Life Sciences Commons^™

Along-Shelf Connectivity And Circumpolar Gene Flow In Antarctic Silverfish (Pleuragramma Antarctica), Jilda Alicia Caccavo, Chiara Papetti, Maj Wetjen, Rainer Knust, Julian R. Ashford, Lorenzo Zane

OES Faculty Publications

The Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarctica) is a critically important forage species with a circumpolar distribution and is unique among other notothenioid species for its wholly pelagic life cycle. Previous studies have provided mixed evidence of population structure over regional and circumpolar scales. The aim of the present study was to test the recent population hypothesis for Antarctic silverfish, which emphasizes the interplay between life history and hydrography in shaping connectivity. A total of 1067 individuals were collected over 25 years from different locations on a circumpolar scale. Samples were genotyped at fifteen microsatellites to assess population differentiation and …

Advances In Amino Acid Analysis For Marine Related Matrices And Its Application To Coastal Shelf Settings In The Canadian Arctic, Rachel M. Mcmahon

OES Theses and Dissertations

Amino acids comprise up to 50% of organic matter in cellular material and are a major fraction of oceanic organic carbon. Amino acids are also considered highly labile during organic matter recycling, making them useful proxies for organic carbon cycling. Nevertheless, analysis of individual amino acids has been burdened by lengthy derivatization and complex analysis since the 1950s. In this thesis, I describe the modification of advanced analytical techniques, developed in the biomedical field, for analysis of marine matrices which allow the determination of at least 40 amino acids without the need for lengthy sample preparation and derivatization, twice the …

Plastics And Microplastics As Vectors For Bacteria And Human Pathogens, Amanda Lee Laverty

OES Theses and Dissertations

Since plastics degrade very slowly, they remain in the environment on much longer timescales than most natural substrates and can thus provide a novel habitat for colonization by bacterial communities. The full spectrum of relationships between plastics and bacteria, however, is little understood. The objective of this study was to examine marine plastic pollution as a substrate for bacteria, with particular focus on Vibrio spp., including the human pathogens, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio vulnificus.

Colonization experiments were set up in a tributary of the lower Chesapeake Bay to follow Vibrio spp. colonization and …

Ms Analysis Of A Dilution Series Of Bacteria: Phytoplankton To Improve Detection Of Low Abundance Bacterial Peptides, Emma Timmins-Schiffman, Molly P. Mikan, Ying Sonia Ting, H. Rodger Harvey, Brook L. Nunn

OES Faculty Publications

Assigning links between microbial activity and biogeochemical cycles in the ocean is a primary objective for ecologists and oceanographers. Bacteria represent a small ecosystem component by mass, but act as the nexus for both nutrient transformation and organic matter recycling. There are limited methods to explore the full suite of active bacterial proteins largely responsible for degradation. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics now has the potential to document bacterial physiology within these complex systems. Global proteome profiling using MS, known as data dependent acquisition (DDA), is limited by the stochastic nature of ion selection, decreasing the detection of low abundance peptides. …

Light Availability And Phytoplankton Growth Beneath Arctic Sea Ice: Integrating Observations And Modeling, Victoria J. Hill, Bonnie Light, Michael Steele, Richard C. Zimmerman

OES Faculty Publications

Observations of the seasonal light field in the upper Arctic Ocean are critical to understanding the impacts of changing Arctic ice conditions on phytoplankton growth in the water column. Here we discuss data from a new sensor system, deployed in seasonal ice cover north‐east of Utqiaġvik, Alaska in March 2014. The system was designed to provide observations of light and phytoplankton biomass in the water column during the formation of surface melt ponds and the transition from ice to open water. Hourly observations of downwelling irradiance beneath the ice (at 2.9, 6.9, and 17.9 m depths) and phytoplankton biomass (at …

Assessing Phytoplankton Nutritional Status And Potential Impact Of Wet Deposition In Seasonally Oligotrophic Waters Of The Mid-Atlantic Bight, P. N. Sedwick, P. W. Bernhardt, M. R. Mulholland, R. G. Najjar, L. M. Blumen, B. M. Sohst, C. Sookhdeo, Brittany Widner

OES Faculty Publications

To assess phytoplankton nutritional status in seasonally oligotrophic waters of the southern Mid-Atlantic Bight, and the potential for rain to stimulate primary production in this region during summer, shipboard bioassay experiments were performed using natural seawater and phytoplankton collected north and south of the Gulf Stream. Bioassay treatments comprised iron, nitrate, iron + nitrate, iron + nitrate + phosphate, and rainwater. Phytoplankton growth was inferred from changes in chlorophyll a, inorganic nitrogen, and carbon-13 uptake, relative to unamended control treatments. Results indicated the greatest growth stimulation by iron + nitrate + phosphate, intermediate growth stimulation by rainwater, modest growth …

Comparison Of A Simplified Cupric Oxide Oxidation Hplc Method With The Traditional Gc-Ms Method For Characterization Of Lignin Phenolics In Environmental Samples (Vol 13, Pg 1, 2015), Luni Sun, Robert G. M. Spencer, Peter J. Hernes, Rachael Y. Dyda, Kenneth Mopper

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

In our article entitled “Comparison of a simplified cupric oxide oxidation HPLC method with the traditional GC-MS method for characterization of lignin phenolics in environmental samples” (Limnol. Oceanogr.: Methods 13, 2015, 1–52), doi: 10.1002/lom3.10001, we would like to correct the errors in Fig. 2 and Table 2 as mentioned below. The label to Fig. 2(a) needs to be transposed as indicated in the corrected Fig. 2 image below.

The Biogeochemical Cycling Of Iron, Copper, Nickel, Cadmium, Manganese, Cobalt, Lead, And Scandium In A California Current Experimental Study, Travis Mellett, Matthew T. Brown, P. Dreux Chappell, Carolyn Duckham, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons, Claire P. Till, Robert M. Sherrell, Maria T. Maldonado, Kristen N. Buck

OES Faculty Publications

A 3-day shipboard incubation experiment was conducted in the California Current System in July 2014 to investigate the cycling of iron (Fe), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), lead (Pb), and scandium (Sc) under a range of light and particle conditions. Filtered (< 0.2 μm) and unfiltered treatments were incubated under the following light conditions: Dark, light (“UV”), and light without the ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths (“noUV”). The experiment was sampled for carbon and Fe uptake rates, dissolved trace metal concentrations (Fe, Cu, Ni, Cd, Mn, Co, Pb, Sc), Fe and Cu speciation, size-fractionated concentrations of Cd and Fe, and diatom community composition from DNA sequencing. Exposure to UV light increased phytoplankton Fe uptake in the first 24 h of the incubation relative to the noUV treatment, suggesting that a fraction of the ambient ligand-bound Fe was photoreactive. Fe-binding organic ligand production was observed in the unfiltered light treatments in association with increasing chlorophyll a, and evidence for Cu-binding ligand production in these treatments was also observed. Biological uptake of Cd and Co was observed along with scavenging of dissolved Pb. Manganese appeared to be rapidly oxidized by Mn-oxidizing bacteria with concomitant drawdown of dissolved Ni. Scandium displayed similar trends to Fe, reinforcing the limited observations …

Composition Of Dissolved Organic Matter In Pore Waters Of Anoxic Marine Sediments Analyzed By 1h Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Christina A. Fox, Hussain A. Abdulla, David J. Burdige, James P. Lewicki, Tomoko Komada

OES Faculty Publications

Marine sediments are globally significant sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to the oceans, but the biogeochemical role of pore-water DOM in the benthic and marine carbon cycles remains unclear due to a lack of understanding about the molecular composition of DOM. To help fill this knowledge gap, we used 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to examine depth variability in the composition of pore-water DOM in anoxic sediments of Santa Barbara Basin, California Borderland. Proton detected spectra were acquired on whole samples without pre-concentration to avoid preclusion of any DOM components from the analytical window. Broad unresolved resonance (operationally …

Blooms Of Dinoflagellate Mixotrophs In A Lower Chesapeake Bay Tributary: Carbon And Nitrogen Uptake Over Diurnal, Seasonal, And Interannual Timescales, Margaret R. Mulholland, Ryan Morse, Todd Egerton, Peter W. Bernhardt, K. C. Filippino

OES Faculty Publications

A multi-year study was conducted in the eutrophic Lafayette River, a sub-tributary of the lower Chesapeake Bay during which uptake of inorganic and organic nitrogen (N) and C compounds was measured during multiple seasons and years when different dinoflagellate species were dominant. Seasonal dinoflagellate blooms included a variety of mixotrophic dinoflagellates including Heterocapsa triquetra in the late winter, Prorocentrum minimum in the spring, Akashiwo sanguinea in the early summer, and Scrippsiella trochoidea and Cochlodinium polykrikoides in late summer and fall. Results showed that no single N source fueled algal growth, rather rates of N and C uptake varied on seasonal …

High Frequency Temperature Variability Reduces The Risk Of Coral Bleaching, Aryan Safaie, Nyssa J. Silbiger, Timothy R. Mcclanahan, Geno Pawlak, Daniel J. Barshis, James L. Hench, Gareth J. Williams, Kristen A. Davis

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Coral bleaching is the detrimental expulsion of algal symbionts from their cnidarian hosts, and predominantly occurs when corals are exposed to thermal stress. The incidence and severity of bleaching is often spatially heterogeneous within reef-scales (km), and is therefore not predictable using conventional remote sensing products. Here, we systematically assess the relationship between in situ measurements of 20 environmental variables, along with seven remotely sensed SST thermal stress metrics, and 81 observed bleaching events at coral reef locations spanning five major reef regions globally. We find that high-frequency temperature variability (i.e., daily temperature range) was the most influential factor in …

Integrating Dynamic Subsurface Habitat Metrics Into Species Distribution Models, Stephanie Brodie, Michael G. Jacox, Steven J. Bograd, Heather Welch, Heidi Dewar, Kylie L. Scales, Sara M. Maxwell, Dana M. Briscoe, Christopher A. Edwards, Larry B. Crowder, Rebecca L. Lewison, Elliott L. Hazen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Species distribution models (SDMs) have become key tools for describing and predicting species habitats. In the marine domain, environmental data used in modeling species distributions are often remotely sensed, and as such have limited capacity for interpreting the vertical structure of the water column, or are sampled in situ, offering minimal spatial and temporal coverage. Advances in ocean models have improved our capacity to explore subsurface ocean features, yet there has been limited integration of such features in SDMs. Using output from a data-assimilative configuration of the Regional Ocean Modeling System, we examine the effect of including dynamic subsurface …