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Articles 61 - 72 of 72

Full-Text Articles in Marine Biology

Biology And Ecology Of Rivulus Marmoratus: New Insights And A Review, D. Scott Taylor Jan 2000

Biology And Ecology Of Rivulus Marmoratus: New Insights And A Review, D. Scott Taylor

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Rivulus marmoratus (Pisces: Aplocheilidae) is a small cyprinodontid indigenous to mangroves of the western tropical Atlantic. This species is well known as the only selffertilizing, hermaphroditic vertebrate, and populations normally consist of genetically diverse groups of homozygous clones. However, male fish are known from a few populations, and outcrossing and heterozygosity have been documented from two areas in Central America. Rivulus marmoratus also exhibits a number of behaviors and environmental tolerances unusual in fishes, and since the species is secretive, rare in some habitats and difficult to collect, knowledge of its natural history has been limited until recently. Within the …

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Feeding Preferences Of A Generalist Salt-Marsh Crab: Relative Importance Of Multiple Plant Traits, Steven C. Pennings, Thomas H. Carefoot, Erin L. Siska, Margo E. Chase, Teresa A. Page Sep 1998

Feeding Preferences Of A Generalist Salt-Marsh Crab: Relative Importance Of Multiple Plant Traits, Steven C. Pennings, Thomas H. Carefoot, Erin L. Siska, Margo E. Chase, Teresa A. Page

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Few studies have evaluated the relative importance of multiple plant traits to herbivore diet choice, especially with an experimental approach. Moreover, although circumstantial evidence points to plant toughness and silica content as important deter- minents of diet choice, few studies have experimentally demonstrated that these factors actually deter feeding by herbivores. We examined feeding preferences of a generalist salt- marsh crab, Armases cinereum, for all the common angiosperms in its habitat. We took an experimental approach to evaluating the importance of toughness, secondary chemistry, silica, salt, and protein in determining feeding preferences. Consumption of plants by Armases in two experiments …

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Effects Of Submergence On Embryonic Survival And Developmental Rate Of The Florida Applesnail, Pomacea Paludosa: Implications For Egg Predation And Marsh Management, Richard L. Turner Jan 1998

Effects Of Submergence On Embryonic Survival And Developmental Rate Of The Florida Applesnail, Pomacea Paludosa: Implications For Egg Predation And Marsh Management, Richard L. Turner

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Aerial deposition of egg clutches by the aquatic Florida applesnai! is believed to have evolved in response to aquatic egg predators. Adaptation to aerial conditions might, however. have rendered embryos intolerant of submergence, a potential occurrence in natural and managed marshes, rivers. and lakes. In this study, eggs were submerged in water for various durations in the laboratory to assess their ability to survive flooding; and clutches of known ages were submerged for several days in the field to determine if aquatic predators might decrease survival below levels expected to occur due to flooding alone. Submergence of clutches slowed embryonic …

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Feeding Mechanism And Functional Morphology Of The Jaws Of The Lemon Shark Negaprion Brevirostris (Chondrichthyes, Carcharhinidae), Philip J. Motta, Timothy C. Tricas, Robert E. Hueter, Adam P. Summers Jan 1997

Feeding Mechanism And Functional Morphology Of The Jaws Of The Lemon Shark Negaprion Brevirostris (Chondrichthyes, Carcharhinidae), Philip J. Motta, Timothy C. Tricas, Robert E. Hueter, Adam P. Summers

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

This study tests the hypothesis that preparatory, expansive, compressive and recovery phases of biting behavior known for aquatically feeding anamniotes are conserved among extant elasmobranch fishes. The feeding mechanism of the lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris is examined by anatomical dissection, electromyography and high-speed video analysis. Three types of feeding events are differentiated during feeding: (1) food ingestion primarily by ram feeding; (2) food manipulation; and (3) hydraulic transport of the food by suction. All feeding events are composed of the expansive, compressive and recovery phases common to aquatically feeding teleost fishes, salamanders and turtles. A preparatory phase is occasionally observed …

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Muscular Basis Of Buccal Pressure: Inflation Behavior In The Striped Burrfish Chilomycterus Schoepfi, Peter C. Wainwright, Ralph G. Turingan Jan 1996

Muscular Basis Of Buccal Pressure: Inflation Behavior In The Striped Burrfish Chilomycterus Schoepfi, Peter C. Wainwright, Ralph G. Turingan

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

We examined the relationship between commonly measured features of cranial muscle activity and the magnitude of sub- and superambient pressure measured inside the buccal cavity of the striped burrfish Chilomycterus schoepfi during inflation behavior. Buccal pressure was recorded simultaneously with electromyographic (EMG) records of activity from three expansive-phase muscles (levator operculi, levator pectoralis and hyohyoideus abductor) and three compressive-phase muscles (adductor mandibulae, protractor hyoideus and protractor pectoralis) in eight individuals. We quantified EMG activity in approximately 30 inflation cycles per fish by measuring the burst duration, rectified integrated area, intensity of activity (area divided by duration) and onset time relative …

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Seasonal Dynamics Of Dental Sexual Dimorphism In The Atlantic Stingray Dasyatis Sabina, Stephen M. Kajiura, Timothy C. Tricas Jan 1996

Seasonal Dynamics Of Dental Sexual Dimorphism In The Atlantic Stingray Dasyatis Sabina, Stephen M. Kajiura, Timothy C. Tricas

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Cartilaginous fishes continuously replace their teeth throughout their life (polyphyodonty) and often show a sexually dimorphic dentition that was previously thought to be an invariant sex character. Radial vector analysis of tooth shape in the polyphyodontic stingray Dasyatis sabina across a consecutive 24 month period shows a stable molariform morphology for females but a periodic shift in male dentition from a female-like molariform to a recurved cuspidate form during the reproductive season. The grip tenacity of the male dentition is greater for the cuspidate form that occurs during the mating season than for the molariform dentition that occurs during the …

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Use Of Stems Of Emergent Plants For Oviposition By The Florida Applesnail, Pomacea Paludosa, And The Implications For Marsh Management, Richard L. Turner Jan 1996

Use Of Stems Of Emergent Plants For Oviposition By The Florida Applesnail, Pomacea Paludosa, And The Implications For Marsh Management, Richard L. Turner

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

This field study examined the distribution among emergent plant stems of egg clutches deposited by the amphibious Florida applesnail in four types of marsh in east central Florida. Clutch density was highest along the edge of sawgrass marsh and zero in deep marsh. Densities in maidencane and mixed shallow marshes were about one-third the density in sawgrass. In all marsh types, clutches occurred preferentially on plants having broad stems that generally exceeded 6 mm in diameter at water level. Substratum limitation for oviposition increased with the frequency of narrow-stemmed plants, but stem height was rarely limiting. The four marsh types …

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Echinaster Graminicola, A New Species Of Spinulosid Sea Star (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) From The West Coast Of Florida, David B. Campbell, Richard L. Turner Jun 1984

Echinaster Graminicola, A New Species Of Spinulosid Sea Star (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) From The West Coast Of Florida, David B. Campbell, Richard L. Turner

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

A new species of the sea-star genus Echinaster is described from shallow-water seagrass and oyster beds of the west coast of Florida. The new speciesand E. spinulosus Verrill are sibling species, morphologically distinguished only by spination and differences in the secondary skeleton. The two species also differ in coloration and in many physiological, reproductive, and ecological characteristics.

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Frequency Distribution Patterns And Partitioning Of Copper, Iron And Zinc In Selected Tissues Of The Black Mullet (Mugil Cephalus), Charles J. Venuto, John H. Trefry Jan 1983

Frequency Distribution Patterns And Partitioning Of Copper, Iron And Zinc In Selected Tissues Of The Black Mullet (Mugil Cephalus), Charles J. Venuto, John H. Trefry

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Copper, iron and zinc concentrations were determined for muscle, gill and liver tissue from 45 black mullet (Mugil cephalus) collected in Turkey Creek, an embayment of the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. In the liver, Fe concentrations (2420+ 1040 jig/g, dry wt) were higher than for Cu (510 ± 350 fig/g) and Zn (330 ± 120ng/g). Gill tissue iron levels (380 ± 140/xg/g) were greater than those for Zn (96 ± 26 jtg/g) and Cu (6.3 ± 4.4 fig/g). Muscle tissue concentrations were lowest with Fe values (19 ± 15/tg/g) greater than thosefor Zn (13.5 ± 4.9 fig/g) and Cu (1.1 …

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Benthic Testacida (Rhizopoda, Protozoa) Of Lake Washington, Brevard County, Florida, Haydee Lena Jan 1982

Benthic Testacida (Rhizopoda, Protozoa) Of Lake Washington, Brevard County, Florida, Haydee Lena

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Benthic Testacida from sediments of Lake Washington were studied. The Testacida were extracted using standard foraminiferologic techniques. The determined taxa were photographed using scanning electron microscopy. Twenty-one taxa were found. The majority were cosmopolitan and the most abundant were Difflugia pyriformis and Centropyxis compressa. The Testacida guild was similar to that previously studied in other American and European lakes. However, the type and size of the species were different from those found in soil and mosses.

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A Redescription Of Echinaster Modestus Perrier, 1881 (Asteroidea: Spinulosida) From The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico And The West Indies, Richard L. Turner, David B. Campbell May 1981

A Redescription Of Echinaster Modestus Perrier, 1881 (Asteroidea: Spinulosida) From The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico And The West Indies, Richard L. Turner, David B. Campbell

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The seastar Echinaster modestus Perrier, 1881, is redescribed and a lectotype is designated. Echinaster spp. from the west coast of Florida used in recent experimental studies are not E. modestus.

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The Diet Of The Florida Pompano (Trachinotus Carolinus) Along The East Coast Of Central Florida, Thomas M. Armitage, William S. Alevizon Jan 1980

The Diet Of The Florida Pompano (Trachinotus Carolinus) Along The East Coast Of Central Florida, Thomas M. Armitage, William S. Alevizon

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The diet of the Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) was investigated by examining stomach contents of adults from the Indian River and juveniles from the surf zone off Brevard County. Juveniles consumed primarily henthic crustaceans, mainly Emerita talpoida, and the bivalve, Donax variabilis. The diet of the adults consisted mainly of bivalve molluscs in the families Tellinidae, Mactridae, and Arcidae. In comparison with juveniles, the adults displayed a decrease in the number of planktonic organisms that are selected as prey items. Availability of prey appears to be more important than caloric content of prey in determining the diet of T. carolinus. …

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