Animal Sciences Commons^™

Juvenile Blue Crab (Callinectes Sapidus) Response To Altered Nursery Habitat, Megan Wood

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Habitats of Chesapeake Bay have been altered due to anthropogenic impacts and climate change. Due to these human disturbances, seagrasses have been extirpated from many areas in lower Chesapeake Bay and persisting beds face future losses as water temperatures continue to rise. Further loss of seagrass habitat will negatively impact juvenile blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) that use seagrass beds as nursery grounds. Habitat degradation allows for more successful introductions of exotic species, and the communities formed from the mixing of native and exotic species are known as emerging ecosystems. Gracilaria vermiculophylla, an exotic macroalga, may be an emerging nursery habitat …

Spatiotemporal Abundance Patterns And Ecological Drivers Of A Nearshore U.S. Atlantic Fish And Invertebrate Assemblage, Mark A. Stratton

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Taking an ecosystem approach to fisheries requires the consideration of relevant ecological processes within research and assessment frameworks. Processes affecting ecosystem productivity can be categorized as biophysical (climate variability, primary production), exploitative (fishing), or trophodynamic (food web interactions). This dissertation incorporates these three governing processes to characterize spatiotemporal diversity and population abundance trends for multiple demersal fish and invertebrate species that inhabit the nearshore zone (15-30 ft. depth) along portions of the U.S. Atlantic east coast.

Two large marine ecosystems (LMEs) encompass the U.S. East coast – the Southeast and Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf LMEs. The level of connectivity within …