Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Open Access Articles

Efficacy Of Sediment Contaminant Remediation Of The Benthos In A Segment Of The Southern Branch Of The Elizabeth River, Colton Martin

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

The bottom sediment of the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, was historically contaminated with hydrocarbons from industrial sources especially wood treatment facilities. The Elizabeth River Project selected a section of the bottom off Money Point in the Southern Branch for a sediment contaminant remediation effort. Prior to initiation of remediation efforts, a survey occurred in summer 2010 to characterize the ecological condition of the benthic communities off Money Point compared to benthic communities of a benthic region across the channel and northwest of Money Point near Blows Creek. That study characterized the benthos of …

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Remote Detection Of Disturbance From Motorized Vehicle Use In Appalachian Wetlands, Walter Smith

Virginia Journal of Science

Wetland disturbance from motorized vehicle use is a growing concern across the Appalachian coalfields of southwestern Virginia and portions of adjacent states, particularly as both extractive industries and outdoor recreation development expand in regional communities. However, few attempts have been made in this region or elsewhere to adapt approaches that can assist researchers and land managers in remotely identifying and monitoring wetland habitats disturbed by motorized vehicle use. A comparative analysis of wetlands impacted and unimpacted by off-road vehicle activity at a public recreation area in Tazewell County, Virginia was conducted to determine if and how a common, satellite-derived index …

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The Effect Of Storm Events On Diet Of Adult Mummichogs (Fundulus Heteroclitus), Jessica S. Thompson, Cade P. Cobbs, Emma S. Dryden, Heather D. Harwell

Virginia Journal of Science

More frequent storms due to climate change may impact estuarine species such as the mummichog (Fundulus hetereoclitus), an ecologically important salt marsh fish. This study investigated the effect of storm events and month on consumption of terrestrial insects by mummichogs in Hoffler Creek, Portsmouth, VA, as well as the effect of storms on consumption of major categories of benthic prey. Samples were taken monthly in the summers of 2017 and 2019. Additional paired samples were taken in June and July 2019, with the first collection during dry weather and the second during a subsequent storm. Month had a …

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Habitat Partitioning And Associated Morphological Differences Among Three Species Of Catostomidae (Teleostei: Actinopterygii) In The South Fork Roanoke River, Virginia, Steven L. Powers, Dakota R. Spruill

Virginia Journal of Science

The upper Roanoke River has 11 species of Catostomidae including Thoburnia rhothoeca, Torrent Sucker; Moxostoma cervinum, Blacktip Jumprock; and Moxostoma ariommum, Bigeye Jumprock. Resource partitioning appears to be a key component of maintaining diverse fish assemblages with habitat and food partitioning cited as especially important in communities containing members of the same family. The diets of these species have been documented in previous work revealing only modest differences among them. Snorkeling observations and subsequent quantification of microhabitat were conducted to illuminate habitat partitioning among these morphologically and ecologically similar species. Thoburnia rhothoeca inhabited the shallowest, fastest water, over the …

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Global Connectivity Of Southern Ocean Ecosystems, Eugene J. Murphy, Nadine M. Johnston, Eileen E. Hofmann, Richard A. Phillips, Jennifer A. Jackson, Andrew J. Constable, Sian F. Henley, Jessica Melbourne-Thomas, Rowan Trebilco, Rachel D. Cavanagh, Geraint A. Tarling, Ryan A. Saunders, David K.A. Barnes, Daniel P. Costa, Stuart P. Corney, Ceridwen I. Fraser, Juan Höfer, Kevin A. Hughes, Chester J. Sands, Sally E. Thorpe, Philip N. Trathan, José C. Xavier

CCPO Publications

Southern Ocean ecosystems are globally important. Processes in the Antarctic atmosphere, cryosphere, and the Southern Ocean directly influence global atmospheric and oceanic systems. Southern Ocean biogeochemistry has also been shown to have global importance. In contrast, ocean ecological processes are often seen as largely separate from the rest of the global system. In this paper, we consider the degree of ecological connectivity at different trophic levels, linking Southern Ocean ecosystems with the global ocean, and their importance not only for the regional ecosystem but also the wider Earth system. We also consider the human system connections, including the role of …

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Lipid Markers And Compound-Specific Carbon Isotopes As Diet And Biosynthesis Reflectors In The Northern Neptune Whelk Neptunea Heros, H. Rodger Harvey, Rachel Mcmahon, Karen A. Taylor

OES Faculty Publications

A suite of lipid biomarkers plus compound-specific carbon isotopes of major sterols were determined in muscle tissues across increasing sizes of northern Neptune whelks Neptunea heros, developing eggs and potential diets to link trophic patterns, metabolism and carbon sources on the Chukchi Sea shelf. Analysis of primary prey included the northern clam Astarte borealis, water column particulate organic matter (POM) and surface sediments near the collection sites. Sterols specific to major algal groups along with algal-derived polyunsaturated fatty acids (C20:5n-3, C20:4n-3, C22:6n-3) in whelk muscle tissue reflected the importance of algal primary production to benthic consumers and its …

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Marine Phytoplankton Functional Types Exhibit Diverse Responses To Thermal Change, S. I. Anderson, A. D. Barton, Sophie Clayton, S. Dutkiewicz, T. A. Rynearson

OES Faculty Publications

Marine phytoplankton generate half of global primary production, making them essential to ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycling. Though phytoplankton are phylogenetically diverse, studies rarely designate unique thermal traits to different taxa, resulting in coarse representations of phytoplankton thermal responses. Here we assessed phytoplankton functional responses to temperature using empirically derived thermal growth rates from four principal contributors to marine productivity: diatoms, dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria, and coccolithophores. Using modeled sea surface temperatures for 1950-1970 and 2080-2100, we explored potential alterations to each group's growth rates and geographical distribution under a future climate change scenario. Contrary to the commonly applied Eppley formulation, our …

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Biolability Of Fresh And Photodegraded Pyrogenic Dissolved Organic Matter From Laboratory-Prepared Chars, K. W. Bostick, A. R. Zimmerman, A. I. Goranov, S. Mitra, P. G. Hatcher, A. S. Wozniak

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Pyrogenic dissolved organic matter (pyDOM) is known to be an important biogeochemical constituent of aquatic ecosystems and the carbon cycle. While recent studies have examined how pyDOM production, composition, and photolability varies with parent pyrogenic solid material type, we lack an understanding of potential microbial mineralization and transformation of pyDOM in the biogeosphere. Thus, leachates of oak, charred at 400 °C and 650 °C, as well as their photodegraded counterparts were incubated with a soil‐extracted microbial consortium over 96 days. During the incubation, significantly more carbon was biomineralized from the lower versus higher temperature char leachate (45% vs. 37% lost, …

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A Kernel-Based Change Detection Method To Map Shifts In Phytoplankton Communities Measured By Flow Cytometry, Corinne Jones, Sophie Clayton, François Ribalet, E. Virginia Armbrust, Zaid Harchaoui

OES Faculty Publications

1. Automated, ship-board flow cytometers provide high-resolution maps of phytoplankton composition over large swaths of the world's oceans. They therefore pave the way for understanding how environmental conditions shape community structure. Identification of community changes along a cruise transect commonly segments the data into distinct regions. However, existing segmentation methods are generally not applicable to flow cytometry data, as these data are recorded as ‘point cloud’ data, with hundreds or thousands of particles measured during each time interval. Moreover, nonparametric segmentation methods that do not rely on prior knowledge of the number of species are desirable to map community shifts. …

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Large-Scale Variation In Wave Attenuation Of Oyster Reef Living Shorelines And The Influence Of Inundation Duration, Rebecca L. Morris, Megan K. La Peyre, Bret M. Webb, Danielle A. Marshall, Donna M. Bilkovic, Just Cebrian, Giovanna Mcclenachan, Kelly M. Kibler, Linda J. Walters, David Bushek, Eric L. Sparks, Nigel A. Temple, Joshua Moody, Kory Angstadt, Joshua Goff, Maura Boswell, Paul Sacks, Stephen E. Swearer

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

One of the paramount goals of oyster reef living shorelines is to achieve sustained and adaptive coastal protection, which requires meeting ecological (i.e., develop a self-sustaining oyster population) and engineering (i.e., provide coastal defense) targets. In a large-scale comparison along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, the efficacy of various designs of oyster reef living shorelines at providing wave attenuation was evaluated accounting for the ecological limitations of oysters with regards to inundation duration. A critical threshold for intertidal oyster reef establishment is 50% inundation duration. Living shorelines that spent less than half of the time ( …

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Triple Oxygen Isotope Measurements (Δ'17O) Of Body Water Reflect Water Intake, Metabolism, And Δ18O Of Ingested Water In Passerines, Pablo Sabat, Seth D. Newsome, Stephanie Pinochet, Roberto Nespolo, Juan Carlos Sanchez-Hernandez, Karen Maldonado, Alexander R. Gerson, Zachary D. Sharp, John P. Whiteman

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding physiological traits and ecological conditions that influence a species reliance on metabolic water is critical to creating accurate physiological models that can assess their ability to adapt to environmental perturbations (e.g., drought) that impact water availability. However, relatively few studies have examined variation in the sources of water animals use to maintain water balance, and even fewer have focused on the role of metabolic water. A key reason is methodological limitations. Here, we applied a new method that measures the triple oxygen isotopic composition of a single blood sample to estimate the contribution of metabolic water to the body …

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Scaling The Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Coral Growth And Coral-Coral Competition On Coral Community Recovery, Nicolas R. Evensen, Yves-Marie Bozec, Peter J. Edmunds, Peter J. Mumby

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ocean acidification (OA) is negatively affecting calcification in a wide variety of marine organisms. These effects are acute for many tropical scleractinian corals under short-term experimental conditions, but it is unclear how these effects interact with ecological processes, such as competition for space, to impact coral communities over multiple years. This study sought to test the use of individual-based models (IBMs) as a tool to scale up the effects of OA recorded in short-term studies to community-scale impacts, combining data from field surveys and mesocosm experiments to parameterize an IBM of coral community recovery on the fore reef of Moorea, …

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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Efficacy Of Sediment Contaminant Remediation Of The Benthos In A Segment Of The Southern Branch Of The Elizabeth River, Colton Martin

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Remote Detection Of Disturbance From Motorized Vehicle Use In Appalachian Wetlands, Walter Smith

Virginia Journal of Science

The Effect Of Storm Events On Diet Of Adult Mummichogs (Fundulus Heteroclitus), Jessica S. Thompson, Cade P. Cobbs, Emma S. Dryden, Heather D. Harwell

Virginia Journal of Science

Habitat Partitioning And Associated Morphological Differences Among Three Species Of Catostomidae (Teleostei: Actinopterygii) In The South Fork Roanoke River, Virginia, Steven L. Powers, Dakota R. Spruill

Virginia Journal of Science

CCPO Publications

Lipid Markers And Compound-Specific Carbon Isotopes As Diet And Biosynthesis Reflectors In The Northern Neptune Whelk Neptunea Heros, H. Rodger Harvey, Rachel Mcmahon, Karen A. Taylor

OES Faculty Publications

Marine Phytoplankton Functional Types Exhibit Diverse Responses To Thermal Change, S. I. Anderson, A. D. Barton, Sophie Clayton, S. Dutkiewicz, T. A. Rynearson

OES Faculty Publications

Biolability Of Fresh And Photodegraded Pyrogenic Dissolved Organic Matter From Laboratory-Prepared Chars, K. W. Bostick, A. R. Zimmerman, A. I. Goranov, S. Mitra, P. G. Hatcher, A. S. Wozniak

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

A Kernel-Based Change Detection Method To Map Shifts In Phytoplankton Communities Measured By Flow Cytometry, Corinne Jones, Sophie Clayton, François Ribalet, E. Virginia Armbrust, Zaid Harchaoui

OES Faculty Publications

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Scaling The Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Coral Growth And Coral-Coral Competition On Coral Community Recovery, Nicolas R. Evensen, Yves-Marie Bozec, Peter J. Edmunds, Peter J. Mumby

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications