Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Species Richness, Diversity, And Abundance Of Sponge Communities In Broward County, Florida, 2000-2015, Jessica Price

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Sponges (Porifera) are a major component of coral reef ecosystems. They outnumber coral species on the Florida Reef Tract, and in places, account for more living cover. Because coral reefs are a vital part of Florida’s economy, it is important to understand how local sponge assemblages vary spatially and temporally, especially as corals continue to decline. However, long-term observations of sponge assemblages (species richness, diversity and abundance) are lacking. To address this, annual photoquadrats were analyzed from a series of 25 sites off Broward County between 2000 and 2015. Variations in sponge assemblages were then compared to several natural and …

Peruvian Pinnipeds As Archivists Of Enso Effects, Mickie Rae Edwards

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Environmental fluctuations in the eastern Pacific Ocean are reflected in the tissues of some of its most vulnerable apex predators, the Peruvian fur seal (PFS) Arctocephalus australis ssp.and the South American sea lion (SASL) Otaria byronia.These large pinnipeds live in sympatry along the Pacific coastline of South America and forage within the neritic waters over the continental shelf. The coastal waters off Peru are a region of great environmental fluctuations due to periodic, oscillating El Niño- La Niña- Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, which result in ecosystem-wide food web changes. Pinniped vibrissae (whiskers) are continuously growing keratinous tissues and …

Ecophysiology Of Lionfish Metabolic And Visual Systems: Are There Physiological Limits To Inshore Invasion?, Aaron Hasenei

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Lionfish (Pterois spp.), an invasive species native to the Indo-Pacific, have permanently established themselves throughout the greater Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and regions of the Western Atlantic ranging from as far north as North Carolina to central Brazil. As their fundamental range expands, lionfish threaten to migrate into estuarine environments as they have been found to tolerate low salinities and an eclectic range of temperatures. The physiological capacity of invasion was assessed by quantifying the visual ecology of lionfish utilizing corneal electroretinography (ERG) as well as their metabolic scope and hypoxia tolerances under various temperature-oxygen-regimes utilizing intermittent-flow respirometry. Seasonal …

Indirect Effects Of Ocean Warming And Acidification On The Realized Recruitment Of Agaricia Agaricites, Allan Anderson

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Over the past few decades, coral cover has declined worldwide due to overfishing, disease, and storms, and these effects have been exacerbated by ocean warming and acidification. Corals are extremely susceptible to these changes because they are already living close to their thermal and aragonite saturation thresholds. Ocean warming and acidification (OAW) may also impact coral survival and growth by impacting their settlement cues. Coral larvae use crustose coralline algae (CCA) and their associated biofilms as cues for settlement, i.e., habitat selection. Settlement cues can also be negatively affected by increased water temperature and acidity. It was hypothesized that the …

Turbulent And Electromagnetic Signature Of Small- And Fine-Scale Biological And Oceanographic Processes, Cayla Whitney Dean

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Small- and fine-scale biological and oceanographic processes may have a measurable electromagnetic signature. These types of processes inherently involve turbulence and three-dimensional dynamics. Traditional models of the electromagnetic signature of oceanographic processes are of an analytical nature, do not account for three-dimensional boundary layer dynamics or turbulence, self-inductance, and may not describe the variety of the environmental conditions occurring in the ocean. In order to address this problem, I have implemented magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools, which has allowed for the evaluation of the electromagnetic signature of a number of small- and fine-scale biological and oceanographic processes in …

Attributing Accelerated Increases In Salinity In The Mediterranean Coastal Zone To Climate Change And Seawater Desalination Brine And The Resultant Unsustainability Of Modern Desalination Technology, Brandon W. Harper

HCNSO Student Capstones

Anthropogenic climate change influences our oceans on a global scale and has brought about increased salinity levels in large areas of our oceans such as the North Atlantic (Dunbar 2009). Concentrations of large scale desalination plants around small bodies of water add to this pattern and have shown even larger increases in salinity due to desalination brine discharge (Purnama et al., 2005). Salinity profile data over time should show similar increases in salinity in the Mediterranean Sea due to climate change and localized data should show increased salinity due to brine discharge. This study aims to pinpoint the extent of …

Optimization Of Light Irradiance During The Early Life Of Sexually-Produced Porites Astreoides And Agaricia Agaricites Recruits, Nicholas J. Mcmahon

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Current solutions of coral restoration rely mainly on fragmentation. Though a reliable technique, this asexual form of reproduction does not benefit the genetic diversity of the coral reef. With many global and local stressors threatening corals’ existence, the resiliency of corals to future ocean conditions depends highly on sexual reproduction to produce new genotypes. New technology allows coral spawning/larval release, larval settlement and rearing to be carried out in an aquarium system. Many of the techniques necessary to maintain coral recruits are well-established, however the effects of light intensity remain to be studied for these early life stages. Newly …

Empirical Validation And Comparison Of The Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (Hycom) Between The Gulf Of Mexico And The Tongue Of The Ocean, Cynthia A. Cleveland

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Ocean models are increasingly able to synthesize a large temporal domain with fine spatial resolution. With this increase in functionality and availability, ocean models are in high demand by researchers, establishing a critical need for validating a model’s ability to represent interior ocean dynamics. Satellite measurements are typically used for validation, however these measurements are limited to the upper layers of the ocean and therefore satellite measurements of sea surface height and sea surface temperature are the most validated output parameters of three-dimensional ocean models. Unfortunately there is a paucity of model validation studies for the interior ocean. This study …

Uncovering The Role Of Propagule Pressure In Determining Establishment Success Using A Synthetic Biology Approach, Michael D. Dressler

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The spread of invasive species poses a major ecological and economical threat. Consequently there are ongoing efforts to develop a generalizable mechanism to predict establishment success of non-native species. One proposed mechanism to predict establishment success is propagule pressure, which is defined as the number of individuals introduced at a given time. Although some studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between propagule pressure and establishment success, others have not, and the effect of propagule pressure on establishment success remains unclear. To address this challenge, a strain of bacteria engineered with an Allee effect, a growth dynamic that is often associated …

Shoulder-Specific Patient Reported Outcome Measures For Use In Patients With Head And Neck Cancer:An Assessment Of Reliability, Construct Validity, And Overall Appropriateness Of Test Score Interpretation Using Rasch Analysis, Melissa Michelle Eden

Department of Physical Therapy Student Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Context: Medical management for head and neck cancer (HNC) often includes neck dissection surgery, a side effect of which is shoulder dysfunction. There is no consensus for which patient-reported outcome measure (PRO) is most appropriate to quantify shoulder dysfunction in this population.

Objective: The aims of this research study were to: (1) use Rasch methodologies to assess construct validity and overall appropriateness of test score interpretation of Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH), QuickDASH, Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) and Neck Dissection Impairment Index (NDII) in the HNC population; (2) determine appropriateness of use of University of …

Spectral Sensitivity In Ray-Finned Fishes: Diversity, Ecology And Shared Descent, Lorian E. Schweikert, Robert R. Fitak, Eleanor M. Caves, Tracey Sutton, Sonke Johnsen

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

A major goal of sensory ecology is to identify factors that underlie sensory-trait variation. One open question centers on why fishes show the greatest diversity among vertebrates in their capacity to detect color (i.e. spectral sensitivity). Over the past several decades, λ_max values (photoreceptor class peak sensitivity) and chromacy (photoreceptor class number) have been cataloged for hundreds of fish species, yet the ecological basis of this diversity and the functional significance of high chromacy levels (e.g. tetra- and pentachromacy) remain unclear. In this study, we examined phylogenetic, physiological and ecological patterns of spectral sensitivity of ray-finned fishes (Actinoptergyii) via …

Effects Of Age, Mass, And Terrestrial Duration On Oxygen Store Development In Phocids And Otariids, Rachael M. Stevenson

HCNSO Student Capstones

Diving ontogeny among pinniped species was explored to determine how oxygen store development was affected by age, mass, and terrestrial duration between Phocidae and Otariidae. Distinct physiological and post-natal developmental differences exist between the two families which contribute to oxygen store and diving development. Blood oxygen data for six phocids and otariids and muscle oxygen data for two phocids and otariids were obtained. Body mass significantly (p

Microbiome Diversity Of Coastal Tidal Floodwater In Southeastern Florida, Marissa Wickes

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Over 3.7 million people are in high risk of coastal flooding and live within 1 mile of high tide in the US alone. The Atlantic coast is one of the most vulnerable areas due to its low elevation, large population, and economic importance (Bray, et. al, 2016). Coastal municipalities in the region of Southeast Florida, such as the cities of Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, etc., are at especial risk from coastal flooding related to sea level rise. The US National Climate Assessment has named Miami, Florida as the economically most vulnerable city impacted by this sea level rise …

Blue Marlin (Makaira Nigricans) Horizontal Movements In The Western South Atlantic, Eduardo W. Wanick

HCNSO Student Capstones

Blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) have been documented to undertake long – and sometimes transoceanic – migrations, according to electronic pop-up satellite archival tag (PSAT) data obtained primarily in the western North Atlantic, with additional reported deployments from selected locations in the Pacific. Information on the movements of blue marlin in the South Atlantic, however, is lacking, despite evidence of spawning aggregations off the coast of Brazil during the Southern Hemisphere’s late spring and summer. Additionally, there are no reported long-term PSAT tag deployments on blue marlin in the western South Atlantic. Therefore, their movements in that large area …

Serotonin: Octopus Love Potion?, Lauren E. Nadler

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Population Dynamics And Genotypic Richness Of The Threatened Acropora Spp. And Their Hybrid In The U.S. Virgin Islands, Hannah F. Nylander-Asplin

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1980’s, there has been an unprecedented decline in the reef-building Caribbean corals, Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata, which has led to their listing as “threatened” under the U.S Endangered Species Act. Despite this protective status, these Acropora species continue to experience declines primarily attributed to disease, global climate change, and storm damage. Recent evidence suggests the hybrid of these threatened species (A. prolifera) is found at abundances similar to or higher than the parental species at many sites throughout the Caribbean. However, there is still much that is unknown as to how and why hybrids may …

Early Life History Response Of Reef Building Coral, Orbicella Faveolata, To Ocean Acidification And Warming, Kelly A. Pitts

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Ocean warming and acidification pose major threats to coral reef organisms. It is unknown how the early life history stages of Atlantic corals cope with the combined effects of these two global environmental stressors. Here, I investigate how these stressors influence the fertilization success, larval survivorship, and settlement of the threatened Atlantic coral, Orbicella faveolata. Gametes from O. faveolata were subjected to a factorial combination of present and future scenarios of oceanic temperatures (28.5° C and 30° C) and pH (8.2 and 8.0) predicted to occur by 2050. Results indicate that treatment type did not significantly affect fertilization success. …

Application Of Click Chemistry In The Development Of Peptide Based Hiv Fusion Inhibitors, Mukesh Madan Mudgal, Nagaraju Birudukota

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) continues to be a major global public health issue. Inhibition of HIV envelope fusion with the CD4 cell membrane prevents the entry of HIV into the CD4 cells providing a novel approach to the treatment of HIV infection. Thus, interference in the fusion of the virus with the co-receptor substrate appears to be a specific and potential way to fight HIV infection and replication. Applications of click chemistry are spreading in the field of drug discovery and it became a powerful tool for the synthesis of medicinally important compounds.

Remarkably, the Cu (I)-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition (CuAAC) …

The Octocoral Fishery In The Southeastern U.S. And Gulf Of Mexico, Mark Chiappone, Paola Espitia, Leanne M. Rutten, Steven Miller

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Octocorals, also known as gorgonians and soft corals, were previously managed by the U.S. South Atlantic (SAFMC) and Gulf of Mexico (GMFMC) Fishery Management Councils through a joint Coral Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Because octocorals are mostly collected from Florida waters, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is currently tasked with managing octocoral collection, including the monitoring of colony landings, in the Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) adjacent to Florida. Collection of 70,000 colonies per year total, which applies to both state and EEZ waters off Florida, is permitted under Rule 68B- 42.006 of the Florida Administrative Code, but …

Role Of Water Flow Regime In The Swimming Behaviour And Escape Performance Of A Schooling Fish, Lauren E. Nadler, Shaun S. Killen, Paolo Domenici, Mark I. Mccormick

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Animals are exposed to variable and rapidly changing environmental flow conditions, such as wind in terrestrial habitats and currents in aquatic systems. For fishes, previous work suggests that individuals exhibit flow-induced changes in aerobic swimming performance. Yet, no one has examined whether similar plasticity is found in fast-start escape responses, which are modulated by anaerobic swimming performance, sensory stimuli and neural control. In this study, we used fish from wild schools of the tropical damselfish Chromis viridis from shallow reefs surrounding Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The flow regime at each site was measured to ascertain differences …

Hypoplectrus Liberte, A New And Endangered Microendemic Hamlet From Haiti (Teleostei: Serranidae), Benjamin C. Victor, Kenneth W. Marks

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

The hamlets of the genus Hypoplectrus comprise a species flock of about 20 species found on coral reefs of the tropical western Atlantic Ocean, distinguished by complex color patterns and sharing mitochondrial DNA haplotypes within the Caribbean Sea (Gulf of Mexico and Florida-centered species are about 3% divergent in the COI marker). The species show a variety of biogeographic patterns, from widespread common species to relatively rare species limited to small parts of the Greater Caribbean region. We describe here a distinctive striped morph of barred hamlet, apparently limited to Fort-Liberté Bay in northeastern Haiti, as the new species Hypoplectrus …

An Additional Nomenclatural Transfer In The Pantropical Genus Myrsine (Primulaceae: Myrsinoideae), John J. Pipoly Iii, Jon M. Ricketson

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Rapanea pellucidostriata Gilg & Schellenb. is transferred to Myrsine L. as M. pellucidostriata (Gilg & Schellenb.) Pipoly & Ricketson, comb. nov. To our knowledge, this is the last species of Rapanea Aubl. remaining that did not have a name in the genus Myrsine. With the transfer of this species complete, all species of Rapanea and Suttonia A. Rich. have been transferred into Myrsine.

Impacts Of A Regional, Multi-Year, Multi-Species Coral Disease Outbreak In Southeast Florida, Charles Walton, Nicole K. Hayes, David S. Gilliam

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Globally coral reefs have been declining at alarming rates as a result of anthropogenic stressors, leading to increased frequency and severity of widespread bleaching and disease events. These events are often associated with increased water temperatures due to climate change as well as regional and local stress from nutrient enrichment through runoff and sedimentation from coastal development. In late 2014, a white syndrome disease outbreak was reported off the coast of southeast Florida and was subsequently documented spreading throughout the region. This study examined the regional impacts of the disease event on the southeast Florida stony coral population utilizing stony …

The Assemblage Structure And Trophic Ecology Of A Deep-Pelagic Fish Family (Platytroctidae) In The Gulf Of Mexico, Michael Novotny

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Members of the family Platytroctidae (tubeshoulders) are found throughout the meso- and bathypelagic waters of the World Ocean. Due to the lack of specimens collected globally, this taxon has received little attention, despite recent evidence suggesting its predominance in the bathypelagic biome. Prior to this study, only four species had been reported in the Gulf of Mexico’s (GoM) highly diverse deep-pelagic ecosystem. An extensive meso- and bathypelagic trawl series in the GoM allowed a detailed examination of this family, which included analyses of species composition, abundance, vertical distribution, sex ratios, and trophic ecology. A total of 16 species were collected, …

A Multidisciplinary Approach For Generating Globally Consistent Data On Mesophotic, Deep-Pelagic, And Bathyal Biological Communities, Lucy C. Woodall, Dominic A. Andradi-Brown, Andrew S. Brierley, Malcolm R. Clark, Douglas Connelly, Rob A. Hall, Kerry L. Howell, Veerle A. I. Huvenne, Katrin Linse, Rebecca E. Ross, Paul Snelgrove, Paris V. Stefanoudis, Tracey Sutton, Michelle Taylor, Thomas F. Thornton, Alex D. Rogers

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Approaches to measuring marine biological parameters remain almost as diverse as the researchers who measure them. However, understanding the patterns of diversity in ocean life over different temporal and geographic scales requires consistent data and information on the potential environmental drivers. As a group of marine scientists from different disciplines, we suggest a formalized, consistent framework of 20 biological, chemical, physical, and socioeconomic parameters that we consider the most important for describing environmental and biological variability. We call our proposed framework the General Ocean Survey and Sampling Iterative Protocol (GOSSIP). We hope that this framework will establish a consistent approach …

Environmental Controls On Depositional Patterns Of Isolated Carbonate Platforms, Jeremy M. Kerr

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the influence of the environment on the lateral spatial patterning of facies in modern isolated carbonate platforms through six studies. The first study describes the creation of a database of benthic habitat and bathymetric maps derived from multispectral satellite imagery and the field data used calibrate and validate the mapping algorithms. The second study develops and assesses a new approach for remotely-deriving water depth from multispectral satellite imagery without the need for ground-truth information. The third study identifies a criterion for distinguishing between facies belts and mosaics and deploys the criterion to investigate the co-occurrence of these …

Thresholds And Drivers Of Coral Calcification Responses To Climate Change, Niklas Kornder, Bernhard Riegl, Joana Figueiredo

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Increased temperature and CO₂ levels are considered key drivers of coral reef degradation. However, individual assessments of ecological responses (calcification) to these stressors are often contradicting. To detect underlying drivers of heterogeneity in coral calcification responses, we developed a procedure for the inclusion of stress–effect relationships in ecological meta‐analyses. We applied this technique to a dataset of 294 empirical observations from 62 peer‐reviewed publications testing individual and combined effects of elevated temperature and pCO₂ on coral calcification. Our results show an additive interaction between warming and acidification, which reduces coral calcification by 20% when pCO₂ levels exceed …

The Physics Of Moving Bodies, Diego Castano

Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

An alternative theoretical development of Special Relativity is presented in which Electrodynamics is not invoked. In deriving the Lorentz transformation in this manner, the existence of a maximal speed for all physical phenomena stands out. The mass-energy relation is also derived without reference to light.

Un développement théorique alternative de la relativité restreinte est présenté dans lequel l’électrodynamique n’est pas invoquée. En dérivant la transformation de Lorentz de cette manière, l’existence d’une vitesse maximale pour tous les phénomènes physiques ressort. La relation masse-énergie est également dérivée sans référence à la lumière.

Rigid Linkages And Partial Zero Forcing, Daniella Ferrero, Mary Flagg, H. Tracy Hall, Leslie Hogben, Jephian C.-H. Lin, Seth A. Meyer, Shahla Nasserasr, Bryan Shader

Mathematics Faculty Articles

Connections between vital linkages and zero forcing are established. Specifically, the notion of a rigid linkage is introduced as a special kind of unique linkage and it is shown that spanning forcing paths of a zero forcing process form a spanning rigid linkage and thus a vital linkage. A related generalization of zero forcing that produces a rigid linkage via a coloring process is developed. One of the motivations for introducing zero forcing is to provide an upper bound on the maximum multiplicity of an eigenvalue among the real symmetric matrices described by a graph. Rigid linkages and a related …

Genomic Analysis Of Acropora Cervicornis Mucus And Sediments In The Florida Keys Tavernier Nursery, Rachel Zimmerman

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

White Band disease has devastated the staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis in recent decades, and it continues to impinge upon restoration efforts. The etiological agent(s) remain unknown as Koch’s postulates have yet to be satisfied, but disease may originate when opportunistic pathogens in the surface mucus layer exploit a stressed host. Using 16s rRNA sequencing, differences in the taxonomic diversity and relative abundances of bacteria within the mucus of A. cervicornis were documented between colonies of the same genotype, genotypes (n=8) categorized as having either high or low WBD susceptibility, and during a transplantation event. A. cervicornis colonies suspended from midwater …