Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Anchialine Biodiversity In The Turks And Caicos Islands: New Discoveries And Current Faunal Composition, Brett C. Gonzalez, Alejandro Martínez, Jørgen Olesen, Sarit B. Truskey, Lauren Ballou, Marc Allentoft-Larsen, Joost Daniels, Paul Heinerth, Mark Parrish, Naqqi Manco, Jon Ward, Thomas M. Iliffe, Karen J. Osborn, Katrine Worsaae

International Journal of Speleology

Lying at the southernmost point of the Lucayan Archipelago, the Turks and Caicos Islands are amongst the better studied localities for anchialine cave biodiversity. For nearly five decades, novel invertebrate fauna, comprised primarily of crustaceans, have been collected from these tidally influenced pools – but new findings are always on the horizon. Herein we present new records of crustaceans and annelids from anchialine blue holes and horizontal caves of the Turks and Caicos. These findings include two potentially new species of meiofaunal annelids and a new species of remipede collected from a shallow water cave pool. Our 2019 expedition additionally …

Bull Kelp (Nereocystic Lutkeana) Restoration And Management In Northern California, Olivia Johnson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Northern California’s coastal marine ecosystems support one of the most productive and biodiverse habitats on the planet. Bull kelp forests (Nereocystic lutkeana) form habitats for an abundance of marine mammals, sea bird, fish, and invertebrates. In recent years, compounding ecological and climatic factors have disrupted the balance of the bull kelp forests and led to an unprecedented loss of bull kelp biomass and canopy cover. These areas that are typically teeming with marine life have shifted into a stable state of sea urchin barrens due to over grazing of bull kelp by purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus pupuratus). These sea urchin …

Is Anyone Home? Year Round Site Fidelity Vs. Temporal Territories In Estuarine Blennies, Nicholas Govostes

Honors Theses

Temperate oyster reef blennies use articulated oyster shells as nest sites in warmer months during breeding season but little is known about their site fidelity during non-breeding season. Unlike coral reef blennies that occupy territories year-round, rocky intertidal temperate blenny species display temporal territories and seasonally migrate into breeding shelters. Striped blenny (Chasmodes bosquianus) shelter use was described from November 2019 through March 2020 at Oyster Landing, North Inlet estuary, SC to quantify the proportion of daylight hours when fish were in residence and describe potential relationships between shelter occupancy and neighboring fishes. Replicate PVC shelters were monitored …

Development Of Methods To Track Oyster Movement Under Field Conditions In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina, Alyssa M. Leclaire

Honors Theses

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs provide important habitat structure and ecosystem services in saltmarsh tidal creek estuaries. Reef persistence depends on growth of resident individuals and regular recruitment to maintain suitable shell substrate. Boat wakes potentially physically displace oyster clumps. The objective of this research was to develop methods to track oyster clump position and biomass on two natural fringing oyster reefs in North Inlet estuary, South Carolina. Boat traffic (number of boats making wakes per day), oyster clump displacement (cm/d) over time, oyster biomass (g dry tissue), and condition index (biomass/g dry shell weight) were quantified from …

Steady Heartbeat: Field And Laboratory Studies Indicate Unexpected Resilience To High Temperatures For The Ribbed Mussel Geukensia Demissa, Ashlyn N. Smith Ms.

Honors College Theses

Salt marshes are important ecosystems found along the coast of Georgia. Salt marshes are hosts to diverse organisms that interact with each other to promote many ecosystem services, such as storm buffering and flooding, and absorption of excess nutrients. Among these diverse organisms is the ribbed mussel, Geukensia demissa. Mussels are a foundation species in this intertidal landscape, and without them the whole salt marsh would be negatively affected. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the thermal stress response of G. demissa to rising temperatures. Mussels were collected from three locations that were landlocked, close to a …

Pismo Clams (Tivela Stultorum) In Califorina: Population Status, Habitat Associations, Reproduction, And Growth, Alexandria R. Marquardt

Master's Theses

Marine shellfish play a vital role in intertidal ecosystems and coastal communities, but many of these fisheries are small-scale and lack the necessary monitoring to ensure long-term sustainability. Effective management often requires information on key demographic parameters, such as population status, reproduction and growth. Pismo clams (Tivela stultorum) are a culturally important and iconic species in California, which supported a thriving commercial and recreational fishery throughout much of the 1900’s. However, Pismo clam populations have declined statewide in recent decades and are attributed to human harvest and predation by California sea otters (Enhydra lutris); However, no …

The Effect Of Ocean Plastic On Plankton And Marine Ecosystems, Aiden Brinkmann '22, Eric Shackelford '22

Student Leadership Exchange (SLX)

Title: The Effect of Ocean Plastic on Plankton and Marine Ecosystems Abstract: This presentation aims to raise awareness for the harm plastics in our oceans are causing analysis and visualization of scientific data. It is largely inspired by the fourteenth United Nations Sustainable Development Goal: Life Below Water. The datasets used primary fall into two categories: ocean plastic content statistics and plankton population demographics. The presentation will also explore plankton’s role as the base of many aquatic ecosystems and model the impact a population decline could have on these ecosystems. The effects ocean plastics can have on our modern society …

Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Analysis Of Mangrove Ecosystems Using Gis, Kayla Caldwell

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is accelerating beyond what is natural due to excessive emissions from human activities. The sea level has been rising for many years and is currently at a rate of 3.6 mm/yr. Mangroves are known to only keep pace with a sea level rate of less than 1.2 mm/yr. Mangroves are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels if they are not able to keep pace through vertical sediment accretion or inland migration. To test the vulnerability of the south Florida mangrove ecosystems to sea level rise, this study analyzed changes in the mangrove forest coverage of the Oleta River …

What Is The Winter Limiting Nutrient In Urban Reservoirs? A Case Study, Precious Nyabami

UCARE: Research Products

The importance of reservoirs is widely acknowledged by urban populations, yet little is understood scientifically about their ability to process nutrients deposited into them in winter. For example, when agricultural runoff is deposited in lakes in winter or any other season, eutrophication might arise in the spring. With increased eutrophication, several ecosystem services are lost and this leads to what several researchers call “the urban syndrome”. Some studies have been done on the winter limnology of lakes, yet little is understood about the above in reservoirs. The sustainability of urban reservoirs relies on understanding how the phytoplankton in urban reservoirs …

Feeding Ecology Of Red Snapper (Lutjanus Campechanus) And Vermilion Snapper (Rhomboplites Aurorubens) Coexisting At The Louisiana Shelf-Edge Banks, Katherine M. Ellis

LSU Master's Theses

Niche partitioning, the process by which competing species use different subsets of the available resources, is commonly used to explain the coexistence of closely related species. In the northwest Gulf of Mexico on the shelf-edge banks, red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) and vermilion snapper (Rhomboplites aurorubens) are two coexisting closely related species. Yet, little is known about how these species partition resources. In this study, niche partitioning of red snapper and vermilion snapper was investigated using gut contents and stable isotopes. While dietary niche partitioning was apparent, the species relied upon similar prey and displayed isotopic niche overlap, …

An Ecopath With Ecosim Analysis On Offshore Petroleum Platform Influences On Gulf Of Mexico Red Snapper, Valentin Gomez

LSU Master's Theses

Offshore oil and gas platforms have had a significant presence in the Gulf of Mexico since the 1950s. An important secondary function of these structures is that they provide artificial habitat to fisheries, most notably Red snapper. Policy changes intended to reduce the risk associated with aging infrastructure have reduced the number of standing platforms from 4044 to 1867 from 2001 to 2018. The effect this loss of habitat has on Red snapper was tested by creating three scenarios of platform changes and modeling the perturbation from 2005 to 2050. The simulation was accomplished using the ecological model Ecopath with …

Performance Evaluation Of Cetacean Species Distribution Models Developed Using Generalized Additive Models And Boosted Regression Trees, Elizabeth A. Becker, James V. Carretta, Karin A. Forney, Jay Barlow, Stephanie Brodie, Ryan Hoopes, Michael G. Jacox, Sara M. Maxwell, Jessica V. Redfern, Nicholas B. Sisson, Heather Welch, Elliott L. Hazen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Species distribution models (SDMs) are important management tools for highly mobile marine species because they provide spatially and temporally explicit information on animal distribution. Two prevalent modeling frameworks used to develop SDMs for marine species are generalized additive models (GAMs) and boosted regression trees (BRTs), but comparative studies have rarely been conducted; most rely on presence-only data; and few have explored how features such as species distribution characteristics affect model performance. Since the majority of marine species BRTs have been used to predict habitat suitability, we first compared BRTs to GAMs that used presence/absence as the response variable. We then …

Diet Analysis Of Stranded Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In Virginia, Kristen Marie Volker

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

This study describes the diet of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) stranded in Virginia via stomach content analysis and considers factors such as proportion of numerical abundance and reconstructed mass, frequency of occurrence, average reconstructed prey size, prey diversity and quantity, and otolith degradation code. Fish size was estimated via regression equations established from local fish collected during the study that derive wet weight directly from otolith length or width. Squid size is estimated from previously published equations. Soniferous fishes dominated the diet, especially Atlantic croaker, spot, and seatrout spp., adding evidence to the theory that bottlenose dolphins passively …

Natural Variation And Evolutionary Responses To Climate Change Stressors In Marine Invertebrates, Joanna Sarah Griffiths

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Our rapidly changing climate is putting many species at risk of extinction and there is an urgent need to understand how species will respond to these changes. In this dissertation, I evaluate how three species of marine invertebrates (corals, oysters, and copepods) respond to stressful conditions in their current environments and how plasticity and evolutionary adaptation could alter their response to future climate change stressors. I first employed a space for time study to elucidate population differences in the response of cold-water corals, Balanophyllia elegans, to future ocean acidification. I found evidence that upwelling history (natural low pH exposure) influences …

Effects Of Freshwater Inflow On Nekton Assemblages And Blue Crab Populations In Southeastern Louisiana, Caleb Benjamin Taylor

LSU Master's Theses

Estuaries along the northern Gulf of Mexico represent some of the most productive ecosystems in the world, providing vital habitat for many recreationally and commercially valuable species, including the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. The mixing of fresh river and saline ocean water in coastal estuaries contribute to this productivity. Dominated by large river influences and consisting of multiple estuaries, Louisiana contributes the largest commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, and remains, on average, the largest supplier of blue crabs in the nation. However, across southeast Louisiana, freshwater flow is largely dependent on Mississippi River discharge, which is highly …

The Role Of Dislodgement In The Territorial Ecology Of The Owl Limpet, Lottia Gigantea, Ryan T. Kabala, Natalie Swinford, Maria J. Mason, William G. Wright

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Ascertaining the risks and benefits of different behaviors is a central goal of research on territoriality. Although most territorial behavior is ritualized, with concomitant reduced risks for both residents and intruders, this ritualization is generally found to be underpinned by rare, highly consequential, interactions. The agonistic behavior of the intertidal owl limpet, Lottia gigantea, involves defense of a feeding territory, and includes a relatively explosive thrusting response by territory holders against intruding conspecifics. We here ask whether this thrusting behavior is capable of entirely dislodging intruders from their rocky wave-swept substratum, thereby ridding the resident of future challenges by …

'How To' Guide For Synthesizing Nerrs Marsh Monitoring Data, David M. Burdick

Jackson Estuarine Laboratory

The purpose of this guide is to provide a user-friendly and informative guide on ‘How to’ synthesize salt marsh data from theNational Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRs). In this guide, we outline and detail the steps taken from requesting/cataloguing data to summarizing these data through visual and statistical analysis. These methods can be used at a single or multiple site(s) as well as over multiple years. Though this guide is specific to NERRs and focuses on plant community data, it may also be useful for other monitoring parameters and programs to guide protocol design and analyses. Here, we conduct a …

A Guide To Integrate Plant Cover Data From Two Different Methods, David M. Burdick, Chris R. Peter

Jackson Estuarine Laboratory

There is a lack of consensus on how to monitor (measure) plant cover in tidal marshes. Multiple methods exist to estimate plant cover, which can confound interpretation when making comparisons across methods. Here, we provide a novel and more accurate approach, building off of traditional data transformations designed to integrate the two most common methods: Point Intercept and Ocular Cover.

Size And Density Of Upside-Down Jellyfish, Cassiopea Sp., And Their Impact On Benthic Fluxes In A Caribbean Lagoon, Chester B. Zarnoch, Noshin Hossain, Erika Fusco, Mary Alldred, Timothy J. Hoellein, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic disturbances may be increasing jellyfish populations globally. Epibenthic jellyfish are ideal organisms for studying this phenomenon due to their sessile lifestyle, broad geographic distribution, and prevalence in near-shore coastal environments. There are few studies, however, that have documented epibenthic jellyfish abundance and measured their impact on ecological processes in tropical ecosystems. In this study, the density and size of the upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea spp.) were measured in Codrington Lagoon, Barbuda. A sediment core incubation study, with and without Cassiopea, also was performed to determine their impact on benthic oxygen and nutrient fluxes. Densities of Cassiopea were 24–168 …

The First Global Deep-Sea Stable Isotope Assessment Reveals The Unique Trophic Ecology Of Vampire Squid Vampyroteuthis Infernalis (Cephalopoda), A. V. Golikov, F. R. Ceia, R. M. Sabirov, J. D. Ablett, Ian G. Gleadall, Gudmundur Gudmundsson, Henk-Jan T. Hoving, Heather L. Judkins

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

Vampyroteuthis infernalis Chun, 1903, is a widely distributed deepwater cephalopod with unique morphology and phylogenetic position. We assessed its habitat and trophic ecology on a global scale via stable isotope analyses of a unique collection of beaks from 104 specimens from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cephalopods typically are active predators occupying a high trophic level (TL) and exhibit an ontogenetic increase in δ15N and TL. Our results, presenting the first global comparison for a deep-sea invertebrate, demonstrate that V. infernalis has an ontogenetic decrease in δ15N and TL, coupled with niche broadening. Juveniles are mobile zooplanktivores, while larger …

Temporal Variability Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons In Deep-Sea Cephalopods Of The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Isabel C. Romero, Heather L. Judkins, Michael Vecchione

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

As part of the effort to understand the effects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWHOS), we analyzed tissue from five species of midwater oceanic cephalopods in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) during three time periods, including one period sampled fortuitously just before the spill (2010), and two periods sampled after the spill (2011 and 2015–2016). The species, Japetella diaphana, Abralia redfieldi, Histioteuthis corona, Leachia atlantica, and Onychoteuthis banksii were collected in three geographic areas in the GoM (east, south and southeast of the Macondo wellhead). Results indicate a shift in the composition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in …

Using Harvest Slot Limits To Promote Stock Recovery And Broaden Age Structure In Marine Recreational Fisheries: A Case Study, Jacob M. Kasper, Jeffrey Brust, Amanda Caskenette, Jason Mcnamee, Jason C. Vokoun, Eric T. Schultz

EEB Articles

Fish populations with broad age distributions are expected to have higher reproductive capacity than age-truncated populations because of the disproportionate contributions of older fish. Harvest slot limits, an expected means of ameliorating age truncation, are modeled for Tautog Tautoga onitis in an overfished population subunit that is experiencing overfishing. Tautog, currently managed by a 40 cm minimum size limit (MSL), is a candidate species for slots because it is relatively long-lived, slow-growing, with low discard mortality. We evaluated changes in biomass and abundance-at-age relative to management with the current MSL regulations using a forward population simulation model for four slots: …

Distribution, Density, Movement, And Support For Management Of Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus Jordani, In The Black Hills Of South Dakota, Seth J. Fopma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus jordani, is a cold-water species native to the Intermountain West. Fringe populations of Mountain Sucker have experienced declines in recent decades. The population of Mountain Sucker found in the Black Hills of South Dakota represents the eastern fringe of the species’ native range. Recognized as both an indicator of biologic health and as a species of greatest conservation need in South Dakota, recent studies have suggested significant declines in both distribution and abundance. Despite the recent study of Mountain Sucker in the region, increased understanding of Mountain Sucker ecology is needed to effectively manage for the conservation …

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary: An Exploration Of Changing The Discourse On Conservation, Arielle Ben-Hur

Pitzer Senior Theses

In 2015, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council submitted a National Marine Sanctuary Nomination to establish the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary– a means by which to ensure the protection of one of the most culturally and biologically diverse coastlines in the world. On October 5, 2015, John Armor of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) responded to the nomination, adding it to the inventory of areas NOAA may consider in the future for national marine sanctuary designation.

In my thesis, I explore how the nomination of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary acts as a platform from which Traditional …

Intraspecific Aggression Towards Common Bottlenose Dolphin Calves, Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Errol Ronje, Sarah Piwetz, Heidi Whitehead, Keith D. Mullin

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Infanticide has been widely documented throughout the animal kingdom, and has generally been viewed as an evolved, or adaptive behavior for the perpetrators. Infanticide motivated by increased sexual access to females with calves, or the elimination of potential genetic competition in the form of calf-directed aggression or infanticide, has been proposed for delphinids including killer whales, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Guiana dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins. However, reports of intraspecific aggression towards bottlenose dolphin calves are relatively infrequent, and accounts of confirmed infanticide are rarer still. Reporting instances of intraspecific calf-directed aggression aids researchers to better understand the socio-behavioral context of these …

Small-Scale Variability In Carbon Isotope Ratios Of Microphytobenthos And Dissolved Inorganic Carbon In A Northern Gulf Of Mexico Salt Marsh, Trinity Curry, Jeffrey Krause, Ronald Baker

Gulf and Caribbean Research

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Hierarchy Of Long-Term Environmental Controls On Diatom Communities Of Yellowstone National Park Using Lacustrine Sediment Records, Victoria Chraibi, Sherilyn C. Fritz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

An ecosystem’s ability to maintain structure and function following disturbance, defined as resilience, is influenced by a hierarchy of environmental controls, including climate, surface cover, and ecological relationships that shape biological community composition and productivity. This study examined lacustrine sediment records of naturally fishless lakes in Yellowstone National Park to reconstruct the response of aquatic communities to climate and trophic cascades from fish stocking. Sediment records of diatom algae did not exhibit a distinct response to fish stocking in terms of assemblage or algal productivity. Instead, 3 of 4 lakes underwent a shift to dominance by benthic diatom species from …

Scaling And Ecological Relationships In The Visual Ecology Of Sharks, Brianna Hall

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Adaptations of visual systems, such as acuity, sensitivity, and eye size can be used to infer the relative importance of vision to an organism. The high metabolic cost of visual system development and maintenance suggests that large relative eye size (as it relates to body length) may have a significant ecological or evolutionary role. Elasmobranchs are morphologically diverse and inhabit a wide range of marine and freshwater niches. As energetic and ecological demands shift over time, several species occupy different predatory niches across their lifetime, yielding a large array of visual habitats. Additionally, eye size changes with body length allometrically, …

Microbial Degradability Of Terrigenous, Marsh-Exported, And Estuarine Colored Dissolved Organic Matter In Long Island Sound, John R. Supino

Dissertations and Theses

The Long Island Sound is one of the world's most urbanized estuaries, polluted from excess nutrients which impact the quality of water through increased biological productivity. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a sensitive indicator of anthropogenic pollution and nutrient enrichment in coastal waters as well as an important part of the carbon cycle and serves as a primary food source for aquatic food webs. Additionally, the colored portion of DOM (CDOM) impacts coastal optical properties, ocean color, and light attenuation. High levels of CDOM have been shown to inhibit the growth of phytoplankton and limit photosynthesis, damaging the food chain …

Size At Maturation, Spawning Variability And Fecundity In The Queen Conch, Aliger Gigas, Richard S. Appeldoorn

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The queen conch (Aliger gigas) resource is one of the most important in the Caribbean. While aspects of queen conch reproduction have been studied, e.g., size—at—maturity, spawning season, and density—based Allee effects, there is little information on other important aspects. From 210 lipped queen conch collected off southwest Puerto Rico, histological examination of gonads showed that 50% maturation occurred at 9 mm lip thickness. Experimental caged queen conch held on a natural spawning ground were monitored across the spawning season to evaluate fecundity and its variability across individuals and between nominal density treatments (2,000 vs 143 conch/ha). Near …