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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Survivorship And Growth In Staghorn Coral (Acropora Cervicornis) Outplanting Projects In The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Matt Ware, Eliza N. Garfield, Ken Nedimyer, Jessica Levy, Les Kaufman, William F. Precht, R. Scott Winters, Steven Miller May 2020

Survivorship And Growth In Staghorn Coral (Acropora Cervicornis) Outplanting Projects In The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Matt Ware, Eliza N. Garfield, Ken Nedimyer, Jessica Levy, Les Kaufman, William F. Precht, R. Scott Winters, Steven Miller

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Significant population declines in Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata began in the 1970s and now exceed over 90%. The losses were caused by a combination of coral disease and bleaching, with possible contributions from other stressors, including pollution and predation. Reproduction in the wild by fragment regeneration and sexual recruitment is inadequate to offset population declines. Starting in 2007, the Coral Restoration Foundation™ evaluated the feasibility of outplanting A. cervicornis colonies to reefs in the Florida Keys to restore populations at sites where the species was previously abundant. Reported here are the results of 20 coral outplanting projects …


A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Using Anecdotal Data And Photographic Evidence To Obtain Baseline Data For Southeast Florida Reefs, Catherine Brady Apr 2016

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Using Anecdotal Data And Photographic Evidence To Obtain Baseline Data For Southeast Florida Reefs, Catherine Brady

HCNSO Student Capstones

By using first-hand accounts, interviews, and photographs from fishermen throughout the region (Martin, Palm Beach and Broward counties), this paper will provide evidence of changes in recreational fish catches. It will also identify a shift in commonly caught fish species, factors that affect the head boat business, environmental changes and suggestions for management. Head boat fishing is a favorable activity for tourists and regular anglers in the state as well as the region. Upon returning from their day trip, companies often provide photo opportunities to display the day’s catch, as part of the fishing experience. Companies that have been around …


Prokaryotic Diversity Of The Wastewater Outfalls, Reefs, And Inlets Of Broward County, Alexandra Mandina Campbell May 2014

Prokaryotic Diversity Of The Wastewater Outfalls, Reefs, And Inlets Of Broward County, Alexandra Mandina Campbell

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

We applied culture-independent, next-generation sequencing (NGS) high throughput pyrosequencing, to characterize the microbial communities associated with near shore seawater in Broward County, FL. These waters flow over coral reef communities, which are part of the Florida reef tract, and are close to shore where bathers frequent. Through a close partnership with the NOAA FACE program, 38 total seawater samples were taken from 6 distinct locales -the Port Everglades and Hillsboro Inlets, Hollywood and Broward wastewater outfalls, and the associated reef waters-over the course of one year. Tagged 16S rRNA amplicons were used to generate longitudinal taxonomic profiles of marine bacteria …


Supplemental Feeding For Ecotourism Reverses Diel Activity And Alters Movement Patterns And Spatial Distribution Of The Southern Stingray, Dasyatis Americana, Mark John Corcoran, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Mahmood S. Shivji, Matthew Potenski, Demian D. Chapman, Guy Harvey Mar 2013

Supplemental Feeding For Ecotourism Reverses Diel Activity And Alters Movement Patterns And Spatial Distribution Of The Southern Stingray, Dasyatis Americana, Mark John Corcoran, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Mahmood S. Shivji, Matthew Potenski, Demian D. Chapman, Guy Harvey

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Southern stingrays, Dasyatis americana, have been provided supplemental food in ecotourism operations at Stingray City Sandbar (SCS), Grand Cayman since 1986, with this site becoming one of the world’s most famous and heavily visited marine wildlife interaction venues. Given expansion of marine wildlife interactive tourism worldwide, there are questions about the effects of such activities on the focal species and their ecosystems. We used a combination of acoustic telemetry and tag-recapture efforts to test the hypothesis that human-sourced supplemental feeding has altered stingray activity patterns and habitat use at SCS relative to wild animals at control sites. Secondarily, we …


Depth-Variable Settlement Patterns And Predation Influence On Newly Settled Reef Fishes (Haemulon Spp., Haemulidae), Lance K. B. Jordan, Kenyon C. Lindeman, Richard E. Spieler Dec 2012

Depth-Variable Settlement Patterns And Predation Influence On Newly Settled Reef Fishes (Haemulon Spp., Haemulidae), Lance K. B. Jordan, Kenyon C. Lindeman, Richard E. Spieler

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

During early demersal ontogeny, many marine fishes display complex habitat-use patterns. Grunts of the speciose genus Haemulon are among the most abundant fishes on western North Atlantic coral reefs, with most species settling to shallow habitats (≤12 m). To gain understanding into cross-shelf distributional patterns exhibited by newly settled stages of grunts (<2 cm total length), we examined: 1) depth-specific distributions of congeners at settlement among sites at 8 m, 12 m, and 21 m, and 2) depth-variable predation pressure on newly settled individuals (species pooled). Of the six species identified from collections of newly settled specimens (n = 2125), Haemulon aurolineatum (tomtate), H. flavolineatum(French grunt), and H. striatum (striped grunt) comprised 98% of the total abundance; with the first two species present at all sites. Prevalence of H. aurolineatum and H. flavolineatumdecreased substantially from the 8-m site to the two deeper sites. In contrast, …


Spatial Analyses Of Benthic Habitats To Define Coral Reef Ecosystem Regions And Potential Biogeographic Boundaries Along A Latitudinal Gradient, Brian K. Walker Jan 2012

Spatial Analyses Of Benthic Habitats To Define Coral Reef Ecosystem Regions And Potential Biogeographic Boundaries Along A Latitudinal Gradient, Brian K. Walker

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Marine organism diversity typically attenuates latitudinally from tropical to colder climate regimes. Since the distribution of many marine species relates to certain habitats and depth regimes, mapping data provide valuable information in the absence of detailed ecological data that can be used to identify and spatially quantify smaller scale (10 s km) coral reef ecosystem regions and potential physical biogeographic barriers. This study focused on the southeast Florida coast due to a recognized, but understudied, tropical to subtropical biogeographic gradient. GIS spatial analyses were conducted on recent, accurate, shallow-water (0–30 m) benthic habitat maps to identify and quantify specific regions …


Climatic Implications Of Barbados Coral Growth, Richard E. Dodge, Karl K. Turekian, J. Rimas Vaisnys May 1977

Climatic Implications Of Barbados Coral Growth, Richard E. Dodge, Karl K. Turekian, J. Rimas Vaisnys

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

Results from a coral growth band analysis utilizing samples of M. annularis from the Recent Barbados reef and from three fossil raised reefs (Barbados I, II, and III dated at 82,000, 105,000, and 125,000 yrs. B.P.) indicate that in the Barbados II collection both average band width and variability were lower than in the other samples. We suggest the climate during formation of the 105,000 yrs. B.P. reef was significantly different than that of the present.