Marine Biology Commons^™

Effects Of Oyster Aquaculture On Elasmobranch Abundance And Habitat Use In Humboldt Bay, Ca, Rose Harman

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Habitat modification from aquaculture can have large effects on natural communities, with the habitat complexity provided by aquaculture structure positively influencing benthic invertebrates and small fish abundance. However, the effects of aquaculture on larger predatory fish like elasmobranchs (i.e., sharks and rays), which use nearshore habitat to forage and provide top-down control of these ecosystems, is largely unknown. Over two years, I deployed baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVS) to examine the effects of oyster aquaculture and environmental variables such as habitat (mudflat or eelgrass), salinity (ppt), turbidity (m), temperature (°C), pH (mV), dissolved oxygen (mg · L^-1), …

Life History And Habitat Use Of The Juvenile Alabama Shad (Alosa Alabamae) In Northern Gulf Of Mexico Rivers, Paul Fraser Mickle

Dissertations

The Alabama shad, Alosa alabamae, is an anadromous species that is in decline and has seen extirpations from impoundments as well as decreased water quality. Alabama shad live in the Gulf of Mexico and ascend Northern Gulf of Mexico Drainages to reproduce early in the year (January-May). The juveniles spend the majority of the year in these freshwater systems before emigrating out to the Gulf of Mexico as late as December.

This dissertation focuses on the juvenile life stages that occur within the Northern Gulf of Mexico drainages. Spawning conditions of the river, as well as the habitat and diet, …

Regional Characterisation Of Hard-Bottom Nursery Habitat For Juvenile Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Argus) Using Rapid Assessment Techniques, Rodney D. Bertelsen, Mark J. Butler Iv, William F. Herrnkind, John H. Hunt

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Shallow, hard-bottom habitat constitutes approximately 30% of the coastal waters of south Florida, United States, yet it is a chronically understudied feature of the marine seascape in this region. In this study, we characterised the general biogeographic and structural features of shallow benthic hard-bottom communities in the Florida Keys, and related those to the abundance of juvenile Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), the target of one of Florida's most economically valuable fisheries. We used rapid assessment techniques to survey more than 100 hard-bottom sites in the Florida Keys to estimate the percentage bottom coverage of vegetation (seagrass and …