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The Relationship Between Green Sea Urchin Spawning, Spring Phytoplankton Blooms, And The Winter-Spring Hydrography At Selected Sites In Maine, Lindsay C. N. Seward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between green sea urchin spawning, spring phytoplankton blooms, and hydrography were examined at multiple spatial scales during the winter-spring of 2000 at selected sites along the coast of Maine. To determine factors contributing to the variation observed in the timing of green sea urchin spawning, sea urchins, phytoplankton, and oceanographic variables were sampled biweekly at four sites in central Maine and three sites in eastern Maine. Water column properties and phytoplankton was intensively examined at sites in central Maine, while sites in eastern Maine were less well characterized. Analysis of gonad indices showed that spawning was protracted in …