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Full-Text Articles in Biology

The Social Structure And Mating Strategies Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In The St. Johns River, Jessica Lea Ermak Jan 2014

The Social Structure And Mating Strategies Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In The St. Johns River, Jessica Lea Ermak

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Across populations, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) exhibit a fission-fusion pattern of associations, in which group size and composition change fluidly throughout the day. Beneath this seemingly ephemeral social structure, considerable variation exists across study sites. While females typically have moderate bonds with one another within a large social network, male-male bonds are variable, though males typically take one of two strategies; some males encounter females individually for opportunities to breed while others cooperate within a first-order alliance to collectively herd females. In addition, multi-tiered alliances in which two first-order alliances cooperate to defend or assist in the theft of a …


Reproductive Biology Of The Bonnethead (Sphyrna Tiburo) From The Southeastern U.S. Atlantic Coast, Melissa I. Gonzalez De Acevedo Jan 2014

Reproductive Biology Of The Bonnethead (Sphyrna Tiburo) From The Southeastern U.S. Atlantic Coast, Melissa I. Gonzalez De Acevedo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the life history of marine wildlife is essential for the management of both commercial and recreational fisheries. Bonnetheads (Sphyrna tiburo) are a component of the small coastal shark (SCS) fishery complex, and are caught regularly in both types of fisheries. Despite being well studied in the Gulf of Mexico, little is known about bonnetheads from the U.S. Atlantic coast. The goal of the first component of this study was to provide new, key information on their life history to improve management of U.S. Atlantic populations, particularly by identifying reproductive seasonality, periodicity and fecundity. This was accomplished by examining sexually …


The Effects Of Sampling Design On Abundance And Distribution Of Bottlenose Dolphins In The St. Johns River, Florida, Samantha Ryanne Nekolny Jan 2014

The Effects Of Sampling Design On Abundance And Distribution Of Bottlenose Dolphins In The St. Johns River, Florida, Samantha Ryanne Nekolny

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is tasked with upholding the regulations prescribed in the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. One of the ways this is accomplished is by producing regular stock assessment reports. For these reports, knowledge about a species abundance and distribution is a vital component, allowing informed management decisions to be made that may potentially reduce the natural and anthropogenic impacts on the organisms. In 2010, an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) occurred in the lower St. Johns River, resulting in an unusually large number of bottlenose dolphin strandings. As the data regarding this population was …


The Performance Of Simple Artificial Floating Wetland Communities And Their Effects On Aquatic Nutrient Levels And Algal Abundance, Bradley L. Sleeth Jan 2014

The Performance Of Simple Artificial Floating Wetland Communities And Their Effects On Aquatic Nutrient Levels And Algal Abundance, Bradley L. Sleeth

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Harmful algal blooms are exponential increases in autotrophic microorganisms that proliferate in such a way that the surrounding environment, the local economy and the health of regional populations are negatively affected. Among the causes of these blooms are anthropogenic inputs of excess nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment through overfertilization. Floating treatment wetlands (FTW) have emerged as a novel method of reducing the negative impacts of these nutrient inputs by using artificial rafts to float normally emergent wetland plants on the surface of water bodies to assimilate excess nutrients. Because their use is so new, only limited research has been …