Life Sciences Commons^™

Use Of The New England Aquarium To Evaluate Environmental Dna Metabarcoding Of Gulf Of Maine Vertebrates And Invertebrates, Samantha Silverbrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a tool that has been used to characterize biodiversity in a range of diverse systems. However, blind application of eDNA metabarcoding primer sets to new regions and species pools can result in poor taxon coverage and unaccounted detection biases. For the Maine-eDNA EPSCoR program, one of the main focuses is to understand and characterize community assemblages in the Gulf of Maine (GoM) using eDNA to further inform conservation, monitoring, and sustainability. In this study, I selected a subset of the best performing vertebrate and invertebrate metabarcoding assys to test against GoM species present in the …

Evaluating The Foraging Ecology And Energetics Of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus Thynnus) In The Gulf Of Maine, Samantha Nadeau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus, ABFT) have been a commercially and recreationally valuable species in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) since the early 1950s. Over the past few decades, abundance, spatial distribution, and physical condition of ABFT have shifted, possibly as a result of trophic changes including the composition, distribution, and/or condition of available prey. Historically, ABFT forage has most commonly consisted of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), squids (Cephalopoda), bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix), and sand lance (Ammodytes spp.). The current stock assessment for Atlantic herring, the dominant prey item for ABFT, suggests a reduction in spawning stock …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Ventless Trap Survey In Capturing Sublegal American Lobster Abundance In The Inshore Gulf Of Maine, Shiyue Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stock assessment of American lobster (Homarus americanus) plays an important role in managing the fishery in the Gulf of Maine (GOM). Various fishery-dependent and fishery-independent data are required in the stock assessment to estimate key fisheries parameters that define the population dynamics of American lobster. In the 2015 benchmark stock assessment, ventless trap survey (VTS) data were included for the first time to provide information about the sublegal lobster (carapace length < 83 mm) dynamics. However, the effectiveness of VTS data in monitoring sublegal lobsters has not been evaluated and we have little information on whether the VTS sampling design can capture sublegal lobster dynamics. The primary goal of this thesis research was to evaluate and determine whether the data collected from the Maine VTS provide robust estimation of design-based sublegal lobsters abundance index in the inshore GOM. To achieve this goal, I (1) estimated and evaluated variations in catch rates derived, respectively, from the first, second, and third ventless trap per site; 2) predicted sublegal lobster population at a high spatial resolution using generalized additive models (GAMs); (3) sampled the simulated sublegal lobster population following the sampling protocol used in the VTS program to derive a simulated VTS abundance index; and 4) compared the simulated VTS abundance index with the

predicted population abundance index in the simulated sublegal lobster population. The spatial scale of the study was defined by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) statistical areas in …

Environmental Impacts On The Reproduction Of Three Cold-Water Corals, With Implications For Their Vulnerability To Ocean Warming And Climate Change, Julia Johnstone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cold-water corals are important habitat builders in the deep ocean worldwide. Despite being known for centuries, recent technological advances and deep-sea exploration has revealed cold-water corals thriving at depths of up to 6000m. Similar to their warm-water relatives, cold-water corals are hotspots of diversity, with their structures creating habitat for thousands of associated species. Some cold-water corals create bioherms that stretch for tens of kilometers, while others come together to form vast undersea forests. These habitats are often home to commercially important fisheries species, and conservation efforts have recently begun to regulate fishing in cold-water coral ecosystems to protect them …

The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Gulf Of Maine Northern Shrimp (Pandalus Borealis) Distribution, Reproduction, And Life, Hsiao-Yun Chang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) once supported a significant winter fishery for the Gulf of Maine (GOM). Although the shrimp fishery is not comparable to the lobster business, it provided fishermen and many coastal communities jobs and incomes in winters after lobster seasons. However, a moratorium has been put on the shrimp fishery since 2014 due to record low population abundance and perceived recruitment failures. The recruitment failures have been correlated with warming water temperatures over the past decade. The GOM has been recognized as experiencing rapid warming as a result of global climate change. …

The Impacts Of Embryonic Arsenic Exposure Of Fundulus Heteroclitus, Torey Bowser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid that exceeds safe drinking water standards in groundwater in many locations worldwide. Arsenic exposure in fish has been linked to destruction of gill tissues, impairment of growth, decreased muscle mass, memory impairment, increased aggression, and avoidance behaviors. We examined the behavior of mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus) following arsenic exposure during development in two studies. Embryos were collected from fish from three reference sites: Scorton Creek (SC), Massachusetts, Wells Harbor (WE), Maine, and Block Island (BLOC), Rhode Island and two contaminated sites: Callahan Mine (CM), Brooksville, Maine, and New Bedford Harbor (NBH), Massachusetts. Embryos were …

Examining Scale-Dependent, Nonstationary Environmental Effects On American Lobster (Homarus Americanus) Spatial Distribution And Habitat Suitability In A Changing Gulf Of Maine, Jamie Behan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine (GOM) is a highly complex environment and previous studies have suggested needs to account for spatial nonstationarity in species distribution models for the American lobster (Homarus americanus). Spatial nonstationarity can be defined as the presence of variation in relationships between independent and dependent variables across space (Windle et al., 2012). To explore impacts of spatial nonstationarity on species distribution, models with the following three assumptions were compared: (1) stationary relationships between species distributions and environmental variables; (2) nonstationary density-environment relationships between eastern and western GOM, and (3) nonstationary density-environment relationships across eastern, central, and western GOM. …

Marine Aquaculture In Maine: Understanding Diverse Perspectives And Interactions At Multiple Scales, Melissa L. Britsch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal oceans are changing and experiencing increased use. The social and ecological benefits of healthy coastal oceans are well documented and include habitats for marine species, storm protection, and recreational opportunities (MEA, 2005). As the impacts of human activities are recognized, questions about how ocean spaces should be used are becoming more common. These questions are complex and involve many tradeoffs. Understanding the values people hold about uses, and how activities and ecosystems overlap, is critical for weighing tradeoffs and improving future management. I use the northeastern U.S. state of Maine to study human interactions with coastal oceans. Maine is …