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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
A New Apex Predator In The Gulf Of Maine? Large, Mobile Crabs (Cancer Borealis) Control Benthic Community Structure, Amanda V. Leland
A New Apex Predator In The Gulf Of Maine? Large, Mobile Crabs (Cancer Borealis) Control Benthic Community Structure, Amanda V. Leland
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Apex predators can control community structure by preying on strongly interacting species at lower trophic levels. Fishing of apex predators in the marine realm often results in herbivore dominated systems. In the Gulf of Maine, coastal subtidal communities became dominated by grazing green sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droehachiensis) following the extirpation of large, predatory groundfish from coastal zones. Subsequent depletion of sea urchins since the late 1980s functionally eliminated this dominant herbivore from vast regions. Sea urchin recruitment is low or nonexistent in communities dominated by fleshy algae that have developed since the decline of sea urchin populations. We hypothesized that …
An Ecosystem Dynamics Model Of Monterey Bay, California, Lawrence S. Klein
An Ecosystem Dynamics Model Of Monterey Bay, California, Lawrence S. Klein
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Monterey Bay is an upwelling region with high biological productivity in the California Coastal Current System. Several moorings, developed and maintained by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), have produced a long-term, highquality time series oceanographic data set for the Monterey Bay. The data set has revealed a more comprehensive picture of physical-biological interaction on seasonal and interannual variability. To improve our understanding of how the marine ecosystem responds to physical forcing, especially upwelling, an open ocean ecosystem model was modified for the Monterey Bay upwelling region. The result was a nine-component ecosystem model of Monterey Bay, which produced …