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Life Sciences Commons

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The University of Southern Mississippi

2019

Gulf of Mexico

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Development And Employment Of Environmental Dna Methods For The Detection Of Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus Leucas) In A Freshwater And Estuarine Interface In The Mobile-Tensaw Delta And Mobile Bay, Alabama, Katherine Schweiss Dec 2019

Development And Employment Of Environmental Dna Methods For The Detection Of Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus Leucas) In A Freshwater And Estuarine Interface In The Mobile-Tensaw Delta And Mobile Bay, Alabama, Katherine Schweiss

Master's Theses

Species conservation and management is influenced by the quality of monitoring methods employed, especially when targeting elusive, but ecologically significant species, like elasmobranchs. Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) are highly mobile predators that rely on estuaries and freshwater rivers for maturation, resources, and refuge; their ability to withstand changing environmental conditions may mean they are linking ecosystems through their habitat usage and movements. Rather than setting nets or attaching acoustic monitoring devices, which can be expensive, time-consuming, and invasive, the analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) for tracing species presence was used to target C. leucasDNA. The present research …


In Situ Observations Of Fish Larvae Encased Within A Pelagic Gelatinous Matrix, Adam T. Greer, Luciano M. Chiaverano, James G. Ditty, Frank J. Hernandez Apr 2019

In Situ Observations Of Fish Larvae Encased Within A Pelagic Gelatinous Matrix, Adam T. Greer, Luciano M. Chiaverano, James G. Ditty, Frank J. Hernandez

Faculty Publications

The degree to which marine fish larvae aggregate (i.e. patchiness) is predominantly determined by the physical oceanographic environment. Biological traits, however, can also influence spatial distributions and have adaptive value for larvae (e.g. favorable transport or reducing predation mortality). Although several fish families are known to release eggs within a gelatinous matrix, hatched larvae have not been found inside this type of structure. We present observations of hatched, preflexion yolk-sac larvae encased within a pelagic gelatinous matrix (mass). Two different masses (40-60 mm in length) containing free swimming, elongate larvae were imaged in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) near …