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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

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Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Old Dominion University

Series

2017

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Distributions Of Krill And Antarctic Silverfish And Correlations With Environmental Variables In The Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, L. Brynn Davis, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck, Andrea Piñones, Michael S. Dinniman Dec 2017

Distributions Of Krill And Antarctic Silverfish And Correlations With Environmental Variables In The Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, L. Brynn Davis, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck, Andrea Piñones, Michael S. Dinniman

CCPO Publications

Antarctic krill Euphausia superba, crystal krill E. crystallorophias, and Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarctica are key mid-trophic level species in the Ross Sea, connecting primary production to the upper trophic levels. Distributions of these species were constructed from observations made in the western Ross Sea from 1988 to 2004. Distributions of environmental conditions were obtained from a 5-km resolution circulation model (temperature, mixed layer depth, surface speed) and satellite-derived observations (chlorophyll, sea ice cover). A hierarchy of statistical methods determined correlations and relationships between species and environmental conditions. Each species occupies a localized habitat defined by different environmental characteristics. …

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A Synergistic Approach For Evaluating Climate Model Output For Ecological Applications, Rachel D. Cavanagh, Eugene J. Murphy, Thomas J. Bracegirdle, John Turner, Cheryl A. Knowland, Stuart P. Corney, Walker O. Smith Jr., Claire M. Waluda, Nadine M. Johnston, Richard G. J. Bellerby, Eileen E. Hofmann Sep 2017

A Synergistic Approach For Evaluating Climate Model Output For Ecological Applications, Rachel D. Cavanagh, Eugene J. Murphy, Thomas J. Bracegirdle, John Turner, Cheryl A. Knowland, Stuart P. Corney, Walker O. Smith Jr., Claire M. Waluda, Nadine M. Johnston, Richard G. J. Bellerby, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

Increasing concern about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems is prompting ecologists and ecosystem managers to seek reliable projections of physical drivers of change. The use of global climate models in ecology is growing, although drawing ecologically meaningful conclusions can be problematic. The expertise required to access and interpret output from climate and earth system models is hampering progress in utilizing them most effectively to determine the wider implications of climate change. To address this issue, we present a joint approach between climate scientists and ecologists that explores key challenges and opportunities for progress. As an exemplar, our focus …

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Large Marine Protected Areas Represent Biodiversity Now And Under Climate Change, T. E. Davies, S. M. Maxwell, K. Kaschner, C. Garilao, N. C. Ban Aug 2017

Large Marine Protected Areas Represent Biodiversity Now And Under Climate Change, T. E. Davies, S. M. Maxwell, K. Kaschner, C. Garilao, N. C. Ban

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Large marine protected areas (>30,000 km2) have a high profile in marine conservation, yet their contribution to conservation is contested. Assessing the overlap of large marine protected areas with 14,172 species, we found large marine protected areas cover 4.4% of the ocean and at least some portion of the range of 83.3% of the species assessed. Of all species within large marine protected areas, 26.9% had at least 10% of their range represented, and this was projected to increase to 40.1% in 2100. Cumulative impacts were significantly higher within large marine protected areas than outside, refuting the …

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Experimental Impacts Of Climate Warming And Ocean Carbonation On Eelgrass Zostera Marina, Richard C. Zimmerman, Victoria J. Hill, Malee Jinuntuya, Billur Celebi, David Ruble, Miranda Smith, Tiffany Cedeno, W. Mark Swingle Feb 2017

Experimental Impacts Of Climate Warming And Ocean Carbonation On Eelgrass Zostera Marina, Richard C. Zimmerman, Victoria J. Hill, Malee Jinuntuya, Billur Celebi, David Ruble, Miranda Smith, Tiffany Cedeno, W. Mark Swingle

OES Faculty Publications

CO2 is a critical and potentially limiting substrate for photosynthesis of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In addition to being a climate-warming greenhouse gas, increasing concentrations of CO2 will dissolve in the oceans, eliciting both negative and positive responses among organisms in a process commonly known as ocean acidification. The dissolution of CO2 into ocean surface waters, however, also increases its availability for photosynthesis, to which the highly successful, and ecologically important, seagrasses respond positively. Thus, the process might be more accurately characterized as ocean carbonation. This experiment demonstrated that CO2 stimulation of primary production enhances …

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Multiple Mating By Females In The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Callinectes Sapidus Population, S. Wells, J. Mcconaugha, L. Horth Feb 2017

Multiple Mating By Females In The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Callinectes Sapidus Population, S. Wells, J. Mcconaugha, L. Horth

OES Faculty Publications

Mature females of the Chesapeake Bay (USA) blue crab Callinectes sapidus population mate multiple times. Microsatellite DNA analysis of sperm stored in the spermathecae has shown that virtually all (~97%, 104 out of 107) females collected in a 2009−2010 study mated with at least 2 males. Enumeration of stored sperm revealed that despite multiple mating, some females did not have enough sperm to fulfill their lifetime reproductive potential, suggesting that female blue crabs may experience varying levels of sperm limitation. This could result from multiple factors. The average body size of males in the population has decreased, which reduces the …

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Eukaryotic Microbes, Principally Fungi And Labyrinthulomycetes, Dominate Biomass On Bathypelagic Marine Snow, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Melissa A. Clouse, Gerhard J. Herndl Jan 2017

Eukaryotic Microbes, Principally Fungi And Labyrinthulomycetes, Dominate Biomass On Bathypelagic Marine Snow, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Melissa A. Clouse, Gerhard J. Herndl

OES Faculty Publications

In the bathypelagic realm of the ocean, the role of marine snow as a carbon and energy source for the deep-sea biota and as a potential hotspot of microbial diversity and activity has not received adequate attention. Here, we collected bathypelagic marine snow by gentle gravity filtration of sea water onto μm filters from similar to 1000 to 3900 m to investigate the relative distribution of eukaryotic microbes. Compared with sediment traps that select for fast-sinking particles, this method collects particles unbiased by settling velocity. While prokaryotes numerically exceeded eukaryotes on marine snow, eukaryotic microbes belonging to two very distant …

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Impact Of Disease On The Survival Of Three Commercially Fished Species, John M. Hoenig, Maya L. Groner, Matthew W. Smith, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein, David M. Taylor, Donald F. Landers Jr., John T. Swenarton, David T. Gauthier Jan 2017

Impact Of Disease On The Survival Of Three Commercially Fished Species, John M. Hoenig, Maya L. Groner, Matthew W. Smith, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein, David M. Taylor, Donald F. Landers Jr., John T. Swenarton, David T. Gauthier

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Recent increases in emergent infectious diseases have raised concerns about the sustainability of some marine species. The complexity and expense of studying diseases in marine systems often dictate that conservation and management decisions are made without quantitative data on population-level impacts of disease. Mark-recapture is a powerful, underutilized, tool for calculating impacts of disease on population size and structure, even in the absence of etiological information. We applied logistic regression models to mark-recapture data to obtain estimates of disease-associated mortality rates in three commercially important marine species: snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in Newfoundland, Canada, that experience sporadic epizootics …

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Rapid Adaptive Responses To Climate Change In Corals, Gergely Torda, Jennifer M. Donelson, Manuel Aranda, Daniel J. Barshis, Line Bay, Michael L. Berumen, David G. Bourne, Neal Cantin, Sylvain Foret, Mikhail Matz Jan 2017

Rapid Adaptive Responses To Climate Change In Corals, Gergely Torda, Jennifer M. Donelson, Manuel Aranda, Daniel J. Barshis, Line Bay, Michael L. Berumen, David G. Bourne, Neal Cantin, Sylvain Foret, Mikhail Matz

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Pivotal to projecting the fate of coral reefs is the capacity of reef-building corals to acclimatize and adapt to climate change. Transgenerational plasticity may enable some marine organisms to acclimatize over several generations and it has been hypothesized that epigenetic processes and microbial associations might facilitate adaptive responses. However, current evidence is equivocal and understanding of the underlying processes is limited. Here, we discuss prospects for observing transgenerational plasticity in corals and the mechanisms that could enable adaptive plasticity in the coral holobiont, including the potential role of epigenetics and coral-associated microbes. Well-designed and strictly controlled experiments are needed to …

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