Life Sciences Commons^™

Estimating Relative Abundance Of Young-Of-Year American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Virginia Tributaries Of Chesapeake Bay (Spring 2021), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the American Eel in November 1999. The FMP calls for efforts to collect American Eel data through both fishery‐dependent and fishery‐independent studies in coastal states. Consequently, member jurisdictions agreed to implement an annual survey for young‐of‐year (YOY or glass) American Eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American Eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC 2000). The development of these surveys began in 2000 with …

Aquaculture And Eelgrass Zostera Marina Interactions In Temperate Ecosystems, L. M. Howarth, L. M. Lewis-Mccrea, M. L. Kellogg, E. T. Apostolaki, G. K. Reid

VIMS Articles

This paper reviews the impacts of shellfish and finfish aquaculture on eelgrass
Zostera marina, the most widely distributed seagrass species in the northern hemisphere. Shellfish aquaculture can have positive, neutral, and negative effects on eelgrass. Positive interactions can be generated by the filtering activity of cultured bivalves, which may improve water quality and reduce epiphyte loads, and shellfish biodeposits may provide more nutrients to eelgrass and other vegetation. However, negative responses are more commonly reported and can be caused
by shading and sedimentation. These negative effects tend to occur directly under and immediately surrounding shellfish farms and rapidly diminish with …

The Biogeography Of Community Assembly: Latitude And Predation Drive Variation In Community Trait Distribution In A Guild Of Epifaunal Crustaceans, Collin P. Gross, J. Emmett Duffy, (...), Robert J. Orth, Et Al

VIMS Articles

While considerable evidence exists of biogeographic patterns in the intensity of species interactions, the influence of these patterns on variation in community structure is less clear. Studying how the distributions of traits in communities vary along global gradients can inform how variation in interactions and other factors contribute to the process of community assembly. Using a model selection approach on measures of trait dispersion in crustaceans associated with eelgrass (Zostera marina) spanning 30° of latitude in two oceans, we found that dispersion strongly increased with increasing predation and decreasing latitude. Ocean and epiphyte load appeared as secondary predictors; …

Climate Drives Long-Term Change In Antarctic Silverfish Along The Western Antarctic Peninsula, Andrew D. Corso, Deborah K. Steinberg, Sharon E. Stammerjohn, Eric J. Hilton

VIMS Articles

Over the last half of the 20th century, the western Antarctic Peninsula has been one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, leading to substantial reductions in regional sea ice coverage. These changes are modulated by atmospheric forcing, including the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL) pressure system. We utilized a novel 25-year (1993–2017) time series to model the effects of environmental variability on larvae of a keystone species, the Antarctic Silverfish (Pleuragramma antarctica). Antarctic Silverfish use sea ice as spawning habitat and are important prey for penguins and other predators. We show that warmer sea surface temperature and …

The Status Of Virginia’S Public Oyster Resource 2021, Melissa Southworth, Roger L. Mann

Reports

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) monitors recruitment of the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), annually from late spring through early fall, by deploying spatfall1 (settlement and recruitment of larval oysters to the post metamorphic form termed spat) collectors (shellstrings) at various sites in three Virginia western Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The survey provides an estimate of a particular area’s potential for receiving a "strike" or settlement (set) of oysters on the bottom and helps describe the timing of recruitment events in a given year. Information obtained from this monitoring effort provides an overview of long-term recruitment trends in …

Transcriptomes Of Electrophysiologically Recorded Dbx1-Derived Respiratory Neurons Of The Prebötzinger Complex In Neonatal Mice, Prajkta S. Kallurkar, Maria Cristina D. Picardo, Yae K. Sugimura, Margaret Saha, Gregory D. Conradi Smith, Christopher A. Del Negro

Arts & Sciences Articles

Breathing depends on interneurons in the preBötzinger complex (preBötC) derived from Dbx1-expressing precursors. Here we investigate whether rhythm- and pattern-generating functions reside in discrete classes of Dbx1 preBötC neurons. In a slice model of breathing with ~ 5 s cycle period, putatively rhythmogenic Type-1 Dbx1 preBötC neurons activate 100–300 ms prior to Type-2 neurons, putatively specialized for output pattern, and 300–500 ms prior to the inspiratory motor output. We sequenced Type-1 and Type-2 transcriptomes and identified differential expression of 123 genes including ionotropic receptors (Gria3, Gabra1) that may explain their preinspiratory activation profiles and Ca2+ signaling ( …

Evaluation Of Striped Bass Stocks In Virginia: Monitoring And Tagging Studies, 2021 Progress Report - 1 December 2020 - 30 November 2021, Robert J. Latour, Christopher F. Bonzek, James Gartland

Reports

This report presents the results of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) tagging and monitoring activities in Virginia during the period 1 December 2020 through 30 November 2021. It includes an assessment of the biological characteristics of striped bass taken from the 2021 spring spawning run and estimates of annual survival and fishing mortality based on annual spring tagging. The information contained in this report is required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and is used to implement a coordinated management plan for striped bass in Virginia, and along the eastern seaboard.

Monitoring The Abundance Of American Shad And River Herring In Virginia’S Rivers 2022 Annual Report, Eric J. Hilton, Patrick E. Mcgrath, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee

Reports

This report describes the results of a continuing study to estimate the relative abundance and assess the status of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) stocks in Virginia by monitoring the spawning runs in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers in spring 2022, evaluating hatchery programs and contributing to coast-wide assessments (ASMFC 2007a; ASMFC 2020). We also report on a fishery-independent monitoring program to determine abundance and stock structure of river herring (A. pseudoharengus, and A. aestivalis) in Virginia by evaluating the adult spawning runs in the Chickahominy River, a major tributary of the James River, and the Rappahannock River. Further, a …

Monitoring The Abundance Of American Shad And River Herring In Virginia’S Rivers 2021 Annual Report, Eric J. Hilton, Patrick E. Mcgrath, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee

Reports

This report describes the results of the twenty-fourth year of a continuing study to estimate the relative abundance and assess the status of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) stocks in Virginia by monitoring the spawning runs in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers in spring 2021, evaluating hatchery programs, and contributing to coast-wide assessments (ASMFC 2007, ASMFC 2020).

We also report on two fishery independent monitoring programs using anchor gillnets in the Rappahannock River (year 4) and the Chickahominy River (year 7; a major tributary of the James River), to determine relative abundance and stock structure for the adult spawning run …

2021 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.

Ecosystem Enriching And Efficient Solar Energy: Exploring The Effects Of Pollinator-Friendly Solar Facilities On Ecosystem Function And Solar Panel Efficiency, Jordan Martin

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

As the solar energy industry grows, many hundreds of thousands of acres of land will be transformed into solar panel facilities. With this large change in land use, there is the opportunity to promote biodiversity and support pollinators by using pollinator-friendly management practices at the solar facilities. This paper explores the ecological and economic effects of a pollinator-friendly solar facility compared to a turfgrass solar facility.

I hypothesized that a pollinator-friendly solar facility would be functionally equivalent in pollinator support and overall insect diversity to a pollinator-friendly non-solar field and that both sites would have far greater pollinator support and …

Spartina Alterniflora Defense Against Herbivory, Serina Sebilian Wittyngham

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Plants can alter their chemical, structural (‘resistance strategy’), or morphological traits (‘tolerance strategy’) to deter or mitigate herbivore damage. Developed in terrestrial ecosystems, plant defense theory provides a testable framework for evaluating drivers of plant trait variation and defense strategy selection. Yet, it has rarely been tested in coastal vegetated ecosystems, where intense grazing can denude large spatial areas and disrupt ecosystem services and functioning. Through the lens of plant defense theory, this dissertation examines abiotic and biotic control on traits and defense in the tidal marsh plant, Spartina alterniflora, and assesses their influence on further grazing and herbivore distribution. …

Invertebrates In A Migrating Salt Marsh, Emily Marie Goetz

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

As sea-level rise converts coastal forest to salt marsh, marsh invertebrates may migrate inland; however, the resulting changes in forest and marsh invertebrate communities, including the stage of forest retreat that first supports saltmarsh species, remain unknown. Additionally, the ghost forest that forms in the wake of rapid forest retreat offers unknown quality of habitat to marsh invertebrates. In a migrating marsh on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, USA, ground-dwelling arthropod communities were assessed across the forest-to-marsh gradient, and the ecological equivalency of ghost forest and high marsh habitats was evaluated to determine if marsh invertebrates utilized expanded marsh in …

Environmental Ecology And Life History Variation Of Perkinsus Marinus, Lydia M. Bienlien

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Marine resources provide a growing world population with the opportunity to increase food security, particularly through aquaculture. Oysters are prominent aquacultured species, but marine diseases are a threat to the growth and sustainability of oyster culture. Perkinsus marinus is the most important oyster pathogen of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S., where it causes substantial mortality. Despite being one of the most well-studied protozoan parasites of bivalve molluscs, much is still unknown about P. marinus. This research investigated multiple characteristics of P. marinus.In Chapter Two, the environmental ecology of P. marinus was explored through tidal sampling and year-long …

The Role Of Zooplankton Community Composition In Fecal Pellet Carbon Production In The York River Estuary, Chesapeake Bay, Kristen Nicole Sharpe

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The biological pump is a critical component of carbon transformation in aquatic ecosystems, but the role that zooplankton play in carbon production and vertical export is rarely studied in estuaries. Zooplankton produce carbon-rich fecal pellets which sink to depth and can fuel benthic community metabolism. The body size and taxonomic structure of the zooplankton community varies on interannual, seasonal, and diel time scales, and can lead to varying carbon production and export rates. We quantified fecal pellet carbon (FPC) production by the whole mesozooplankton community (> 200 µm) in the York River, a sub-estuary of Chesapeake Bay. Biomass and taxonomic …

Spatiotemporal Modeling Of Nursery Habitat Using Bayesian Inference: Environmental Drivers Of Juvenile Blue Crab Abundance, A. Challen Hyman, Grace S. Chiu, Mary C. Fabrizio, Rom Lipcius

VIMS Articles

Nursery grounds provide conditions favorable for growth and survival of juvenile fish and crustaceans through abundant food resources and refugia, and enhance secondary production of populations. While small-scale studies remain important tools to assess nursery value of structured habitats and environmental factors, targeted applications that unify survey data over large spatial and temporal scales are vital to generalize inference of nursery function, identify highly productive regions, and inform management strategies. Using 21 years of spatio-temporally indexed survey data (i.e., water chemistry, turbidity, blue crab, and predator abundance) and GIS information on potential nursery habitats (i.e., seagrass, salt marsh, and unvegetated …

A Biologging Database Of Juvenile White Sharks From The Northeast Pacific, J. O'Sullivan, C. G. Lowe, (...), Kevin C. Weng, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Species occurrence records are vital data streams in marine conservation with a wide range of important applications. From 2001–2020, the Monterey Bay Aquarium led an international research collaboration to understand the life cycle, ecology, and behavior of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in the southern California Current. The collaboration was devoted to tagging juveniles with animal-borne sensors, also known as biologging. Here we report the full data records from 59 pop-up archival (PAT) and 20 smart position and temperature transmitting (SPOT) tags that variously recorded pressure, temperature, and light-level data, and computed depth and geolocations for 63 individuals. Whether transmitted or …

The Feeding Ecology And Microbiome Of The Pteropod Limacina Helicina Antarctica, Patricia S. Thibodeau, Bongkeun Song, Carly M. Moreno, Deborah K. Steinberg

VIMS Articles

The pteropod (pelagic snail) Limacina helicina antarctica is a dominant grazer along
the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and plays an important role in regional food web dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. For the first time, we examined the gut microbiome and feeding ecology of L. h. antarctica based on 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequences of gut contents in the WAP during austral summer. Eukaryotic gut contents of L. h. antarctica indicate that this species predominantly feeds on diatoms and dinoflagellates, supplementing its diet with ciliates and foraminifera. Mollicutes bacteria were a consistent component of the gut microbiome. Determining the gut …

Reviews And Syntheses: Spatial And Temporal Patterns In Seagrass Metabolic Fluxes, Melissa Ward, Tye L. Kindinger, Heidi K. Hirsh, (...), Emily B. Rivest, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Seagrass meadow metabolism has been measured for decades to gain insight into ecosystem energy, biomass production, food web dynamics, and, more recently, to inform its potential in ameliorating ocean acidification (OA). This extensive body of literature can be used to infer trends and drivers of seagrass meadow metabolism. Here, we synthesize the results from 56 studies reporting in situ rates of seagrass gross primary productivity, respiration, and/or net community productivity to highlight spatial and temporal variability in oxygen (O₂) fluxes. We illustrate that daytime net community production (NCP) is positive overall and similar across seasons and geographies. Full-day …

Development Of An Individual-Based Tag Recapture Model To Benchmark Biomass And Harvest Rates In An Iconic Lobster Fishery, Simon De Lestang, John Hoenig, Jason How

VIMS Articles

The West Coast Rock Lobster Managed Fishery (WCRLMF) moved from input to output controls in 2010. This change affected the relativity of fishery-based data sources (e.g., catch rates and landed size composition), making the assessment of the fishery problematic. A novel examination of the stock dynamics was required to ensure the robustness of the stock assessment and associated management arrangements. This study derived estimates of current biomass levels and harvest rates from the release of over 60,000 tagged western rock lobsters (Panulirus cygnus). A Brownie tag-recapture (BTR) model was initially implemented to provide an assessment on a fishery-wide …

Unresolved Taxonomy Confounds Invasive Species Identification: The Lysmata Vittata Stimpson, 1860 (Decapoda: Caridea: Lysmatidae) Species Complex And Recent Introduction Of Lysmata Vittata Sensu Stricto In The Western Atlantic, Robert Aguilar, Sanjeevi Prakash, (...), Troy D. Tuckey, J. Antonio Baeza

VIMS Articles

Peppermint shrimp resembling Lysmata vittata Stimpson, 1860, a species native to the Indo- West Pacific, were found in the lower Chesapeake Bay and adjacent coastal embayments in 2013, representing the first recorded introduction of this species in the northwestern Atlantic. Conflicting morphological descriptions, inconsistent morphological terminology, and limited molecular data (i.e., unresolved taxonomy), as well as the destruction of the type material of L. vittata, created uncertainty regarding proper identification. We provide the first phylogeny incorporating individuals from across the presumed native and introduced range of L. vittata. Morphological and phylogenetic analyses clearly indicate L. vittata represents a species complex …

A Deterministic Model For Understanding Nonlinear Viral Dynamics In Oysters, Qubin Qin, Jian Shen, Kimberly S. Reece

VIMS Articles

Contamination of oysters with a variety of viruses is one key pathway to trigger outbreaks of massive oyster mortality as well as human illnesses, including gastroenteritis and hepatitis. Much effort has gone into examining the fate of viruses in contaminated oysters, yet the current state of knowledge of nonlinear virus-oyster interactions is not comprehensive because most studies have focused on a limited number of processes under a narrow range of experimental conditions. A framework is needed for describing the complex nonlinear virus-oyster interactions. Here, we introduce a mathematical model that includes key processes for viral dynamics in oysters, such as …

Cranial Morphology Of The Stellate Sturgeon, Acipenser Stellatus Pallas 1771 (Acipenseriformes, Acipenseridae), With Notes On The Skulls Of Other Sturgeons, Eric J. Hilton, Casey B. Dillman, Marian Paraschiv, Radu Suciu

VIMS Articles

Extant members of Acipenseridae are generally classified in four genera: Scaphirhynchus, Pseudoscaphirhynchus, Huso and “Acipenser,” which is widely recognized to be paraphyletic. Advances have been made in understanding the systematic relationships among sturgeons based on both morphological and molecular data. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA data suggested that Pseudoscaphirhynchus should be regarded as nested within “Acipenser,” specifically as sister group to the Stellate Sturgeon, A. stellatus. Recent morphological analyses also recovered this relationship, supported by a number of osteological synapomorphies, although these results were based on few and relatively small individuals. Here we describe …

Discard Mortality Of Sea Scallops Placopecten Magellanicus Following Capture And Handling In The U.S. Dredge Fishery, David Rudders, Hugues P. Benoıt, Ryan J. Knotek, John A. Mandelman, Sally Roman, James A. Sulikowski

VIMS Articles

Discard mortality can represent a potentially significant source of uncertainty for both stock assessments and fishery management measures. While the family Pectinidae is considered to be robust to the capture and handling process, understanding species-specific discard mortality rates is critical to characterize both population dynamics and to develop regulatory measures to meet management objectives. The discard mortality rate for the U.S. dredge fishery of sea scallop Placopecten magellanicus was estimated empirically via a retention study aboard industry vessels under commercial conditions. Over 16,000 sea scallops were assessed via a composite index of scallop vitality that consisted of semiqualitative measures of …

Refining Real-Time Predictions Of Vibrio Vulnificus Concentrations In A Tropical Urban Estuary By Incorporating Dissolved Organic Matter Dynamics, Jessica Bullington, Abigal R. Golder, Grieg F. Steward, Et Al

VIMS Articles

The south shore of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi is one of the most visited coastal tourism areas in the United States with some of the highest instances of recreational waterborne disease. A population of the pathogenic bacterium Vibrio vulnificus lives in the estuarine Ala Wai Canal in Honolulu which surrounds the heavily populated tourism center of Waikīkī. We developed a statistical model to predict V. vulnificus dynamics in this system using environmental measurements from moored oceanographic and atmospheric sensors in real time. During a year-long investigation, we analyzed water from 9 sampling events at 3 depths and 8 sites along the canal …

Rangewide Population Structure Of The Clearnose Skate, Lindsey Noel Nelson, Christian M. Jones, Jan Mcdowell

VIMS Articles

Skates (family Rajidae) are benthic elasmobranchs that are highly vulnerable to incidental fishery bycatch, are dis-carded at sea, and are poorly accounted for in catch records. Many aspects of skate life history, such as population structure, are not well understood. Without this knowledge, indiscriminate removal may have deleterious effects on scientific, conservation, and management efforts. The Clearnose Skate Rostroraja eglanteriais seasonally migratory and widely distributed in the coastal waters of the eastern United States and in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. This study used molecular techniques to assess the population structure of Clearnose Skate for use as a biological reference …

Evaluating A Possible New Paradigm For Recruitment Dynamics: Predicting Poor Recruitment For Striped Bass (Morone Saxatilis) From An Environmental Variable, Julie M. Gross, Philip Sadler, John M. Hoenig

VIMS Articles

Understanding what causes large year classes and predicting them has been called the holy grail of fisheries science, one of the last great unanswered questions. Recruitment prediction, or forecasting, is an important component for setting fishery catch limits. We propose a new approach, called the “poor-recruitment paradigm”, for predicting recruitment using environmental variables. This approach hypothesizes that it is easier to predict poor recruitment rather than good recruitment because an environmental variable affects recruitment only when its value is extreme (lethal); otherwise, the variable may be benign and not influence recruitment. Thus, good recruitment necessitates all environmental conditions not be …

Identifying Species Complexes Based On Spatial And Temporal Clustering From Joint Dynamic Species Distribution Models, Kristen L. Omori, James T. Thorson

VIMS Articles

Data-limited species are often grouped into a species complex to simplify management. Commonalities between species that may indicate if species can be adequately managed as a complex include the following: shared habitat utilization (e.g., overlapping fine-scale spatial distribution), synchrony in abundance trends, consistent fishing pressure or gear susceptibility, or life history parameters resulting in similar productivity. Using non-target rockfish species in the Gulf of Alaska as a case study, we estimate spatial and temporal similarities among species to develop species complexes using the vector autoregressive spatio-temporal (VAST) model, which is a joint dynamic species distribution model. Species groupings are identified …

Oyster Economics: Simulated Costs, Market Returns, And Nonmarket Ecosystem Benefits Of Harvested And Nonharvested Reefs, Off-Bottom Aquaculture,And Living Shorelines, Daniel R. Petrolia, William C. Walton, Just Cebrian

VIMS Articles

We simulate expected costs, market returns, and nonmarket ecosystem benefits associated with four oyster resources: harvested bottom reefs, off-bottom aquaculture, nonharvested (restored) reefs, and living shorelines. Benefit categories include market returns from harvest, improved water quality (reduced nitrogen), habitat for other species (blue crab and red drum), and shoreline protection. Bottom reefs and off-bottom aquaculture yield both market returns and nonmarket ecosystem benefits, whereas nonharvested reefs and living
shorelines yield only nonmarket ecosystem benefits. Overall gross benefits are expected to be greater and much more variable for off-bottom aquaculture and living shorelines relative to harvested and nonharvested reefs. We find …

Beautiful Swimmers Attack At Low Tide, David S. Johnson

VIMS Articles

It is low tide in a salt marsh. A blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, digs a shallow-water pit. It appears that the crab has missed the outgoing tide and is waiting for the next one. But it is not the tide the crab is waiting for. A female fiddler crab, Minuca pugnax, picks at the mud near the pit with its claws. It is eating. The blue crab waits. The fiddler crab moves closer to the pit. Suddenly, the water explodes as the blue crab seizes the fiddler crab and pulls it into the pit. Now it is the …