Marine Biology Commons^™

Development And Characterization Of Genomic Resources For A Non-Model Marine Telost, The Red Snapper (Lutjanus Campechanus, Lutjanidae): Construction Of A High-Density Linkage Map, Anchoring Of Genome Contigs And Comparative Genomic Analysis, Adrienne E. Norrell, Kenneth L. Jones, Eric A. Saillant

Faculty Publications

The red snapper Lutjanus campechanus is an exploited reef fish of major economic importance in the Gulf of Mexico region. Studies of genome wide genetic variation are needed to understand the structure of wild populations and develop breeding programs for aquaculture but interpretation of these genome scans is limited by the absence of reference genome. In this work, the first draft of a reference genome was developed and characterized for the red snapper. P-454 and Illumina sequencing were conducted to produce paired-end reads that were assembled into reference contigs and scaffolds. The current assembly spans over 770 Mb, representing an …

Model Sensitivity To Topographic Uncertainty In Meso- And Microtidal Marshes, Karim Alizad, Stephen C. Medeiros, Madeline R. Foster-Martinez, Scott C. Hagen

Faculty Publications

Light detection and ranging (Lidar) derived digital elevation models are widely used in modeling coastal marsh systems. However, the topographic error in these models can affect simulations of marsh coverage and characteristics. We investigated the relevance and impact of this error in micro- and mesotidal systems. Lidar-derived and RTK-adjusted topography were each used in a dynamic marsh model, and the resulting marsh coverages were examined. For two microtidal sites (Apalachicola, FL, USA, and Grand Bay, MS, USA) using solely lidar-derived topography, the model produced Cohen Kappa values of 0.1 for both estuaries when compared with National Wetland Inventory data indicating …

Respiration By The Opportunistic Spionid Polychaete Streblospio Gynobranchiata During Adjustment To And Recovery From Moderate Hypoxia, Alyssa D. Bennett, Chet F. Rakocinski

Faculty Publications

Understanding the capacity of estuarine organisms to acclimate to stressful conditions provides insights into how communities cope within fluctuating environments. The opportunistic spionid polychaete, Streblospio gynobranchiata Rice and Levin, 1998, regularly experiences intermittent moderate hypoxia within shallow sedimentary habitats. To better understand fine-scale adjustments by this opportunistic species to short-term moderate hypoxia, the aerobic respiration response of three size classes was examined over a 12 h period and after 24 h of exposure to moderate hypoxia (i.e., 20% air saturation) at 25 °C. In addition, the capacity to resume standard respiration was examined over a 12 h period following a …

Exposure To Oil And Hypoxia Results In Alterations Of Immune Transcriptional Patterns In Developing Sheepshead Minnows (Cyprinodon Variegatus), Maria L. Rodgers, Danielle Simning, Maria S. Sepúlveda, Sylvain De Guise, Thijs Bosker, Robert J. Griffitt

Faculty Publications

The area and timing of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill highlight the need to study oil and hypoxia exposure in early life stage fishes. Though critical to health, little research has targeted the effect of oil and hypoxia exposure on developing immune systems. To this end, we exposed sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) at three early life stages: embryonic; post-hatch; and post-larval, to a high energy water accommodated fraction (HEWAF) of oil, hypoxia, or both for 48 hours. We performed RNAseq to understand how exposures alter expression of immune transcripts and pathways. Under control conditions, the embryonic to post-hatch …

Distribution, Relative Abundance, And Reproductive Output Of Spawning Female Blue Crab (Callinectes Sapidus) In Offshore Waters Of The Gulf Of Mexico, Adam A. Kemberling, M. Zachary Darnell

Faculty Publications

Effective assessment and management of migratory species require an understanding of stock boundaries and habitat use during critical life history periods. The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is considered a primarily estuarine species and has traditionally been assessed and man-aged on a state basis, relying on abundance estimates derived from estuarine sampling. Females undertake a sea-ward spawning migration, and recent evidence indicates that coastal and offshore waters may provide important spawning habitat. We investigated occurrence and reproductive output of spawning blue crab in offshore waters of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and results indicate that these waters may be …

Argulus From The Pascagoula River, Ms, Usa, With An Emphasis On Those Of The Threatened Gulf Sturgeon, Acipenser Oxyinchus Desotoi, Michael J. Andres, Jeremy M. Higgs, Paul O. Grammer, Mark S. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Species of Argulus (Branchiura Thorell, 1864) are common ectoparasites of freshwater, estuarine, and marine fishes. Argulid identification and taxonomy is often confusing because many species are reported to parasitize multiple host species, have similar morphological characters, and come from various salinity regimes. Gulf sturgeon is an anadromous fish natal to drainages in the north-central Gulf of Mexico, and as with many endangered species, has a poorly documented parasite community. During Gulf sturgeon tagging and monitoring studies (2016–2019) in the Pascagoula River, MS, USA, species of Argulus were collected from Gulf sturgeon as well as other incidentally captured fishes. Argulus flavescens …

Prospects For The Sustainable Management Of Public Oyster Resources, Thomas M. Soniat, Nathan A. Cooper, Eric N. Powell

Faculty Publications

Common-pool resources such as public oyster grounds are especially vulnerable to overexploitation and habitat loss. Like those elsewhere, oyster populations and habitat of Louisiana public grounds are in decline. To maintain reef habitat and increase oyster abundance, a sustainable harvest model is applied, which allows harvest above that required to maintain reef cultch stasis. The model is restrained to promote shell gain by limiting fishing by area, type (sack versus seed), effort, and season. Harvest quotas and cultch removal rates derived from shell-budget–based modeling are a foundation for sustainable management of public oyster resources.

Comparison Of Age And Growth Parameters Of Invasive Red Lionfish (Pterois Volitans) Across The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Alexander Q. Fogg, Joseph T. Evans, Mark S. Peterson, Nancy Brown-Peterson, Eric R. Hoffmayer, G. Walter Ingram Jr.

Faculty Publications

Invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans) have spread rapidly throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) partly because of their high growth rate. Red lionfish were collected from the northern GOM across 3 ecological regions from 2012 through 2015. For male and female red lionfish, relationships between weight and total length (TL) were differnt by ecological region. Males acheives a greater mean weight adjusted for TL (333.6 g [standar errer (SE) 3.6]) than females (195.1 g [SE 3.7]). A subsample of 1607 pairs of sagittal otoliths (from 744 males, 716 females, and 147 fish of unknown or undetermined sex) …

Changes In The Spatial Distribution And Anatomy Of A Range Shift For The Atlantic Surfclam Spisula Solidissima In The Mid-Atlantic Bight And On Georges Bank, Jeremy R. Timbs, Eric N. Powell, Roger Mann

Faculty Publications

The Atlantic surfclam Spisula solidissima supports one of the largest fisheries on the US northeast coast. Using ~30 yr of data from surfclam stock surveys, variance-to-mean ratios (VtMRs) were calculated both temporally and spatially for a range of surfclam size classes to determine the degree of patchiness. The VtMR declined from the 1980s to present in all regions (offshore Delmarva, New Jersey, Long Island, Southern New England, Georges Bank); however, VtMR rose with increasing clam size. Taylor’s power law (TPL) analysis corroborated the VtMR; the surfclam is highly patchy across its range. The surfclam’s proclivity for a patchy distribution varied …

In Situ Observations Of Fish Larvae Encased Within A Pelagic Gelatinous Matrix, Adam T. Greer, Luciano M. Chiaverano, James G. Ditty, Frank J. Hernandez

Faculty Publications

The degree to which marine fish larvae aggregate (i.e. patchiness) is predominantly determined by the physical oceanographic environment. Biological traits, however, can also influence spatial distributions and have adaptive value for larvae (e.g. favorable transport or reducing predation mortality). Although several fish families are known to release eggs within a gelatinous matrix, hatched larvae have not been found inside this type of structure. We present observations of hatched, preflexion yolk-sac larvae encased within a pelagic gelatinous matrix (mass). Two different masses (40-60 mm in length) containing free swimming, elongate larvae were imaged in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) near …

Age And Growth Of Gray Triggerfish (Balistes Capriscus) From A North-Central Gulf Of Mexico Artifical Reef Zone, Amanda E. Jefferson, Robert J. Allman, Ashley E. Pacicco, James S. Franks, Frank J. Hernandez, Mark A. Albins, Sean P. Powers, Robert L. Shipp, J. Marcus Drymon

Faculty Publications

The overexploitation of many traditionally targeted reef fishes such as red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus, Poey 1860), alongside the implementation of increasingly restrictive management measures on those species, has led to increased targeting of conventionally discarded Gulf of Mexico gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus, Gmelin 1789) commercially and recreationally. The goal of this study was to assess age and growth of gray triggerfish from the Alabama Artificial Reef Zone in the north-central Gulf of Mexico. Gray triggerfish (n = 1135) were collected predominantly from artificial habitat during 1999 – 2017. Specimens were sexed macroscopically and ages were assigned …

Sex-Specific Growth And Reproductive Dynamics Of Red Drum In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Corbin F. Bennetts, Robert T. Leaf, Nancy J. Brown-Peterson

Faculty Publications

The Red Drum Sciaenops ocellatus stock is heavily targeted in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by recreational fishers and supports a small commercial fishery in Mississippi. Despite their popularity, little recent work has been done to describe their life history. In this work, we describe sex‐specific growth and reproductive dynamics of Red Drum collected from the northern GOM from September 2016 through October 2017. We evaluated seven candidate growth models and found that the three‐parameter von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) was the best candidate length‐at‐age model. No significant difference in growth between sexes was observed with the three‐parameter VBGF, despite …

Importance Of Weak Trophic Interactions In The Structure Of The Food Web In La Paz Bay, Southern Gulf Of California: A Topological Approach, Andrés F. Navia, Sergio R. Maciel-Zapata, Adrián F. González-Acosta, Robert T. Leaf, Victor H. Cruz-Escalona

Faculty Publications

Here, we describe the trophic structure of the La Paz Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico, and evaluate the role of weak trophic interactions in the ecosystem using a suite of topological indices. We used information derived from published and unpublished stomach contents analysis studies from the region to construct an unweighted and directional trophic network (comprising 250 nodes and 1528 associated interactions) to assess the impact of predators in three scenarios. Each scenario simulated the removal of weak interactions corresponding to removal of those nodes with trophic contributions less than 5%, 10%, and 15%. In each removal scenario, the nodes …

White Spot Syndrome Virus (Wssv) In Cultured Juvenile Blue Crabs Callinectes Sapidus: Oral Versus Injection Exposure, And Feeding Frequency Effects, Reginald B. Blaylock, Stephen S. Curran, Jeffrey M. Lotz

Faculty Publications

The efficacy of oral versus injection exposure and the effect of feeding frequency on the transmission of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in cultured juvenile blue crabs Callinectes sapidus were investigated. Crabs in Group 1 (G-1, n = 48) were exposed once orally to 100 mg of WSSV-infected shrimp tissue mg^-1 of body weight (BW). The oral inoculum contained 2.6 × 10⁹ WSSV genome copies mg^-1 tissue. Group 2 (G-2, n = 46) received the same dosage once weekly for 5 wk. Group 3 (G-3, n = 12) was injected with 0.01 ml (2.6 × 10^{7 …}

Population Connectivity Of Pelagic Megafauna In The Cuba-Mexico-United States Triangle, Jay R. Rooker, Michael A. Dance, R.J. David Wells, Matthew J. Ajemian, Barbara A. Block, Michael R. Castleton, J. Marcus Drymon, Brett J. Falterman, James S. Franks, Neil Hammerschlag, Jill M. Hendon, Eric R. Hoffmayer, Richard T. Kraus, Jennifer A. Mckinney, David H. Secor, Gregory W. Stunz, John F. Walter

Faculty Publications

The timing and extent of international crossings by billfishes, tunas, and sharks in the Cuba-Mexico-United States (U.S.) triangle was investigated using electronic tagging data from eight species that resulted in >22,000 tracking days. Transnational movements of these highly mobile marine predators were pronounced with varying levels of bi- or tri-national population connectivity displayed by each species. Billfishes and tunas moved throughout the Gulf of Mexico and all species investigated (blue marlin, white marlin, Atlantic bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna) frequently crossed international boundaries and entered the territorial waters of Cuba and/or Mexico. Certain sharks (tiger shark, scalloped hammerhead) displayed prolonged periods …

Retrieval Of Phytoplankton Pigments From Underway Spectrophotometry In The Fram Strait, Yangyang Liu, Emmanuel Boss, Alison Chase, Hongyan Xi, Xiaodong Zhang, Rüdiger Röttgers, Yanqun Pan, Astrid Bracher

Faculty Publications

Phytoplankton in the ocean are extremely diverse. The abundance of various intracellular pigments are often used to study phytoplankton physiology and ecology, and identify and quantify different phytoplankton groups. In this study, phytoplankton absorption spectra (α_ph(λ)) derived from underway flow-through AC-S measurements in the Fram Strait are combined with phytoplankton pigment measurements analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to evaluate the retrieval of various pigment concentrations at high spatial resolution. The performances of two approaches, Gaussian decomposition and the matrix inversion technique are investigated and compared. Our study is the first to apply the matrix inversion …

A Scientific Name For Pacific Oysters, Brian Bayne, Marc Anglès D'Auriac, Thierry Backeljau, Peter Beninger, Pierre Boudry, Ryan B. Carnegie, Jonathan P. Davis, Ximing Guo, Dennis Hedgecock, Maureen Krause, Chris Langdon, Sylvie Lapègue, Donal Manahan, Roger Mann, Eric Powell, Sandra Shumway

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Responses And Implications To Coastal Wetlands And The Surrounding Regions Under Sea Level Rise, Karim Alizad, Scott C. Hagen, Stephen C. Medeiros, Matthew V. Bilskie, James T. Morris, Len Balthis, Christine A. Buckel

Faculty Publications

Two distinct microtidal estuarine systems were assessed to advance the understanding of the coastal dynamics of sea level rise in salt marshes. A coupled hydrodynamic-marsh model (Hydro-MEM) was applied to both a marine-dominated (Grand Bay, Mississippi) and a mixed fluvial/marine (Weeks Bay, Alabama) system to compute marsh productivity, marsh migration, and potential tidal inundation from the year 2000 to 2100 under four sea level rise scenarios. Characteristics of the estuaries such as geometry, sediment availability, and topography, were compared to understand their role in the dynamic response to sea level rise. The results show that the low sea level rise …

Taxon-Specific Aerosolization Of Bacteria And Viruses In An Experimental Ocean-Atmosphere Mesocosm, Jennifer M. Michaud, Luke R. Thompson, Drishti Kaul, Josh L. Espinoza, R. Alexander Richter, Zhenjiang Zech Xu, Christopher Lee, Kevin M. Pham, Charlotte M. Beall, Francesca Malfatti, Farooq Azam, Rob Knight, Michael D. Burkart, Christopher L. Dupont, Kimberly A. Prather

Faculty Publications

Ocean-derived, airborne microbes play important roles in Earth’s climate system and human health, yet little is known about factors controlling their transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere. Here, we study microbiomes of isolated sea spray aerosol (SSA) collected in a unique ocean–atmosphere facility and demonstrate taxon-specific aerosolization of bacteria and viruses. These trends are conserved within taxonomic orders and classes, and temporal variation in aerosolization is similarly shared by related taxa. We observe enhanced transfer into SSA of Actinobacteria, certain Gammaproteobacteria, and lipid-enveloped viruses; conversely, Flavobacteriia, some Alphaproteobacteria, and Caudovirales are generally under-represented in SSA. Viruses do not transfer …

The Gut Microbiome And Aquatic Toxicology: An Emerging Concept For Environmental Health, Ondrej Adamovsky, Amanda Buerger, Alexis M. Wormington, Naomi Ector, Robert J. Griffitt, Joseph H. Bisesi Jr., Christopher J. Martyniuk

Faculty Publications

The microbiome plays an essential role in the health and onset of diseases in all animals, including humans. The microbiome has emerged as a central theme in environmental toxicology, as microbes interact with the host immune system in addition to its role in chemical detoxification. Pathophysiological changes in the gastrointestinal tissue caused by ingested chemicals, and metabolites generated from microbial biodegradation, can lead to systemic adverse effects. This critical review dissects what we know about the impacts of environmental contaminants on the microbiome of aquatic species, with special emphasis on the gut microbiome. We highlight some of the known major …

Temporal Dynamics Of Lipid And Fatty Acid Characteristics Of Gulf Menhaden, Brevoortia Patronus In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Robert R. Leaf, Jesse Trushenski, Nancy Brown-Peterson, Michael J. Andres

Faculty Publications

Gulf Menhaden, Brevoortia patronus, in the northern Gulf of Mexico support a large commercial fishery and are thought to play an important trophic role in the coastal ecosystem. The temporal dynamics of both fatty acid and oil content have a direct impact on the value of Gulf Menhaden to predators and to the fishery. In this work, we describe how oil content of Gulf Menhaden varies with season, sex, age, condition, and tissue and investigate how fatty acid composition of mature (137.5 mm FL) female tissues varies with season, month, and tissue type. We found pronounced temporal (January to …

Seascape Connectivity Of Gulf Sturgeon Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi Population Units Across The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Page E. Vick, Mark S. Peterson, William T. Slack

Faculty Publications

Critical habitat was designated in 2003 for federally threatened anadromous Gulf sturgeon to aid in population recovery. This study examined overwintering Gulf sturgeon spatial use and movement through critical habitat monitored by the Ship Island acoustic array from 2011 to 2015. Previous studies observed western population Gulf sturgeon (Pearl and Pascagoula rivers) overwintering near the ends and within the passes of the barrier islands of the Mississippi Sound, USA. Recent telemetry studies detected eastern population fish (Escambia, Blackwater, Yellow, and Choctawhatchee rivers) overwintering as far west as Mobile Bay, Alabama; however, this study is the first to observe eastern population …

An Overview Of Factors Affecting Distribution Of The Atlantic Surfclam (Spisula Solidissima), A Continental Shelf Biomass Dominant, During A Period Of Climate Change, Eileen E. Hoffman, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klink, Daphne M. Munroe, Roger Mann, Dale B. Haidvogel, Diego A. Narváez, Xinzhong Zhang, Kelsey M. Kuykendall

Faculty Publications

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) 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 and economic …

Challenges, Pitfalls And Surprises: Development And Validation Of A Monoclonal Antibody For Enzyme Immunoassay Of The Steroid 1Α-Hydroxycorticosterone In Elasmobranch Species, Catharine J. Wheaton, Natalie D. Mylniczenko, John M. Rimoldi, Rama S.V.S. Gadepalli, R. Hart, Bobbi R. O'Hara, Andrew N. Evans

Faculty Publications

Sharks and rays are popular species used in wildlife ecotourism and aquariums to educate the public on the behavior, ecology and conservation challenges of elasmobranchs. To understand long-term physiological health and welfare under varying social and husbandry conditions, we developed and validated an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to measure stress/ionoregulatory hormones in managed and semi-free range southern rays (Hypanus americanus). Banked serum and interrenal samples from 27 female rays managed at Disney’s The Seas with Nemo and Friends^® and Castaway Cay were used to evaluate measurement of 1α-hydroxycorticosterone (1αOHB) relative to corticosterone (B). Although commercial EIAs are available …

Laboratory Growth Of Denitrifying Water Column Microbia Consortia From Deep-Sea Shipwrecks In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Dhanya Haridas, Justin C. Biffinger, Thomas J. Boyd, Preston A. Fulmer, Leila J. Hamdan, Lisa A. Fitzgerald

Faculty Publications

Background: Shipwrecks serve as a rich source for novel microbial populations that have largely remained undiscovered. Low temperatures, lack of sunlight, and the availability of substrates derived from the shipwreck’s hull and cargo may provide an environment in which microbes can develop unique metabolic adaptations.

Methods: To test our hypothesis that shipwrecks could influence the microbial population involved in denitrification when a consortium is grown in the laboratory, we collected samples proximate to two steel shipwrecks in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Then under laboratory conditions, we grew two independent denitrifying microbial consortia. Each consortium was grown by …

Combined Effects Of Deepwater Horizon Crude Oil And Environmental Stressors On Fundulus Grandis Embryos, Maria L. Rodgers, Elizabeth R. Jones, Christopher Klinkhamer, Cecon T. Mahapatra, Jennifer Serafin, Thijs Bosker, Chris Perkins, Robert J. Griffitt, Sylvain De Guise, Maria S. Sepúlveda

Faculty Publications

In the present study, we examined how sensitivity to oil changes in combination with environmental stressors in Fundulus grandis embryos. We exposed embryos (fertilization) to a range of high‐energy water accommodated fraction (HEWAF) concentrations (0–50 parts per billion [ppb] total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs]) made from Macondo crude oil in conjunction with various environmental conditions (temperature: 20 and 30 °C; salinity: 3, 7, and 30 practical salinity units [PSU]; and dissolved oxygen: 2 and 6 mg/L). Endpoints included mortality, hatching rates, and expression of cytochrome p450 1a and 1c (cyp1a, cyp1c) in hatched larvae. There was 100% …

Stability, Persistence And Habitat Associations Of The Pearl Darter Percina Aurora In The Pascagoula River System, Southeastern Usa, Scott R. Clark, William T. Slack, Brian Kreiser, Jacob F. Schaefer, Mark A. Dugo

Faculty Publications

The southeastern United States represents one of the richest collections of aquatic biodiversity worldwide; however, many of these taxa are under an increasing threat of imperilment, local extirpation, or extinction. The pearl darter Percina aurora is a small-bodied freshwater fish endemic to the Pearl and Pascagoula river systems of Mississippi and Louisiana (USA). The last collected specimen from the Pearl River drainage was taken in 1973, and it now appears that populations in this system are likely extirpated. This reduced the historical range of this species by approximately 50%, ultimately resulting in federal protection under the US Endangered Species Act …

Exposure To Crude Oil And Chemical Dispersant May Impact Marine Microbial Biofilm Composition And Steel Corrosion, Jennifer Salerno, Brenda Little, Jason Lee, Leila J. Hamdan

Faculty Publications

The release of hydrocarbons and chemical dispersant in marine environments may disrupt benthic ecosystems, including artificial reefs, formed by historic steel shipwrecks, and their associated organisms. Experiments were performed to determine the impacts of crude oil, dispersed crude oil, and dispersant on the community structure and function of microorganisms in seawater (SW) and biofilms formed on carbon steel, a common ship hull construction material. Steel corrosion was also monitored to illustrate how oil spills may impact preservation of steel shipwrecks. Microcosms were filled with seawater (SW) and incubated at 4°C. Carbon steel disks (CSDs) were placed in each tank, and …

Evaluating The Role Of Large Jellyfish And Forage Fishes As Energy Pathways, And Their Interplay With Fisheries, In The Northern Humboldt Current Systems, Luciano M. Chiaverino, Kelly L. Robinson, Jorge Tam, James J. Ruzicka, Javier Quiñones, Katrina Aleksa, Frank J. Hernandez Jr., Richard D. Brodeur, Robert T. Leaf, Shin-Ichi Uye, Mary Beth Decker, Marcelo Acha, Hermes Mianzan, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

Large jellyfish are important consumers of plankton, fish eggs and fish larvae in heavily fished ecosystems worldwide; yet they are seldom included in fisheries production models. Here we developed a trophic network model with 41 functional groups using ECOPATH re-expressed in a donor-driven, end-to-end format to directly evaluate the efficiency of large jellyfish and forage fish at transferring energy to higher trophic levels, as well as the ecosystem-wide effects of varying jellyfish and forage fish consumption rates and fishing rates, in the Northern Humboldt Current system (NHCS) off of Peru. Large jellyfish were an energy-loss pathway for high …

Spatial Dynamics And Mixing Of Bluefin Tuna In The Atlantic Ocean And Mediterranean Sea Revealed Using Next-Generation Sequencing, Gregory N. Puncher, Alessia Cariani, Gregory E. Maes, Jeroen Van Houdt, Koen Herten, Rita Cannas, Naiara Rodriguez-Ezpeleta, Aitor Albania, Andone Estonba, Molly Lutcavage, Alex Hanke, Jay Rooker, James S. Franks, Joseph M. Quattro, Gualtiero Basilone, Igaratza Fraile, Urtzi Laconcha, Nicolas Goñi, Ai Kimoto, David Macías, Francisco Alemany, Simeon Deguara, Salem W. Zgozi, Fulvio Garibaldi, Isik K. Oray, Firdes Saadet Karakulak, Noureddine Abid, Miguel N. Santos, Piero Addis, Haritz Arrizabalaga, Fausto Tinti

Faculty Publications

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a highly migratory species emblematic of the challenges associated with shared fisheries management. In an effort to resolve the species’ stock dynamics, a genomewide search for spatially informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was undertaken, by way of sequencing reduced representation libraries. An allele frequency approach to SNP discovery was used, combining the data of 555 larvae and young‐of‐the‐year (LYOY) into pools representing major geographical areas and mapping against a newly assembled genomic reference. From a set of 184,895 candidate loci, 384 were selected for validation using 167 LYOY. A highly discriminatory genotyping panel of 95 …