Research Report: LFA 33/34 Lobster Moult Timing & Quality Monitoring Project Update
• Fisheries On-Line Forum Launched