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Marine Biology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Marine Biology

It's A Small World After All: Insights, Interferences, And Implications Of In Situ Chlorophyll Fluorescence Monitoring In Estuaries, James Silas Tanner Jan 2022

It's A Small World After All: Insights, Interferences, And Implications Of In Situ Chlorophyll Fluorescence Monitoring In Estuaries, James Silas Tanner

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Concentrations of the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll a are used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass by estuarine scientists to study eutrophication, food web dynamics, and harmful algal blooms. Coastal managers use chlorophyll as an indicator of nutrient pollution and for assessments to meet Clean Water Act standards. Chlorophyll a, as measured in the laboratory by extraction from monthly discrete water samples, is a core component of the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). Field-deployable sensors based on the excitation and emission spectra of in situ chlorophyll have not been incorporated into SWMP to date because past …


The Effect Of Visitor Density And Interaction On The Behavior Of Four Ray Species (Hypanus Sabina, Hypanus Say, Pseudobatos Lentiginosus, And Rhinoptera Bonasus) Housed In An Aquatic Touch Pool, Aimee Marie Little Jan 2022

The Effect Of Visitor Density And Interaction On The Behavior Of Four Ray Species (Hypanus Sabina, Hypanus Say, Pseudobatos Lentiginosus, And Rhinoptera Bonasus) Housed In An Aquatic Touch Pool, Aimee Marie Little

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human-Animal Interactions (HAI) in zoological institutions are thought to be important in helping visitors to establish a connection with animals and thus making them more likely to contribute to conservation efforts. However, animals can respond to visitor interaction in both negative and positive ways. The growing focus on animal welfare in zoological institutions emphasizes the need for assessing different environmental inputs, including visitor interaction, and how these inputs influence behavioral outputs associated with welfare. A touch pool exhibit presents a novel interactive experience that allows visitors to directly interact with various aquatic species, including elasmobranchs, whose conservation has important implications …


Effects Of Environmental And Anthropogenic Factors On Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta) False Crawl Rates On Jekyll Island, Ga, Brittany Byrd Jan 2022

Effects Of Environmental And Anthropogenic Factors On Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta) False Crawl Rates On Jekyll Island, Ga, Brittany Byrd

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) are currently listed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List and are experiencing population declines across many parts of their range. These declines are caused by environmental and anthropogenic stressors which impact sea turtle ecology and behavior, including nesting behavior. One nesting behavior sea turtles exhibit is known as “false crawling,” which is when a female sea turtle ascends the beach in an attempt to nest and either abandons the attempt altogether or while in the middle of digging an egg chamber. False crawling, a largely understudied sea turtle behavior, can not only …


An Analysis Of The Spatial Genetic Structure Of A Hybrid Zone Between Two Species Of Killifish, Fundulus Heteroclitus And F. Grandis, Andrew Lee Hardy Jan 2022

An Analysis Of The Spatial Genetic Structure Of A Hybrid Zone Between Two Species Of Killifish, Fundulus Heteroclitus And F. Grandis, Andrew Lee Hardy

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hybridization offers unique insight into the evolutionary process of speciation and the forces that maintain barriers to reproduction. In northeast Florida, a hybrid zone between two species of killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus and F. grandis, has been identified near Flagler Beach, FL, although the exact boundaries of the hybrid zone remain unknown (Gonzalez et al. 2009). This study aims to determine the fine-scale spatial genetic patterns of the hybrid zone and test the hypothesis that species ranges are influenced by changes in dominant vegetation. Results from an ADMIXTURE analysis and FST data indicated the boundary of the area of …


Histological Comparison Of Shark Dermis Across Various Ecomorphologies, Olivia Schuitema Jan 2022

Histological Comparison Of Shark Dermis Across Various Ecomorphologies, Olivia Schuitema

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The integument plays essential roles in the structural support, protection, and hydrodynamic capability among fishes. Most shark skin research has been done on the external epidermal layer containing the dermal denticles, while the larger dermis layer has been mostly ignored. The dermis layer in sharks is composed of two layers, the upper stratum laxum and the lower stratum compactum, holding supportive collagen and elastin fibers. There may be morphological and compositional differences in the dermis layers across various species of sharks, although the extent of such is unknown. These potential differences may be represented by various dermal thicknesses and different …