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Distribution, Abundance, And Trophic Ecology Of Anguilliform Leptocephali In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Lillian Collins

Master's Theses

All species of anguilliform eels have pelagic leptocephalus larval stages, which provides a means of monitoring the population dynamics of these otherwise cryptic and hard to study species. The goals of this study were to: 1) describe the distribution and abundance of anguilliform eel leptocephali across the northern Gulf of Mexico, and 2) examine the trophic ecology of leptocephali using stable isotope values of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C and δ15N). A 25-year (1990-2014) ichthyoplankton dataset provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) was used to examine interannual variations in leptocephalus distribution, …