Life Sciences Commons^™

Dynamic Responses And Implications To Coastal Wetlands And The Surrounding Regions Under Sea Level Rise, Karim Alizad, Scott C. Hagen, Stephen C. Medeiros, Matthew V. Bilskie, James T. Morris, Len Balthis, Christine A. Buckel

Faculty Publications

Two distinct microtidal estuarine systems were assessed to advance the understanding of the coastal dynamics of sea level rise in salt marshes. A coupled hydrodynamic-marsh model (Hydro-MEM) was applied to both a marine-dominated (Grand Bay, Mississippi) and a mixed fluvial/marine (Weeks Bay, Alabama) system to compute marsh productivity, marsh migration, and potential tidal inundation from the year 2000 to 2100 under four sea level rise scenarios. Characteristics of the estuaries such as geometry, sediment availability, and topography, were compared to understand their role in the dynamic response to sea level rise. The results show that the low sea level rise …

Taxon-Specific Aerosolization Of Bacteria And Viruses In An Experimental Ocean-Atmosphere Mesocosm, Jennifer M. Michaud, Luke R. Thompson, Drishti Kaul, Josh L. Espinoza, R. Alexander Richter, Zhenjiang Zech Xu, Christopher Lee, Kevin M. Pham, Charlotte M. Beall, Francesca Malfatti, Farooq Azam, Rob Knight, Michael D. Burkart, Christopher L. Dupont, Kimberly A. Prather

Faculty Publications

Ocean-derived, airborne microbes play important roles in Earth’s climate system and human health, yet little is known about factors controlling their transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere. Here, we study microbiomes of isolated sea spray aerosol (SSA) collected in a unique ocean–atmosphere facility and demonstrate taxon-specific aerosolization of bacteria and viruses. These trends are conserved within taxonomic orders and classes, and temporal variation in aerosolization is similarly shared by related taxa. We observe enhanced transfer into SSA of Actinobacteria, certain Gammaproteobacteria, and lipid-enveloped viruses; conversely, Flavobacteriia, some Alphaproteobacteria, and Caudovirales are generally under-represented in SSA. Viruses do not transfer …

Temporal Dynamics Of Lipid And Fatty Acid Characteristics Of Gulf Menhaden, Brevoortia Patronus In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Robert R. Leaf, Jesse Trushenski, Nancy Brown-Peterson, Michael J. Andres

Faculty Publications

Gulf Menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, in the northern Gulf of Mexico support a large commercial fishery and are thought to play an important trophic role in the coastal ecosystem. The temporal dynamics of both fatty acid and oil content have a direct impact on the value of Gulf Menhaden to predators and to the fishery. In this work, we describe how oil content of Gulf Menhaden varies with season, sex, age, condition, and tissue and investigate how fatty acid composition of mature (137.5 mm FL) female tissues varies with season, month, and tissue type. We found pronounced temporal (January to …

The Gut Microbiome And Aquatic Toxicology: An Emerging Concept For Environmental Health, Ondrej Adamovsky, Amanda Buerger, Alexis M. Wormington, Naomi Ector, Robert J. Griffitt, Joseph H. Bisesi Jr., Christopher J. Martyniuk

Faculty Publications

The microbiome plays an essential role in the health and onset of diseases in all animals, including humans. The microbiome has emerged as a central theme in environmental toxicology, as microbes interact with the host immune system in addition to its role in chemical detoxification. Pathophysiological changes in the gastrointestinal tissue caused by ingested chemicals, and metabolites generated from microbial biodegradation, can lead to systemic adverse effects. This critical review dissects what we know about the impacts of environmental contaminants on the microbiome of aquatic species, with special emphasis on the gut microbiome. We highlight some of the known major …

Seascape Connectivity Of Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi Population Units Across The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Page E. Vick, Mark S. Peterson, William T. Slack

Faculty Publications

Critical habitat was designated in 2003 for federally threatened anadromous Gulf sturgeon to aid in population recovery. This study examined overwintering Gulf sturgeon spatial use and movement through critical habitat monitored by the Ship Island acoustic array from 2011 to 2015. Previous studies observed western population Gulf sturgeon (Pearl and Pascagoula rivers) overwintering near the ends and within the passes of the barrier islands of the Mississippi Sound, USA. Recent telemetry studies detected eastern population fish (Escambia, Blackwater, Yellow, and Choctawhatchee rivers) overwintering as far west as Mobile Bay, Alabama; however, this study is the first to observe eastern population …

An Overview Of Factors Affecting Distribution Of The Atlantic Surfclam (Spisula Solidissima), A Continental Shelf Biomass Dominant, During A Period Of Climate Change, Eileen E. Hoffman, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klink, Daphne M. Munroe, Roger Mann, Dale B. Haidvogel, Diego A. Narváez, Xinzhong Zhang, Kelsey M. Kuykendall

Faculty Publications

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) is a dominant member of the biological community of the Middle Atlantic Bight continental shelf and a commercially harvested species. Climate warming is affecting the biology and distribution of this species, which provides an opportunity to investigate the processes and conditions that are restructuring this fishery and the implications for ecological and socioeconomic systems. A Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) developed for the surfclam fishery provides a mechanistic description of the surfclam's response to climate change and understanding of the cascade of effects initiated by changes in oceanographic conditions that ultimately appear as social and economic …

Challenges, Pitfalls And Surprises: Development And Validation Of A Monoclonal Antibody For Enzyme Immunoassay Of The Steroid 1Α-Hydroxycorticosterone In Elasmobranch Species, Catharine J. Wheaton, Natalie D. Mylniczenko, John M. Rimoldi, Rama S.V.S. Gadepalli, R. Hart, Bobbi R. O'Hara, Andrew N. Evans

Faculty Publications

Sharks and rays are popular species used in wildlife ecotourism and aquariums to educate the public on the behavior, ecology and conservation challenges of elasmobranchs. To understand long-term physiological health and welfare under varying social and husbandry conditions, we developed and validated an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to measure stress/ionoregulatory hormones in managed and semi-free range southern rays (Hypanus americanus). Banked serum and interrenal samples from 27 female rays managed at Disney’s The Seas with Nemo and Friends^® and Castaway Cay were used to evaluate measurement of 1α-hydroxycorticosterone (1αOHB) relative to corticosterone (B). Although commercial EIAs are available …

Laboratory Growth Of Denitrifying Water Column Microbia Consortia From Deep-Sea Shipwrecks In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Dhanya Haridas, Justin C. Biffinger, Thomas J. Boyd, Preston A. Fulmer, Leila J. Hamdan, Lisa A. Fitzgerald

Faculty Publications

Background: Shipwrecks serve as a rich source for novel microbial populations that have largely remained undiscovered. Low temperatures, lack of sunlight, and the availability of substrates derived from the shipwreck’s hull and cargo may provide an environment in which microbes can develop unique metabolic adaptations.

Methods: To test our hypothesis that shipwrecks could influence the microbial population involved in denitrification when a consortium is grown in the laboratory, we collected samples proximate to two steel shipwrecks in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Then under laboratory conditions, we grew two independent denitrifying microbial consortia. Each consortium was grown by …

Combined Effects Of Deepwater Horizon Crude Oil And Environmental Stressors On Fundulus Grandis Embryos, Maria L. Rodgers, Elizabeth R. Jones, Christopher Klinkhamer, Cecon T. Mahapatra, Jennifer Serafin, Thijs Bosker, Chris Perkins, Robert J. Griffitt, Sylvain De Guise, Maria S. Sepúlveda

Faculty Publications

In the present study, we examined how sensitivity to oil changes in combination with environmental stressors in Fundulus grandis embryos. We exposed embryos (fertilization) to a range of high‐energy water accommodated fraction (HEWAF) concentrations (0–50 parts per billion [ppb] total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs]) made from Macondo crude oil in conjunction with various environmental conditions (temperature: 20 and 30 °C; salinity: 3, 7, and 30 practical salinity units [PSU]; and dissolved oxygen: 2 and 6 mg/L). Endpoints included mortality, hatching rates, and expression of cytochrome p450 1a and 1c (cyp1a, cyp1c) in hatched larvae. There was 100% …

Stability, Persistence And Habitat Associations Of The Pearl Darter Percina Aurora In The Pascagoula River System, Southeastern Usa, Scott R. Clark, William T. Slack, Brian Kreiser, Jacob F. Schaefer, Mark A. Dugo

Faculty Publications

The southeastern United States represents one of the richest collections of aquatic biodiversity worldwide; however, many of these taxa are under an increasing threat of imperilment, local extirpation, or extinction. The pearl darter Percina aurora is a small-bodied freshwater fish endemic to the Pearl and Pascagoula river systems of Mississippi and Louisiana (USA). The last collected specimen from the Pearl River drainage was taken in 1973, and it now appears that populations in this system are likely extirpated. This reduced the historical range of this species by approximately 50%, ultimately resulting in federal protection under the US Endangered Species Act …

Exposure To Crude Oil And Chemical Dispersant May Impact Marine Microbial Biofilm Composition And Steel Corrosion, Jennifer Salerno, Brenda Little, Jason Lee, Leila J. Hamdan

Faculty Publications

The release of hydrocarbons and chemical dispersant in marine environments may disrupt benthic ecosystems, including artificial reefs, formed by historic steel shipwrecks, and their associated organisms. Experiments were performed to determine the impacts of crude oil, dispersed crude oil, and dispersant on the community structure and function of microorganisms in seawater (SW) and biofilms formed on carbon steel, a common ship hull construction material. Steel corrosion was also monitored to illustrate how oil spills may impact preservation of steel shipwrecks. Microcosms were filled with seawater (SW) and incubated at 4°C. Carbon steel disks (CSDs) were placed in each tank, and …

Spatial Dynamics And Mixing Of Bluefin Tuna In The Atlantic Ocean And Mediterranean Sea Revealed Using Next-Generation Sequencing, Gregory N. Puncher, Alessia Cariani, Gregory E. Maes, Jeroen Van Houdt, Koen Herten, Rita Cannas, Naiara Rodriguez-Ezpeleta, Aitor Albania, Andone Estonba, Molly Lutcavage, Alex Hanke, Jay Rooker, James S. Franks, Joseph M. Quattro, Gualtiero Basilone, Igaratza Fraile, Urtzi Laconcha, Nicolas Goñi, Ai Kimoto, David Macías, Francisco Alemany, Simeon Deguara, Salem W. Zgozi, Fulvio Garibaldi, Isik K. Oray, Firdes Saadet Karakulak, Noureddine Abid, Miguel N. Santos, Piero Addis, Haritz Arrizabalaga, Fausto Tinti

Faculty Publications

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a highly migratory species emblematic of the challenges associated with shared fisheries management. In an effort to resolve the species’ stock dynamics, a genomewide search for spatially informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was undertaken, by way of sequencing reduced representation libraries. An allele frequency approach to SNP discovery was used, combining the data of 555 larvae and young‐of‐the‐year (LYOY) into pools representing major geographical areas and mapping against a newly assembled genomic reference. From a set of 184,895 candidate loci, 384 were selected for validation using 167 LYOY. A highly discriminatory genotyping panel of 95 …

Evaluating The Role Of Large Jellyfish And Forage Fishes As Energy Pathways, And Their Interplay With Fisheries, In The Northern Humboldt Current Systems, Luciano M. Chiaverino, Kelly L. Robinson, Jorge Tam, James J. Ruzicka, Javier Quiñones, Katrina Aleksa, Frank J. Hernandez Jr., Richard D. Brodeur, Robert T. Leaf, Shin-Ichi Uye, Mary Beth Decker, Marcelo Acha, Hermes Mianzan, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

Large jellyfish are important consumers of plankton, fish eggs and fish larvae in heavily fished ecosystems worldwide; yet they are seldom included in fisheries production models. Here we developed a trophic network model with 41 functional groups using ECOPATH re-expressed in a donor-driven, end-to-end format to directly evaluate the efficiency of large jellyfish and forage fish at transferring energy to higher trophic levels, as well as the ecosystem-wide effects of varying jellyfish and forage fish consumption rates and fishing rates, in the Northern Humboldt Current system (NHCS) off of Peru. Large jellyfish were an energy-loss pathway for high …

Descriptive Density Models Of Scyphozoan Jellyfish In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Katrina T. Aleksa, Redwood W. Nero, Jerry D. Wiggert, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

Jellyfish play an important role in the food web of many coastal environments but are generally considered a nuisance to scientific fieldwork and industrial and economic trades. A better understanding of how jellyfish densities and distributions are affected by environmental parameters could elucidate population trends and provide assistance in ecological research and undesirable human interactions. In this study, abundance data for scyphozoan medusae, Chrysaora sp. and Aurelia spp., were extracted from Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program trawling surveys for the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGoM) during the summer and fall months. Both in situ and satellite oceanographic measurements were …

Dietary Overlap Between Jellyfish And Forage Fish In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Isabella D'Ambra, William M. Graham, Ruth H. Carmichael, Frank J. Hernandez Jr.

Faculty Publications

Despite the speculations that jellyfish (hydromedusae, siphonophores, scyphomedusae and ctenophores) may compete with forage fish for prey, there are few direct comparisons of their diets. To determine the dietary overlap between Aurelia sp. (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa) and Brevoortia patronus (Goode, 1878) (Pisces, Clupeidae) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, we collected monthly samples in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal waters (USA) during summer and early fall 2009−2010. We determined carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in predators and their potential prey, including small plankton (<200 µm) and mesozooplankton (200− 2000 µm), and identified prey in the stomachs of adult Aurelia sp. and B. patronus. Trophic niche overlap was defined using the stable isotope Bayesian …