Animal Sciences Commons^™

Comparison Of Methods For Determining Biogeochemical Fluxes From A Restored Oyster Reef, Melanie Jackson, Michael S. Owens, Jeffrey C. Cornwell, M. Lisa Kellogg

VIMS Articles

Oyster reef restoration can significantly increase benthic denitrification rates. Methods applied to measure nutrient fluxes and denitrification from oyster reefs in previous studies include incubations of sediment cores collected adjacent to oyster clumps, benthic chambers filled with intact reef segments that have undergone in situ equilibration and ex situ incubation, and cores with single oysters. However, fluxes of nutrients vary by orders of magnitude among oyster reefs and methods. This study compares two methods of measuring nutrient and metabolic fluxes on restored oyster reefs: incubations including intact segments of oyster reef and incubations containing oyster clumps without underlying sediments. Fluxes …

Intensive Oyster Aquaculture Can Reduce Disease Impacts On Sympatric Wild Oysters, Tal Ben-Horin, Colleen Burge, David Bushek, Maya Groner, Dina Proestou, Lauren Huey, Gorka Bidegain, Ryan Carnegie

VIMS Articles

Risks associated with disease spread from fish and shellfish farming have plagued the growth and public perception of aquaculture worldwide. However, by processing nutrients and organic material from the water column, the culture of many suspension-feeding bivalves has been proposed as a novel solution toward mitigating problems facing coastal water quality, including the removal of disease-causing parasites. Here we developed and simulated an epidemiological model describing sympatric oyster Crassostrea virginica populations in aquaculture and the wild impacted by the protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus. Our model captured the indirect interaction between wild and cultured populations that occurs through sharing water-borne P. …

Leds To Replace Fluorescent Tubes For Growth Of Cultured Algae, Grace Alego, Christopher Bentley, Rebecca Smith, Darian Kelley, Richard Synder

Reports

Fluorescent bulbs are widely used for algal culture stocks and production in aquaculture operations. Metal halide lamps are also used for production tanks with significant electricity demand and heat production. LED technology promises lower operational costs with less energy waste as heat for equivalent light energy production. Re-tooling algal production facilities with new LED fixtures incurs significant expense that must be recaptured in savings over time. The initial cost, added to concerns over the unknown response of algae to LED light sources may both be factors inhibiting incorporation of this new technology. LED replacement tubes are available to retrofit fluorescent …

Long-Term Monitoring Of A Successful Recovery Program Of Peregrine Falcons In Virginia, B. D. Watts, Mitchell A. Byrd, E. K. Mojica, S. Padgett, S. R. Harding, C. A. Koppie

Arts & Sciences Articles

The Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus anatum) was believed to be extirpated as a breeding species in Virginia by the early 1960s. An aggressive restoration program was initiated in 1978 that involved the release of captive-reared birds totaling 115 on the Coastal Plain (1978–1985) and 127 in the Mountain physiographic region (1985–1993). The first occupied territory was established and the first breeding attempt was documented in 1979 and 1982, respectively. We have monitored the size, distribution, reproductive rate, and substrate use of the resulting breeding population (1979–2016). The population proceeded through an establishment phase (1979–1993) driven by releases with an average …

Impacts Of A Multi-Trap Line On Benthic Habitat Containing Emergent Epifauna Within The Mid-Atlantic Bight, Cara C. Schweitzer, Rom Lipcius, Bradley G. Stevens

VIMS Articles

Alteration and degradation of benthic structure by fishing gear can impede efforts to manage fish stock sustainably. Although the impacts of mobile gear are well known, effects of passive gear (e.g. fish traps) upon structure have been little studied. We modified commercial traps for American lobster Homarus americanus and black sea bass Centropristis striata by attaching GoPro (R) cameras to ascertain the degree and nature of impacts to seafloor habitats. Customized traps were included within a line of 20 traps, deployed and retrieved according to standard commercial fishing practice. Less than 5% of traps landed directly on bedforms when deployed. …

Assessment Of The Relationship Of Stock And Recruitment In The Atlantic Surfclam Spisula Solidissima In The Northwestern Atlantic Ocean, Jeremy R. Timbs, Eric N. Powell, Roger L. Mann

VIMS Articles

Atlantic surfclams support a major commercial fishery in the western North Atlantic Ocean with landings consistently between 15,000 and 25,000 metric tons since 1982. The stock is not and historically has not been overfished nor has overfishing occurred; however, in recent years landings per unit effort have declined. Surfclams are a biomass dominant on the continental shelf and a bellwether of climate change in the northwestern Atlantic. This study investigated the relationship of broodstock and recruitment during a period when Mid-Atlantic warming initiated a shelf-wide shift in the surfclams range. A species distribution function model was used to assess the …

Rising Temperatures, Molting Phenology, And Epizootic Shell Disease In The American Lobster, Maya Groner, Jeffrey D. Shields, Df Landers, J Swenarton, Jm Hoenig

VIMS Articles

Phenological mismatchmaladaptive changes in phenology resulting from altered timing of environmental cuesis an increasing concern in many ecological systems, yet its effects on disease are poorly characterized. American lobster (Homarus americanus) is declining at its southern geographic limit. Rising seawater temperatures are associated with seasonal outbreaks of epizootic shell disease (ESD), which peaks in prevalence in the fall. We used a 34-year mark-recapture data set to investigate relationships between temperature, molting phenology, and ESD in Long Island Sound, where temperatures are increasing at 0.4 degrees C per decade. Our analyses support the hypothesis that phenological mismatch is linked to the …

The Effect Of Capture And Handling Stress In Lophius Americanus In The Scallop Dredge Fishery, Amelia M. Weissman, John W. Mandelman, David Rudders, James A. Sulikowski,

VIMS Articles

Capture and handling stress studies are considered a primary research priority, particularly for species and fisheries where discard rates are high, and/or for overfished stocks and species of concern. Lophius americanus, a commercially valuable finfish in New England, constitutes the second highest bycatch species within the sea scallop dredge fishery. Despite its commercial importance, no data exists on the capture and handling stress of monkfish for any gear type. Given these shortcomings, our goals were to evaluate the stress response of monkfish captured in scallop dredge gear by evaluating physical, behavioural and physiological responses to scallop fishing practices. While …

Successful Recruitment, Survival And Long-Term Persistence Of Eastern Oyster And Hooked Mussel On A Subtidal, Artificial Restoration Reef System In Chesapeake Bay, Rom Lipcius, Russell P. Burke

VIMS Articles

Restoration efforts with native eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, in Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere have been limited by shell availability, necessitating the use of alternative structures as subtidal reefs, yet these have rarely been evaluated quantitatively. We quantified population structure, density, abundance and biomass of eastern oyster and hooked mussel, Ischadium recurvum, on a concrete modular reef (75 m(2) surface area over 5 m(2) of river bottom) deployed subtidally at 7 m depth in the Rappahannock River, Virginia during October, 2000. After nearly 5 y (May 2005), we took 120 stratified random samples over the reef. The reef was heavily …

Environmental And Ecological Benefits And Impacts Of Oyster Aquaculture: Addendum, M. Lisa Kellogg, Jessica Turner, Jennifer C. Dreyer, Carl Friedrichs

Reports

The data described in this addendum are provided to enhance the resolution and/or expand the temporal scope of the information already provided in the final report (Kellogg et al. 2018). High-resolution water quality transect data were collected at all four sites in Summer 2017, at White Stone (Windmill Point site) and Lynnhaven River in Fall 2017, and at White Stone (North Point site) in Spring 2018. During each sampling period, data were collected from multiple transects through and outside of each farm. Resulting data were detrended as needed based on temporal and salinity-related patterns found in data collected outside the …

An Overview Of Factors Affecting Distribution Of The Atlantic Surfclam (Spisula Solidissima), A Continental Shelf Biomass Dominant, During A Period Of Climate Change, Ee Hofmann, En Powell, Jm Klinck, Dm Munroe, Roger L. Mann, Et Al

VIMS Articles

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissitna) is a dominant member of the biological community of the Middle Atlantic Bight continental shelf and a commercially harvested species. Climate warming is affecting the biology and distribution of this species, which provides an opportunity to investigate the processes and conditions that are restructuring this fishery and the implications for ecological and socioeconomic systems. A Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) developed for the surfclam fishery provides a mechanistic description of the surfclam's response to climate change and understanding of the cascade of effects initiated by changes in oceanographic conditions that ultimately appear as social …

Likely Locations Of Sea Turtle Stranding Mortality Using Experimentally- Calibrated, Time And Space-Specific Drift Models, Bianca S. Santos, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Sarah A. Rose, Susan G. Barco, David M. Kaplan

VIMS Articles

Sea turtle stranding events provide an opportunity to study drivers of mortality, but causes of strandings are poorly understood. A general sea turtle carcass oceanographic drift model was developed to estimate likely mortality locations from coastal sea turtle stranding records. Key model advancements include realistic direct wind forcing on carcasses, temperature driven carcass decomposition and the development of mortality location predictions for individual strandings. We applied this model to 2009–2014 stranding events within the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. Predicted origin of vessel strike strandings were compared to commercial vessel data, and potential hazardous turtle-vessel interactions were identified in the southeastern Bay …

Restoring The Eastern Oyster: How Much Progress Has Been Made In 53 Years?, Ab Hernandez, Rochelle Brumbaugh, P Fredrick, R Grizzle, Mark Luckenbach, Ch Peterson, C Angelini

VIMS Articles

Coastal ecosystem restoration is accelerating globally as a means of enhancing shoreline protection, carbon storage, water quality, fisheries, and biodiversity. Among the most substantial of these efforts have been those focused on re-establishing oyster reefs across the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Despite considerable investment, it is unclear how the scale of and approaches toward oyster restoration have evolved. A synthesis of 1768 projects undertaken since 1964 reveals that oyster substrate restoration efforts have primarily been concentrated in the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf Coast, have been heavily reliant on oyster shell, and have re-established 4.5% of the reef area …

Short-Term Pain And Long-Term Gain: Using Phased-In Minimum Size Limits To Rebuild Stocks-The Pacific Bluefin Tuna Example, Lisa E. Ailloud, Todd Gedamke, John M. Hoenig

VIMS Articles

Like many stocks, the Pacific Bluefin Tuna Thunnus orientalis has been considerably depleted. High exploitation rates on very young fish have reduced the spawning stock biomass (SSB) to 2.6% of the unexploited level. We provide a framework for exploring potential benefits of minimum size regulations as a mechanism for rebuilding stocks, and we illustrate the approach using simulations patterned after Pacific Bluefin Tuna dynamics. We attempt to mitigate short-term losses in yield by considering a phased-in management strategy. With this approach, the minimum size limit (MSL) is gradually increased as biomass rebuilds, giving fishing communities time to adjust to new …

Fish Assemblage Change Following The Structural Restoration Of A Degraded Stream, Carl A. Favata, Anabela Maia, Manisha Pant, Vaskar Nepal

VIMS Articles

Decades of anthropogenic pressure have harmed riverscapes throughout North America by degrading habitats and water quality and can result in the extirpation of sensitive aquatic taxa. Local stream restoration projects have increased in frequency, but monitoring is still infrequent. In 2010, Kickapoo Creek in East Central Illinois was subjected to a stream restoration project that included implementation of artificial riffles, riprap, scouring keys, and riparian vegetation. We monitored the restoration efforts for 6years after the restoration through annual sampling efforts at restored and reference sites to determine changes in habitat and fish assemblage using standard habitat sampling and electrofishing techniques. …

A Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling Approach For The Habitat Distribution Of Smooth Dogfish By Sex And Season In Inshore Coastal Waters Of The Us Northwest Atlantic, Andrea Dell'apa, Maria Grazia Pennino, Charles W Bangley, Christopher F. Bonzek

VIMS Articles

The Smooth Dogfish Mustelus canis is an abundant, small coastal shark occurring along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Despite being targeted by a directed fishery and having recently undergone a stock assessment that found the population neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing, little is known about the spatial and temporal distribution of this species. Here, we used catch data from the spring and fall Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program's fishery-independent trawl surveys conducted between 2007 and 2016 and various environmental factors to perform hierarchical Bayesian modeling as a first attempt to spatially predict adult Smooth Dogfish CPUE in U.S. northwest Atlantic …

Investigating The Life Cycle Of Haplosporidium Nelsoni (Msx), Se Ford, Na Stokes, Ka Alcox, Bsf Kraus, Rochelle Barber, Ryan Carnegie, Em Burreson

VIMS Articles

Attempts to decipher the life cycle of Haplosporidium nelsoni began almost immediately after it was identified as the pathogen causing MSX disease in eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica. But transmission experiments failed and the spore stage, characteristic of haplosporidans, was extremely rare. Researchers concluded that another host was involved: an intermediate host in which part of the life cycle was produced, or-if the oyster was an accidental host-an alternate host that produces infective elements. A later finding that spores were found more often in spat (< 1 y old) than in adults revived the idea of direct transmission between oysters. The new findings and the availability of molecular diagnostics led us to revive life cycle investigations. Over several years, oyster spat were examined for spores and searched for H. nelsoni in potential non-oyster hosts using both histological and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methodologies. …

Predicting The Trajectories Of Dead Sea Turtles In Virginia Using Experimental Data And Model Simulations, Bianca Santos, David Michael Kaplan

Data

No abstract provided.

Living Shorelines Support Nearshore Benthic Communities In Upper And Lower Chesapeake Bay, Theresa M. Davenport, Rochelle D. Seitz, Kathleen E. Knick, Nina Jackson

VIMS Articles

Human population growth and sea-level rise are increasing the demand for protection of coastal property against shoreline erosion. Living shorelines are designed to provide shoreline protection and are constructed or reinforced using natural elements. While living shorelines are gaining popularity with homeowners, their ability to provide ecological services (e.g., habitat provision and trophic transfer) is not well understood, and information is needed to improve coastal and resource management decision-making. We examined benthic community responses to living shorelines in two case-study subestuaries of Chesapeake Bay using a before-after control-impact study design. At Windy Hill, a bulkhead was removed and replaced by …

The Contribution Of Local And Transport Processes To Phytoplankton Biomass Variability Over Different Timescales In The Upper James River, Virginia, Qubin Quin, Jian Shen

VIMS Articles

Although both local processes (photosynthesis, respiration, grazing, and settling), and transport processes (advective transport and diffusive transport) significantly affect local phytoplankton dynamics, it is difficult to separate their contributions and to investigate the relative importance of each process to the local variability of phytoplankton biomass over different timescales. A method of using the transport rate is introduced to quantify the contribution of transport processes. By combining the time-varying transport rate and high-frequency observed chlorophyll a data, we can explicitly examine the impact of local and transport processes on phytoplankton biomass over a range of timescales from hourly to annually. For …

Dermal Mycobacteriosis And Warming Sea Surface Temperatures Are Associated With Elevated Mortality Of Striped Bass In Chesapeake Bay, Maya L. Groner, John M. Hoenig, Roger Pradel, Remi Choquet, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein, David T. Gauthier, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs

VIMS Articles

Temperature is hypothesized to alter disease dynamics, particularly when species are living at or near their thermal limits. When disease occurs in marine systems, this can go undetected, particularly if the disease is chronic and progresses slowly. As a result, population-level impacts of diseases can be grossly underestimated. Complex migratory patterns, stochasticity in recruitment, and data and knowledge gaps can hinder collection and analysis of data on marine diseases. New tools enabling quantification of disease impacts in marine environments include coupled biogeochemical hydrodynamic models (to hindcast key environmental data), and multievent, multistate mark-recapture (MMSMR) (to quantify the effects of environmental …

2018 Annual Report Estimating Relative Juvenile Abundance Of Ecologically Important Finfish In The Virginia Portion Of Chesapeake Bay (1 July 2017 – 30 June 2018), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1 July 2017 – 30 June 2018

The Trawl Survey provides crucial data to state, regional, and national fisheries management agencies, including the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC), the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (MAFMC), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The MAFMC recognizes the juvenile trawl survey as one of the key predictors of Summer Flounder recruitment. Annual indices of juvenile abundance have been generated from trawl survey data for species of key recreational, ecological, and commercial importance in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay. These include Spot, Atlantic Croaker, …

Evaluating Recruitment Of American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Potomac River (Spring 2018), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

No abstract provided.

Scallop Mark-Recapture To Estimate Density Dependent Natural Mortality And Growth : Final Report, David Rudders, John Hoenig, Sally Roman

Reports

Natural mortality, growth and movement are fundamental processes critical to understanding and describing population dynamics. These population characteristics not only inform and influence stock assessment models, but are also highly relevant with respect to the design and implementation of management strategies to meet fishery objectives. For many species, including sea scallops, these population parameters are difficult to measure due to the nature of the habitats inhabited and as a result, minimal information is often available. In many cases, what estimates do exist are highly uncertain as a result of both observation and process error. The uncertainty of these parameters is …

Human Influence At The Coast: Upland And Shoreline Stressors Affect Coastal Macrofauna And Are Mediated By Salinity, Rochelle D. Seitz, Kathleen E. Knick, Theresa M. Davenport, Gabrielle G. Saluta

VIMS Articles

Anthropogenic stressors can affect subtidal communities within the land-water interface. Increasing anthropogenic activities, including upland and shoreline development, threaten ecologically important species in these habitats. In this study, we examined the consequences of anthropogenic stressors on benthic macrofaunal communities in 14 subestuaries of Chesapeake Bay. We investigated how subestuary upland use (forested, agricultural, developed land) and shoreline development (riprap and bulkhead compared to marsh and beach) affected density, biomass, and diversity of benthic infauna. Upland and shoreline development were parameters included in the most plausible models among a candidate set compared using corrected Akaike's Information Criterion. For benthic macrofauna, density …

Assessment Of Black Rail Status In Georgia, Interim Report: Summer 2018, B. D. Watts, B. J. Paxton, F. M. Smith

CCB Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation And Outlook Report: Results Of The 2017 Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Crop Reporting Survey, Karen Hudson, Virginia Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program

Reports

No abstract provided.

Abundance Trends Of Highly Migratory Species In The Atlantic Ocean: Accounting For Water Temperature Profiles, Patrick D. Lynch, Kyle W. Shertzer, Enric Cortes, Robert J. Latour

VIMS Articles

Relative abundance trends of highly migratory species (HMS) have played a central role in debates over the health of global fisheries. However, such trends have mostly been inferred from fishery catch rates, which can provide misleading signals of relative abundance. While many biases are accounted for through traditional catch rate standardization, pelagic habitat fished is rarely directly considered. Using a method that explicitly accounts for temperature regimes, we analysed data from the US pelagic longline fishery to estimate relative abundance trends for 34 HMS in the Atlantic Ocean from 1987 through 2013. This represents one of the largest studies of …

An Updated Model For Estimating The Tmdl-Related Benefits Of Oyster Reef Restoration Harris Creek, Maryland, Usa, M. Lisa Kellogg, Mark J. Brush, Jeff C. Cornwell

Reports

In 2014, a user-friendly, web-accessible model was developed that allowed restoration practitioners and resource managers to easily estimate the TMDLrelated benefits of oyster reef (Crassostrea virginica) restoration per unit area, run restoration scenarios in Harris Creek, MD to optimize restoration planning and implementation, and calculate the benefits of the chosen plan. The model was rooted in scientifically defensible data and was readily transferrable to systems throughout the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore. The model operated in five vertically well-mixed boxes along the main axis of the creek. Exchanges among creeks were computed using a tidal prism approach and were compared …

Environmental And Ecological Benefits And Impacts Of Oyster Aquaculture Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, Usa, M. Lisa Kellogg, Jessica Turner, Jennifer Dreyer, Grace M. Massey

Reports

To better quantify the ecological benefits and impacts of oyster aquaculture, we sampled water quality, sediment quality, benthic macrofaunal communities and oysters at four oyster aquaculture sites located on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, USA. At each site, we collected samples from within the footprint of the aquaculture cages and from nearby areas with similar physical and environmental conditions but far enough away to be minimally influenced by aquaculture operations. Data collected from the water column included chlorophyll concentrations, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen concentrations, light attenuation, particle concentration, median particle size, total suspended solids and their organic …