Marine Biology Commons^™

Sediment Burial Stress Response, Bio-Indicators And Thresholds For A Tropical Multi-Species Seagrass Assemblage: Report Of Theme 5 - Project 5.5.2 Prepared For The Dredging Science Node, John Statton, Kathryn Mcmahon, Roisin Mccallum, Gary Kendrick, Paul Lavery

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Deterioration in water clarity by resuspension of dredged sediments is presumed to be a major mechanism by which dredging can impact seagrasses. This report presents findings from a controlled light experiment that aimed to determine the effects of low light stress on the growth of three seagrass species found in the northwest of Western Australia.

Aims

• To determine the effects of sediment burial stress under dredge-simulated conditions on the growth and health of three seagrass species found in the northwest of Western Australia.
• Provide guidance and protocols for the application of the research outputs (e.g. seagrass burial stress:response relationships, sub-lethal …

Cruise Data For Neuston Net And Paired Bongo Net Tows From 48 Stations In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico From R/V Blazing Seven Cruises Lf2015a And Lf2015b June 2015 And July 2015, Jay R. Rooker, R.J. David Wells

DEEPEND Datasets

Shelf and slope waters in the Deep Water Horizon oil spill (DWHOS) area are known to serve as critical spawning, nursery, and foraging habitat of several important oceanic species including billfishes (e.g. blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish), tunas (bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna), and other pelagic taxa (swordfish, dolphinfishes). The aim of this component was to further investigate potential ecological effects of the DWHOS on pelagic fishes during the early life period. Larval fishes were sampled from 48 stations in the northern Gulf of Mexico and cruise data was collected at each site including latitude/longitude, date, time and environmental data (sea …

Primary Utricle Structure Of Six Halimeda Species And Potential Relevance For Ocean Acidification Tolerance, Katherine E. Peach, Marguerite S. Koch, Patricia Blackwelder, Debbie Guerrero-Given, Naomi Kamasawa

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Variations in utricle morphology may be responsible for different tolerances to ocean acidification (OA) within the macroalgal genus Halimeda, an important sediment producer on reefs. However, differences in species’ utricle morphology and their relationship to calcification and crystal formation have not been well articulated. In the present study, we characterized the utricle morphologies of six Halimeda species. Primary utricle ultrastructure was quantitatively and qualitatively compared to tissue inorganic content and crystal microstructure. Morphologies differed across species and several morphometric relationships were revealed. Primary utricle size (r²=0.70) and diffusion pathway length (r²=0.87) had inverse relationships with …

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 …

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 …

The Shellfish Corner: Oyster Shells, Cultching, And Oyster Farming, Michael A. Rice

Michael A Rice

The Lower Actinopterygian Fauna From The Lower Carboniferous Albert Shale Formation Of New Brunswick, Canada – A Review Of Previously Described Taxa And A Description Of A New Genus And Species, Kathryn E. Mickle

College of Humanities and Sciences Faculty Papers

The Lower Carboniferous Albert shale formation of New Brunswick, Canada, is well-known for the preservation of countless articulated lower actinopterygian palaeoniscoid fishes. This site is at the boundary between the Devonian and the Lower Carboniferous, making the lower actinopterygians preserved at this site important. The taxonomic history of previously described Albert shale formation actinopterygians is reviewed here. Many of the earliest described actinopterygian taxa from the Albert Formation are represented by poorly preserved type specimens and have the distinction of being moved from one paraphyletic genus to another paraphyletic genus. While these taxa are in need of major redescriptions, such …

Comparative Transcriptomics Of Elasmobranchs And Teleosts Highlight Important Processes In Adaptive Immunity And Regional Endothermy, Nicholas J. Marra, Vincent P. Richards, Angela Early, Steve M. Bogdanowicz, Paulina D. Pavinski Bitar, Michael J. Stanhope, Mahmood S. Shivji

Biology Faculty Articles

Background: Comparative genomic and/or transcriptomic analyses involving elasmobranchs remain limited, with genome level comparisons of the elasmobranch immune system to that of higher vertebrates, non-existent. This paper reports a comparative RNA-seq analysis of heart tissue from seven species, including four elasmobranchs and three teleosts, focusing on immunity, but concomitantly seeking to identify genetic similarities shared by the two lamnid sharks and the single billfish in our study, which could be linked to convergent evolution of regional endothermy.

Results: Across seven species, we identified an average of 10,877 Swiss-Prot annotated genes from an average of 32,474 open reading frames within each …

Bioethics In The Work Of Ernest Everett Just: + Missing - Some 400 Pages, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Biology + ethics = bioethics. Here we see that Howard University biologist Ernest Everett Just (born 1883, died 1941) connected biology to ethics.

According to Just, various forms of specific biology (including especially cell biology) plus “general biology” are necessary for explaining adequately the origin of ethical behaviors. Social ethical behaviors, especially mutual aid and cooperative interactions with others and the environment, are essential to evolutionary advances among living creatures, ranging from humans to cells. Accordingly, theory of ethics (moral theory) should have roots in biology.

Also, Just wrote an unpublished book-length manuscript—“some 400 typed pages” (Just 1940)—on seeking the …

Opsin Repertoire And Expression Patterns In Horseshoe Crabs: Evidence From The Genome Of Limulus Polyphemus (Arthropoda: Chelicerata), Barbara-Anne Battelle, Joseph F. Ryan, Karen E. Kempler, Spencer R. Saraf, Catherine E. Marten, Wesley C. Warren, Patrick J. Minx, Michael J. Montague, Pamela J. Green, Skye A. Schmidt, Lucinda Fulton, Nipam H. Patel, Meredith E. Protas, Richard K. Wilson, Megan L. Porter

Meredith Protas

Horseshoe crabs are xiphosuran chelicerates, the sister groupto arachnids. As such, they are important for understandingthemost recent common ancestor of Euchelicerata and the evolution and diversification of Arthropoda. Limulus polyphemus is the most investigated of the four extant species of horseshoe crabs, and the structure and function of its visual system have long been a major focus of studies critical for understanding the evolution of visual systems in arthropods. Likewise, studies of genes encoding Limulus opsins, the protein component of the visual pigments, are critical for understanding opsin evolution and diversification among chelicerates, where knowledge of opsins is limited, and …

Changes In Cormorant Populations In The Strait Of Georgia, British Columbia, 1955-2015, Harry R. Carter, Trudy A. Chatwin, Mark C. Drever

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Between 1987 and 2000, nesting populations of Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus; PECO) and Double-crested Cormorant (P. auritus; DCCO) declined in the Strait of Georgia, BC. This northern section of the Salish Sea is a rapidly urbanizing area, and piscivorous birds are important indicators of ecosystem health. To update population status, we conducted a complete survey of 35 PECO and 23 DCCO colonies in July 2014 and opportunistic surveys of some colonies between 2001 through 2015. The PECO population decreased from ~2100-2400 nests in 1959-1987 to ~1100 nests by about 2000, and then rose slightly …

Advances In Salish Sea Acoustic Telemetry: 2015 Array Deployments And Promising Transmitter Performance, Erin L. Rechisky, David W. Welch, Aswea D. Porter, Paul Winchell

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The first fish tracking arrays were deployed in the Salish Sea over a decade ago. These arrays have yielded a rich data set which have provided the first direct estimates of early marine-survival and migratory behavior for acoustic-tagged juvenile sockeye, Chinook, Coho and steelhead >130 mm in fork length (FL). In spring of 2015, as part of the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, the Ocean Tracking Network and Kintama Research deployed additional arrays in the Discovery Islands and Johnstone Strait (north of the Strait of Georgia) to provide higher resolution survival data. These new arrays use …

Stronger Together: The Cross-Cultural Coalition To Stop Fossil Fuel Exports In The Salish Sea, Margaret Allen

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

A commonly observed paradox in conservation is that restriction of people’s access to nature and natural resources may protect ecosystem health, but sometimes decreases the wellbeing of local people and can invite conflict and reduce people’s willingness to protect resources. At a middle ground between complete protection and unrestricted commercial use is ecosystem-based management (EBM), which strives to maximize the overall wellbeing of both people and ecosystems. An important domain of human wellbeing to track for the purposes of EBM is resource access, or the ability to gain and maintain uses and benefits of the natural environment. Access does not …

Oceanographic Data In Rhode Island Waters Ocg 150, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Comparative Postembryonic Skeletal Ontogeny In Two Sister Lineages Of Old World Tree Frogs (Rhacophoridae: Taruga, Polypedates), Gayani Senevirathne, Ryan R. Kerney, Madhava Meegaskumbura

Biology Faculty Publications

Rhacophoridae, a family of morphologically cryptic frogs, with many genetically distinct evolutionary lineages, is understudied with respect to skeletal morphology, life history traits and skeletal ontogeny. Here we analyze two species each from two sister lineages, Taruga and Polypedates, and compare their postembryonic skeletal ontogeny, larval chondrocrania and adult osteology in the context of a well-resolved phylogeny. We further compare these ontogenetic traits with the direct-developing Pseudophilautus silus. For each species, we differentially stained a nearly complete developmental series of tadpoles from early postembryonic stages through metamorphosis to determine the intraspecific and interspecific differences of cranial and postcranial …

Environmental Pseudomonads Inhibit Cystic Fibrosis Patient-Derived Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Payel Chatterjee, Elizabeth Davis, Fengan Yu, Sarah James, Julia H. Wildschutte, Daniel D. Wiegmann, David H. Sherman, Robert M. Mckay, John J. Lipuma, Hans Wildschutte

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen which is evolving resistance to many currently used antibiotics. While much research has been devoted to the roles of pathogenic P. aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, less is known of its ecological properties. P. aeruginosa dominates the lungs during chronic infection in CF patients, yet its abundance in some environments is less than that of other diverse groups of pseudomonads. Here, we sought to determine if clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa are vulnerable to environmental pseudomonads that dominate soil and water habitats in one-to-one competitions which may provide a source of inhibitory factors. …

2016 Annual Awards, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

The Annual Awards ceremony is an occasion in which new employees and volunteers are introduced, employee service is recognized and student and faculty awards are presented.

Best Practices For Healthy Beaches And Watersheds In Maine: Potential Bioremediation Strategies For Improving Water Quality, Elyse Defranco

Maine Sea Grant Publications

Maine’s watersheds face many challenges from human inputs, with pollution threatening the health of our beaches, rivers, and aquaculture operations. Maine’s rural communities often lack the resources to update aging sewer infrastructure or to adequately maintain septic systems, and these sources of pollution impact watershed health. In addition to addressing sources of pollution, which can be difficult to ascertain and challenging to address when located, bioremediation practices have the potential to aid in clean-up efforts. New technological advances and research discoveries in creative forms of bioremediation are being developed and are producing promising case studies around the world. These new …

Partners In Natural Resource Management: The Virginia Institute Of Marine Science And The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Miscellaneous

Produced by the Office of Research and Advisory Services, Partners in Natural Resources Management identifies all of the sections of Virginia legislation in which the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is named in relation to our advisory mandate.

Coral Bleaching And The Effect Of Disturbances On The Damselfish Community On Lizard Island, Australia, Alejandra Munoz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coral reefs are characterized by their dynamic ecological processes that supports a high diversity through the recruitment of marine species and temporal disturbances that can have positive effects on the system. In the face of global climate change however, coral reefs face intense coral bleaching and increased degradation as they may begin to have less time to recover between bleaching events in the near future. Little is known on the long term effects of coral bleaching and habitat degradation on reef fish communities and much less is known about the mechanisms that bring about changes to reef fish assemblages.

This …