Marine Biology Commons^™

Impacts Of Algal Morphology And Water Flow On Macroalgal Microplastic Capture, Cheyenne M. Adams

Honors College Theses

Microplastic pollution is a major area of concern in marine environments, especially as microplastics enter the food web. This study used pipe cleaners and two lichen species as algal mimics, and Chaetomorpha sp. and Chondrus crispus as model algal species to test the effects of morphology and biomass on microbead and foam capture. This study also utilized two different water flow methods: vortices and waves. Results suggest that water flow, as well as biomass and morphology, play a role in microplastic capture in macroalgae. For all mimics and algal species, except Cladonia lichens, turfs with increased biomass and length showed …

Effects Of Synthetic Estrogen (17Α-Ethinyl Estradiol) On Male Fiddler Crab Aggression, Micayla Shirley

Honors College Theses

Pharmaceuticals, including hormones and antibiotics, are considered contaminants due to their widespread use and release into the environment. Hormones, like the synthetic estrogen used in oral contraceptives (17α-ethinylestradiol), are present in freshwater and marine systems, but with relatively unknown effects on the organisms that live there. Ethinylestradiol (EE2) accumulates in waterlogged soil (sediment) with potential to harm sediment-dwelling animals. For example, fiddler crabs (Uca pugilator) are vital members of salt marsh communities. Their burrowing adds oxygen to sediments and cycles nutrients, and they are an important food resource to birds and raccoons. Male fiddler crabs are territorial, aggressively …

Novel Quantification And Localization Of Water And Solute Transporters In The Tissues Of The Spiney Dogfish (Squalus Acanthias), Tolulope B. Ojo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dogfish, Squalus acanthias is a marine cartilaginous elasmobranch found in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Dogfish synthesize and excrete urea as a product of nitrogen metabolism. They also convert ammonia into urea and retain this urea, such that their plasma is isosmotic or slightly hyperosmotic to the surrounding seawater. To facilitate the regulation of body fluid and to maintain ionic concentrations and osmotic pressure, Dogfish use ion and solute transporters (e.g., NCC, UT-1) and aquaporin water channel proteins. Studies have identified some of the aquaporin genes in the elasmobranch genome, but their functions are mostly uncharacterized. Recent transcriptomic …

Assessing The Utility Of Environmental Dna Techniques To Monitor White Shrimp (Litopenaeus Setiferus) Abundance On The Georgia Coast, Raven Hurt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys have developed over the last decade from once being a novel tool to now acting as an effective technology often used in complement to traditional capture surveys for assessing the distribution of organisms in freshwater and marine environments. However, many uncertainties on how to properly develop, operate, and analyze eDNA based techniques still hinder this technology effectiveness in the field. The white shrimp, Litopenaeus setiferus, is a common, commercially and recreationally important species in the United States, with landings exceeding $254 million in 2020. L. setiferus is also used as a key indicator species to changes …

Steady Heartbeat: Field And Laboratory Studies Indicate Unexpected Resilience To High Temperatures For The Ribbed Mussel Geukensia Demissa, Ashlyn N. Smith Ms.

Honors College Theses

Salt marshes are important ecosystems found along the coast of Georgia. Salt marshes are hosts to diverse organisms that interact with each other to promote many ecosystem services, such as storm buffering and flooding, and absorption of excess nutrients. Among these diverse organisms is the ribbed mussel, Geukensia demissa. Mussels are a foundation species in this intertidal landscape, and without them the whole salt marsh would be negatively affected. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the thermal stress response of G. demissa to rising temperatures. Mussels were collected from three locations that were landlocked, close to a …

Comparing Feeding Accuracy Between High And Low Predation Trinidad Guppies, Lydia J. Bonnell

Honors College Theses

Efficient feeding accuracy could increase an organism’s survival. Although local adaptation in Trinidad guppies is common, the effects on accuracy are unknown. Guppies were wild caught in 2015 and 2017, filmed while capturing prey. Accuracy wasn’t different within samples but differed across samples, possibly due to the prey types used.

Successional Processes In The Benthic Invertebrate Communities At Gray’S Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Alexis A. Bivens

Honors College Theses

While the process of community development has been studied in terrestrial habitats since the turn of the 20th century, similar information is not as readily available in marine systems. Understanding patterns of community development is essential to predicting recovery potential and to designing effective marine protected areas. In the South Atlantic Bight, invertebrate communities on hard substrata can differ significantly from one rocky outcrop to another, but the factors driving these differences are not well understood. I documented the initial development of the benthic invertebrate community at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) to address the prediction that this system …

The Biological Stress Response In Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis Macrochirus) To Variations In Environmental Temperature And Dissolved Oxygen Content., Monique Kellman

Honors College Theses

With the predicted increase in global water temperature and acute hypoxic episodes, knowledge of the effects these stressors can have on local aquatic life is extremely valuable. This study thereby quantified the change in metabolic rate in Bluegill sunfish, in response to increased temperature and low dissolved oxygen concentration, by utilizing intermittent flow respirometry. Both maximum metabolic rate (MMR) and resting metabolic rate (RMR) were determined in response to variations in dissolved oxygen content, specifically > 95% O₂ and 40% O₂. Additionally, three temperature treatment groups were established, with temperatures of 20, 25 and 30°C in order to …

Relative Abundances Of The Recently Introduced Barnacles, Megabalanus Coccopoma And An Unidentified Species Of Megabalanus, In The Southeastern U.S., Jennifer L. Tyson

Honors College Theses

ABSTRACT

Megabalanus coccopoma is a prominent invasive species off the coast of Georgia. Recently, among collected samples thought to be M. coccopoma, several individuals of an unidentified species of barnacle were found. The species has been identified as a Megabalanus species, but is still unidentified to the species level. Species identification is difficult due to morphological variation, inconsistent taxonomic keys, and unknown origin. In this study I developed a method to accurately distinguish M. coccopoma from the unidentified Megabalanus sp. using sequence differences in the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) gene. This study will provide an accurate estimate of …

Variation In Egg Components: A Study Of Maternal Investment And Resource Partitioning In The Nesting Loggerhead Sea Turtle; Estimating Genic Variation And Mapping Genetic Lineage Of A Rare Captive Helodermatid Population: Heloderma Horridum Charlesbogerti, Ketan V. Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Loggerhead sea turtles have the highest egg yields of any oviparous non-avian reptiles. Blood urea nitrogen levels increased as the season progressed while total blood albumen and total protein levels decreased. Wet egg mass (H = 1.7719 df = 2 p = 0.0375*) and albumen mass (H = 6.0507 df = 2 p = 0.0485*) significantly decreased across the nesting season however, wet yolk did not. Analysis of dried egg components showed that dry yolk and albumen did not differ across the nesting season. In addition on no seasonal change in dried egg components, hatchling size was conserved across the …

Molecular Population Genetics Of The Atlantic Sand Fiddler Crab, Uca Pugilator, Along The Atlantic Coast, David A. Weese

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author's abstract: The Atlantic sand fiddler crab, Uca pugilator, is an extremely abundant fiddler crab found along the eastern and Gulf coast of the United States. Fiddler crabs have a life cycle with an obligatory planktonic larval phase of 30-90 days, which might be expected to lead to widespread larval dispersal and consequent genetic homogeneity over considerable distances. However a large amount of morphological and behavioral variation is found between northern and southern populations along the eastern coast. This study was undertaken to determine the population genetic structure of U. pugilator and to determine whether these differences may have a …