Life Sciences Commons^™

Fundulus As The Premier Teleost Model In Environmental Biology: Opportunities For New Insights Using Genomics, Karen G. Burnett, Lisa J. Bain, William S. Baldwin, (…), Peter A. Van Veld, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein

VIMS Articles

A strong foundation of basic and applied research documents that the estuarine fish Fundulus heteroclitus and related species are unique laboratory and field models for understanding how individuals and populations interact with their environment. In this paper we summarize an extensive body of work examining the adaptive responses of Fundulus species to environmental conditions, and describe how this research has contributed importantly to our understanding of physiology, gene regulation, toxicology, and ecological and evolutionary genetics of teleosts and other vertebrates. These explorations have reached a critical juncture at which advancement is hindered by the lack of genomic resources for these …

Abstracts Of Papers Presented At The 16th International Pectinid Workshop Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada May 11–18, 2007, G. Jay Parsons

VIMS Articles

VIMS Author Contributions: Scallop dredge selectivity: A review of sequential ring size increases from 1994 to 2003 in the US sea scallop fishery By: DuPaul, William D.; Rudders, David B. Pages: 1307-1308 Industry-based sea scallop dredge surveys in support of rotational area management By: Rudders, B.; DuPaul, William D. Pages: 1337-1338 Size-selectivity of the commercial northwest Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) dredge By: Yochum, Noelle; DuPaul, William D. Pages: 1355-1355

Understanding Localized Movements And Habitat Associations Of Summer Flounder In Chesapeake Bay Using Passive Acoustic Arrays : Final Report, Mary C. Fabrizio, Mark J. Henderson, Jon A. Lucy

Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Striped Bass Stocks In Virginia : Monitoring And Tagging Studies, 2004-2008 - Annual Report 1 September 2006 - 31 August 2007, Philip W. Sadler, John M. Hoenig, Robert E. Harris, Rebecca J. Wilk, Lydia M. Goins

Reports

This report presents the results of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) tagging and monitoring activities in Virginia during the period 1 September 2006 through 31 August 2007. It includes an assessment of the biological characteristics of striped bass taken from the 2007 spring spawning run, estimates of annual survival and fishing mortality based on annual spring tagging, and the preliminary results of the fall 2006 study that documents the prevalence of mycobacterial infections of striped bass in Chesapeake Bay. The information contained in this report is required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and is used to implement a coordinated …

Biodiversity Mediates Productivity Through Different Mechanisms At Adjacent Trophic Levels, Zt Long, Jf Bruno, Je Duffy

VIMS Articles

Biodiversity may enhance productivity either because diverse communities more often contain productive species (selection effects) or because they show greater complementarity in resource use. Our understanding of how these effects influence community production comes almost entirely from studies of plants. To test whether previous results apply to higher trophic levels, we first used simulations to derive expected contributions of selection and complementarity to production in competitive assemblages defined by either neutral interactions, dominance, or a trade-off between growth and competitive ability. The three types of simulated assemblages exhibited distinct interaction signatures when diversity effects were partitioned into selection and complementarity …

The Yeast Hex3·Slx8 Heterodimer Is A Ubiquitin Ligase Stimulated By Substrate Sumoylation, Yang Xie, Oliver Kerscher, Mary B. Kroetz, Heather F. Mcconchie, Patrick Sung, Mark Hochstrasser

Arts & Sciences Articles

Hex3 and Slx8 are Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteins with important functions in DNA damage control and maintenance of genomic stability. Both proteins have RING domains at their C termini. Such domains are common in ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like protein ligases (E3s), but little was known about the molecular functions of either protein. In this study we identified HEX3 as a high-copy suppressor of a temperature-sensitive small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) protease mutant, ulp1ts, suggesting that it may affect cellular SUMO dynamics. Remarkably, even a complete deletion of ULP1 is strongly suppressed. Hex3 forms a heterodimer with Slx8. We found that the Hex3·Slx8 …

Eutrophication In Shallow Coastal Bays And Lagoons: The Role Of Plants In The Coastal Filter, Karen J. Mcglathery, Kristina Sundback, Iris C. Anderson

VIMS Articles

Nutrient loading to coastal bay ecosystems is of a similar magnitude as that to deeper, river-fed estuaries, yet our understanding of the eutrophication process in these shallow systems lags far behind. In this synthesis, we focus on one type of biotic feedback that influences eutrophication patterns in coastal bays — the important role of primary producers in the ‘coastal filter’. We discuss the 2 aspects of plant-mediated nutrient cycling as eutrophication induces a shift in primary producer dominance: (1) the fate of nutrients bound in plant biomass, and (2) the effects of primary producers on biogeochemical processes that influence nutrient …

Marine Resource Bulletin Vol. 39, No. 3, Virginia Sea Grant, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Virginia Marine Resource Bulletin

IN THIS ISSUE

Cobia Research Helps Aquaculture 2

Cobia (Rachycentron canadum, L.) have many characteristics that make them a promising species for aquaculture production. However, there are a few obstacles to be overcome before mass production takes off. Virginia Sea Grant is funding research on larval morphology in cobia that may help develop commercial feed and improve survivability of larval cobia.

Reality Science 5

The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is a network of observing platforms that measure and collect data on the state of the oceans. The wealth of data collected by GOOS is available not only to scientists …

Getting Started With The Water Harvest Program A Guide For Watermen To Make More For Their Catch By Selling Direct At Farmers’ Markets, Jimmy Hogge, Paige Hogge

Reports

No abstract provided.

Hydrodynamic Modeling For The Proposed Dredging Assessment In Norfolk Harbor Channel, Elizabeth River, Mac Sisson, Harry V. Wang, Jian Shen, Wenping Gong, Albert Y. Kuo

Reports

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Recruitment Of American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, To The Potomac River (Spring 2007), Hank Brooks, Wendy A. Lowery, Aimee Halvorson, James Gartland, Marcel M. Montane

Reports

Harvests of American eel along the U.S. Atlantic Coast have declined in recent years, and similar patterns have been noted in the Canadian Maritime Provinces as well as in Europe with its congener, A. anguilla (Ciccotti et al., 4 1995). Fishery independent indices of abundance have also shown a decline in American eel populations in recent years (Richkus and Whalen, 1999; Geer, 2003; Montane and Fabrizio, 2006). Possible explanations for this decline include Gulf Stream shifts, pollution, overfishing, parasites, and barriers to fish passage (Castonguay et al., 1994; Haro et al., 2000). In addition, local factors such as unfavorable wind-driven …

Estimating Relative Juvenile Abundance Of Ecologically Important Finfish And Invertebrates In The Virginia Portion Of Chesapeake Bay (Award No. Na03nmf4570378) June 2003-May 2007, Mary C. Fabrizio, Marcel M. Montaine

Reports

The fisheries trawl survey conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) is the oldest continuing trawl monitoring program (52 years) for marine and estuarine fishes in the United States. This survey provides a monthly baseline assessment of the abundance of juvenile marine and estuarine fishes and some invertebrates in the tidal and mainstem Chesapeake Bay. The survey provides crucial, real time data to various state, regional and national fisheries management agencies, including the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). …

Final Report An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In Selected Closed Areas: Georges Bank Area I, Nantucket Lightship And Elephant Trunk, William D. Dupaul, David Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Estimating Capacity And Efficiency In Fisheries With Undesirable Outputs, Rolf Fare, James E. Kirkley, John B. Walden

Reports

No abstract provided.

Estimating Relative Abundance Of Young-Of-The-Year American Eel Anguilla Rostrata In The Virginia Tributaries Of Chesapeake Bay (Spring 2006), Marcel M. Montane, Wendy A. Lowery, Hank Brooks, Aimee D. Halvorson

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (hereafter referred to as FMP) for the American eel in November 1999. The FMP focuses on increasing coastal states’ efforts to collect American eel data through both fishery dependent and fishery independent studies. Consequently, member jurisdictions (including Virginia) agreed to implement an annual survey for YOY American eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC, 2000). The development of these …

Shallow Water Fish Communities And Coastal Development Stressors In The Lynnhaven River, Donna M. Bilkovic, David Stanhope, Kory Angstadt

Reports

Coastal development pressures in the Mid-Atlantic have been attributed to significant negative impacts to aquatic ecosystems. The Lynnhaven River watershed, located in the southernmost extent of the Chesapeake Bay and encompassing Virginia Beach, is an example of a shallow-water tidal system under intense development pressure that is confronted with multiple and often conflicting coastal management issues. Rapid development in and around the City of Virginia Beach over the past few decades has led to the loss of natural buffers and habitat (e.g. oyster, wetlands and seagrasses), increased sedimentation, and degraded water quality. The Lynnhaven Ecosystem Restoration Project, led by U.S …

An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In The Georges Bank Closed Area Ii, William D. Dupaul, David Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Marine Resource Bulletin Vol. 39, No. 2, Virginia Sea Grant, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Virginia Marine Resource Bulletin

In This Issue

The Fish that Saved Jamestown 2

This year, America celebrated the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. However, one crucial player in the Jamestown story may have been forgotten amid all the festivities - the Atlantic sturgeon - the "fish that saved Jamestown." Erin Seiling pulls together historic artifacts and notes that detail how important the species was to the colony.

State of the Sturgeon 6

As a species, Atlantic sturgeon are millions of years old, but much is still unknown about these ancient fish. Researchers at Virginia Sea Grant and the Virginia Institute of Marine …

An Assessment Of Sea Scallop Abundance And Distribution In The Georges Bank Closed Area Ii - Preliminary Results, William D. Dupaul, David Rudders

Reports

No abstract provided.

Characteristics Of Vesicomyid Clams And Their Environment At The Blake Ridge Cold Seep, South Carolina, Usa, Randolph Chambers

Arts & Sciences Articles

Spatial distributions and patchiness of dominant megafaunal invertebrates in deep-sea seep environments may indicate heterogeneities in the flux of reduced chemical compounds. At the Blake Ridge seep off South Carolina, USA, the invertebrate assemblage includes dense populations of live vesicomyid clams (an undescribed species) as well as extensive clam shell beds (i.e. dead clams). In the present study, we characterized clam parameters (density, size-frequency distribution, reproductive condition) in relation to sulfur chemistry (sulfide and sulfate concentrations and isotopic compositions, pyrite and elemental sulfur concentrations) and other sedimentary metrics (grain size, organic content). For clams >5 mm, clam density was highest …

Ecosystem Services Related To Oyster Restoration, Ld Coen, Rochelle Brumbaugh, D Bushek, R Grizzle, Mark Luckenbach, Et Al

VIMS Articles

The importance of restoring filter-feeders, such as the Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica, to mitigate the effects of eutrophication (e.g. in Chesapeake Bay) is currently under debate. The argument that bivalve molluscs alone cannot control phytoplankton blooms and reduce hypoxia oversimplifies a more complex issue, namely that ecosystem engineering species make manifold contributions to ecosystem services. Although further discussion and research leading to a more complete understanding is required, oysters and other molluscs (e.g. mussels) in estuarine ecosystems provide services far beyond the mere top-down control of phytoplankton blooms, such as (1) seston filtration, (2) benthic–pelagic coupling, (3) creation of refugia …

Annual Progress Report - 2006 Data Collection And Analysis In Support Of Single And Multispecies Stock Assessments In Chesapeake Bay: The Chesapeake Bay Multispecies Monitoring And Assessment Program, Christopher F. Bonzek, Robert J. Latour, James Gartland

Reports

Historically, fisheries management has been based on the results of single-species stock assessment models that focus on the interplay between exploitation level and sustainability. There currently exists a suite of standard and accepted analytical frameworks (e.g., virtual population analysis (VPA), biomass dynamic production modeling, delay difference models, etc.) for assessing the stocks, projecting future stock size, evaluating recovery schedules and rebuilding strategies for overfished stocks, setting allowable catches, and estimating fishing mortality or exploitation rates. A variety of methods also exist to integrate the biological system and the fisheries resource system, thereby enabling the evaluation of alternative management strategies on …

Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation And Outlook Report : Results Of The 2005-2007 Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Crop Reporting Survey, Thomas J. Murray, Michael J. Oesterling

Reports

Continued growth of the shellfish aquaculture industry in Virginia has added significant value to the state’s seafood marketplace. Today, watermen continue to harvest both hard clams and oysters from the state’s public resources, albeit at diminished rates. At the same time, Virginia’s watermen-farmers are providing growing quantities of additional quality shellfish to consumers. Following the lead of the hard clam industry, there has been a significant transition to intensive aquaculture of native oysters in recent years. The once extensive oyster planting has disappeared primarily as a result of endemic oyster diseases and increasing wildlife predation of seed oysters. In its …

Water Quality Conditions And Restoration Of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (Sav) In The Tidal Freshwater James River 2006, Ken Moore, Betty Neikirk, Britt-Anne Anderson, Jessie C. Jarvis

Reports

No abstract provided.

Conference Proceedings Water Access 2007: A National Symposium On Working Waterways & Waterfronts, Virginia Sea Grant

Reports

No abstract provided.

Report And Recommendations Of The Blue Ribbon Oyster Panel, Blue Ribbon Oyster Panel

Reports

The maps are generated to illustrate the results of the targeting effort following the protocol described above. The authors recognize this level of targeting does not preclude the need for field inspection at potential sites prior to reef construction. The atlas is comprised of a series of boxes preceded by an index locator. The scale of each box may vary. The potential restoration areas are illustrated in red. The legend reports the total acres available for restoration within the boundary of each box. At this time, the size of individual restoration sites can only be retrieved using the digital data …

Effects Of Oyster Population Restoration Strategies On Phytoplankton Biomass In Chesapeake Bay: A Flexible Modeling Approach, Rs Fulford, Dl Brietburg, Rie Newell, Wm Kemp, Mw Luckenbach

VIMS Articles

Cultural eutrophication in estuaries and other coastal systems has increased over the last 50 yr. Some recently proposed strategies to reverse this trend have included the restoration of bivalve suspension feeders as an ecological tool for reducing phytoplankton biomass. The ecological benefits accruing from such bivalve restoration will be dependent on the characteristics of the estuary, as well as how restoration is implemented. We developed a filtration model to estimate the effect of bivalve restoration on the rate of phytoplankton removal over a range of spatial and temporal scales and used it to compare alternate restoration strategies for the eastern …

The Functional Role Of Biodiversity In Ecosystems: Incorporating Trophic Complexity, J. Emmett Duffy, Bradley J. Cardinale, Kristin E. France, Peter B. Mcintyre, Elisa Thebault, Michel Loreau

VIMS Articles

Understanding how biodiversity affects functioning of ecosystems requires integrating diversity within trophic levels (horizontal diversity) and across trophic levels (vertical diversity, including food chain length and omnivory). We review theoretical and experimental progress toward this goal. Generally, experiments show that biomass and resource use increase similarly with horizontal diversity of either producers or consumers. Among prey, higher diversity often increases resistance to predation, due to increased probability of including inedible species and reduced efficiency of specialist predators confronted with diverse prey. Among predators, changing diversity can cascade to affect plant biomass, but the strength and sign of this effect depend …

Monitoring Relative Abundance Of American Shad In Virginia Rivers 2006 Annual Report, John E. Olney, Kristen Delano Walter

Reports

Concern about the decline in landings of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) along the Atlantic coast prompted the development of an interstate fisheries management plan (FMP) under the auspices of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Management Program (ASMFC 1999). Legislation enables imposition of federal sanctions on fishing in those states that fail to comply with the FMP. To be in compliance, coastal states are required to implement and maintain fishery-dependent and fishery-independent monitoring programs as specified by the FMP. For Virginia, these requirements include spawning stock assessments, the collection of biological data on the spawning run (e.g., age-structure, sex ratio, and …

Marine Resource Bulletin Vol. 39, No. 1, Virginia Sea Grant, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Virginia Marine Resource Bulletin

IN THIS ISSUE

Working Waterways and Waterfronts 2007 2

Conference announcement from Virginia Sea Grant.

A Tale of Three Cities 3

Waterfront access is an issue that affects waterfront users, both large and small. This article highlights struggles three of the nation's largest commercial fishing communities- Gloucester, Massachusetts, Fulton's Fish Market in New York and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco - have faced in recent years. Each story provides insight in coping with diminishing waterfront access that may be applied to our own local communities.

Coastal Culture and its Change of Character 7

New development along the Eastern Shore threatens …