Marine Biology Commons^™

Eelgrass Distribution In The Great Bay Estuary 2005, Frederick T. Short

PREP Reports & Publications

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is an essential habitat for the Great Bay Estuary (GBE) because it provides food for wintering waterfowl and habitat for juvenile fish and shellfish. Eelgrass is the basis of an estuarine food chain that supports many of the recreationally, commercially and ecologically important species in the estuary. Additionally, eelgrass filters estuarine waters, removing both nutrients and suspended sediments from the water column. Eelgrass in the Great Bay Estuary is the largest monoculture in the State of New Hampshire and is considered a vital resource to the State’s marine environment. The present report describes and interprets the eelgrass …

Cooperative Project To Control Invasive Plants In The New Hampshire Seacoast Region, Rockingham County Conservation District

PREP Reports & Publications

The purpose of the Cooperative Project to Control Invasive Plants in the New Hampshire Seacoast Region is to coordinate with a variety of natural resource agencies and organizations and initiate an innovative collaborative effort to combat invasive species in the seacoast. Those partners include the University of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Estuaries Project, the New Hampshire Coastal Program, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Rockingham County Conservation District, New Hampshire Audubon, the Town of Rye, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership. These groups all have a common interest in protecting existing habitat and restoring …

Upper Ocean Response Of The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System To Hurricane Mitch And Coastal Freshwater Inputs: A Study Using Sea-Viewing Wide Field-Of-View Sensor (Seawifs) Ocean Color Data And A Nested-Grid Ocean Circulation Model, Jinyu Sheng, Liang Wang, Serge Andrefouet, Chuanmin Hu, Bruce G. Hatcher, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Bjoern Kjerfve, William D. Heyman, Bo Yang

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The passage of category‐5 Hurricane Mitch through the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) in October 1998 was an extreme event with the potential to create unusual patterns of reef connectivity. The impact of this hurricane on the upper ocean of the MBRS is investigated using a triply nested grid ocean circulation modeling system. The model results are validated with contemporaneous ocean color data from the Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite and oceanographic measurements in the MBRS. The nested grid system is forced by 6‐hourly National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) winds for the first 294 …

Pleasant Point Sewer Extension, City Of Portsmouth

PREP Reports & Publications

The City of Portsmouth (City) is located in Rockingham County at the mouth of the Piscataqua River in the seacoast area of New Hampshire. The City of Portsmouth’s sewerage system consists of approximately 115 miles of sewers (excluding the Pease International Tradeport), 19 pumping stations, and a 4.8 million gallon per day (mgd) primary wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) located on Peirce Island. The City has an inter-municipal agreement with the Town of New Castle, an island to the northeast of Portsmouth, to treat their wastewater at the City’s Peirce Island WWTF. Additionally, the City has entered into a long-term Municipal …

First Observations On The Re-Established Southeast Florida Recreational Swordfish Tournament Fishery, Juan C. Levesquee, David W. Kerstetter

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Recreational tournaments for swordfish (Xiphias gladius) existed in the Florida Straits between 1977 and 1983 before disappearing due to low catch rates and an overexploitation of the stock. The first recent swordfish tournament occurred in 2001 off southeast Florida with 13 participating vessels. In 2002, three swordfish tournaments were observed and anglers were interviewed to determine catch and gear characteristics of the re-established recreational fishery. A total of 156 vessels participated in these three tournaments, catching 112 swordfish and hooking an additional 48 animals. The combination of the recovery of the North Atlantic swordfish stock and the continuation …

Business Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Distribution And Status Of Etheostoma Tecumsehi, The Shawnee Darter, A Species Endemic To The Pond River, Green River Drainage, Kentucky, Ronald R. Cicerello, Robert S. Butler

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Assessment And Control Of An Invasive Aquaculture Species: An Update On Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis Niloticus) In Coastal Mississippi After Hurricane Katrina, Pamela J. Schofield, W. Todd Slack, Mark S. Peterson, Denise R. Gregoire

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Number 49 (July 2007), Southern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

(July 2007) - Distribution and Status of Etheostoma tecumsehi, the Shawnee Darter, a Species Endemic to the Pond River, Green River Drainage, Kentucky. By Ronald R. Cicerello and Robert S. Butler

Assessment and Control of an Invasive Aquaculture Species: An Update on Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Coastal Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. By Pamela J. Schofield, W. Todd Slack, Mark S. Peterson and Denise R. Gregoire

Minutes, Business Meeting, 31st and 32nd Annual Meeting, Southeastern Fishes Council

Regional Southeastern Fishes Council Reports

News Bulletin And Editor's Note, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Regional Reports, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Methods To Enhance Reef Restoration, David S. Gilliam, Alison L. Moulding, Vladimir N. Kosmynin, Vanessa I. P. Brinkhuis, Richard E. Dodge

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

The coral reefs of southeast Florida are offshore a highly urbanized area with a population exceeding 5 million people and three major shipping ports with over 6000 ships calling on an annual basis. Reef injury events are common and have been caused by ship groundings and marine construction activities such as channel dredging and cable placement. Restoration activities generally only include the reattachment of dislodged stony corals, removal of rubble, and boulder stabilization. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has recognized these limited activities and is collaborating with Nova Southeastern University’s Oceanographic Center to study ways to accelerate coral reef …

Newmarket Open Space Conservation Plan, Ellen Snyder

PREP Reports & Publications

Open spaces – forests, fields, wetlands, floodplains, salt marshes, rivers and streams – are integral to our community. These lands and waters that thread through our neighborhoods are a scenic reminder of our history, when people made their living by working the land. Yet we still depend on these open spaces for our health and our wellbeing. These places provide many “services” such as clean air, flood control, filtering pollutants and purifying drinking water, natural pest control, plant pollination, cooler summer temperatures, and areas for relaxing, exercising and recreating. Collectively these can be thought of as a “natural services network” …

Nhep Year 12 Work Plan, Jennifer Hunter

PREP Reports & Publications

The New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program which is a joint local/state/federal program established under the Clean Water Act with the goal of protecting and enhancing nationally significant estuaries. The NHEP’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (Management Plan)for New Hampshire’s estuaries was completed in 2000 and updated in 2005. The Management Plan outlines key issues related to management of New Hampshire’s estuaries and proposes strategies (Action Plans) to protect, enhance, and monitor the state’s estuarine resources. Local stakeholders established the NHEP’s priorities, which include water quality improvements, shellfish resource enhancements, …

Analysis Of Factors Influencing Southeast Florida Coral Reef Community Composition, M. A. Phillips, David S. Gilliam, L. K. B. Jordan, Richard E. Dodge, Louis E. Fisher

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

The southeast Florida reef system lies offshore a heavily populated and urbanized coast. These high latitude reefs are not only affected by their geography but also by anthropogenic factors that accompany an urban area such as dredging activities, ship groundings, waste water outfalls, runoff and beach erosion. Sedimentation has been shown to influence stony coral community composition including dominance, abundance, cover, diversity, and colony size. Using annual monitoring data collected since 2000, the southeastern Florida reef community is being analyzed to examine if and how sedimentation and other factors such as depth, distance from shore and distance from port channels …

Rapid Response And Restoration For Coral Reef Injuries In Southeast Florida: Guidelines And Recommendations, Chantal Collier, Richard E. Dodge, David S. Gilliam, Kelly Gracie, Lisa Gregg, Walter Jaap, Mike Mastry, Nikki Poulos

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

From the time an injury to coral reef resources is reported, a well-coordinated and implemented plan is critical to the success of response and restoration efforts. There are three major plan components, each of which is equally important: (1) the Initial Response period immediately following notification of the incident; (2) the Response period, during which the Responsible Party (RP) is identified, the Trustees and RP carry out their respective responsibilities, a Primary Restoration plan is developed, authorizations and contractors to conduct restoration activities are sought and obtained, and primary restoration activities are conducted; and (3) the Post-Response period, which is …

Southeast Florida Coral Reef Evaluation And Monitoring Project 2006 Year 4 Final Report, Jennifer Wheaton, Carl Beaver, Sandra Brooks, Michael Callahan, Shannon Wade, Jeff Beal, Chantal Collier, Laura Herren, Jamie Monty, David S. Gilliam, Vanessa I. P. Brinkhuis, Daniel P. Fahy, Shaun M. Gill, Lindsey Habakuk Klink, M. A. Philips, Nicole R. Stephens, Brian K. Walker, Joanna C. Walczak, Richard E. Dodge, Tim Mcintosh, Steven Blair, Kenneth Banks, Louis E. Fisher, David Stout, Joe Ligas, Janet Phipps

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Reports

No abstract provided.

Ocean Currents And Sea Surface Heights Estimated Across The West Florida Shelf, Yonggang Liu, Robert H. Weisberg

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The across-shelf structures of the ocean circulation and the associated sea surface height (SSH) variability are examined on the west Florida shelf (WFS) for the 3-yr interval from September 1998 to December 2001. Five sets of characteristic circulation patterns are extracted from 2-day, low-pass-filtered data using the self-organizing map: extreme upwelling and downwelling structures with strong currents, asymmetric upwelling and downwelling structures with moderate currents, and a set of transitional structures with weak currents. The temporal variations of these structures are coherent with the local winds on synoptic weather time scales. On seasonal time scales they are related to both …

A Comprehensive Wetland Program For Fringing Salt Marshes In The York River, Maine, Pamela A. Morgan, Jeremy Miller, Christopher Cayce Dalton, Michele Dionne

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

The overall goal of this project was to assist the Town of York, Maine, in its efforts to monitor and protect the fringing salt marshes along the York River. In particular, the project focused on potential impacts to the marshes due to shoreline development pressures. Specific objectives included (1) gathering baseline data about the marshes (2) developing a set of indicators to be used in future monitoring, and (3) generating management recommendations.

New Species And Host Associations Of Commensal Leucothoid Amphipods From Coral Reefs In Florida And Belize (Crustacea:Amphipoda), James Darwin Thomas, Kristine N. Klebba

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Six new amphipod species in the genus Leucothoe from the tropical western Atlantic Ocean are described and illustrated. Extensive field collecting and specialized underwater collecting techniques have documented 43 new invertebrate host records for these new taxa. Four of these new species inhabit interior canals of sponges; Leucothoe barana n.sp., Leucothoe garifunae n.sp., Leucothoe saron n.sp., and Leucothoe ubouhu n.sp. A remarkable new species, Leucothoe flammosa n.sp., nestles in the gills of seven species of bivalve mollusks. A single species, Leucothoe wuriti n.sp., appears restricted to the branchial chamber of two species of solitary ascidians. Detailed illustrations and scanning electron …

Variability In The Bulk Composition And Abundance Of Dissolved Organic Matter In The Lower Mississippi And Pearl Rivers, Shuiwang Duan, Thomas S. Bianchi, Alan M. Shiller, Karl Dria, Patrick G. Hatcher, Kevin R. Carman

Faculty Publications

[1] In this study, we examined the temporal and spatial variability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) abundance and composition in the lower Mississippi and Pearl rivers and effects of human and natural influences. In particular, we looked at bulk C/N ratio, stable isotopes (delta N-15 and delta C-13) and C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry of high molecular weight (HMW; 0.2 mu m to 1 kDa) DOM. Monthly water samples were collected at one station in each river from August 2001 to 2003. Surveys of spatial variability of total dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen ( DON) were also conducted …

Bathymetric Alterations Due To Urbanization And Their Effects On Residual Salinity, Flow Field And Transport Time For Tampa Bay, Florida, Amanda J. Linville

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Growth and development over the past one hundred years has resulted in the construction of causeways and navigational channels in Tampa Bay. Urbanization has lead to bathymetric alterations of the bay, and thus has effectively changed the residual salinity, flow fields, and transport time in Tampa Bay. In this study a numerical ocean model of Tampa Bay was first used to simulate the circulation for 2001-2003 using present day bathymetry. Then, an identical simulation was performed using the bathymetry generated from 1879 depth soundings. The residual (30-day time average) circulation fields and salinity, along with transport times was intercompared for …

Revision Of The Nonequilibrium Thermal Dissociation And Stringent Washing Approaches For Identification Of Mixed Nucleic Acid Targets By Microarrays, Alex E. Pozhitkov, Robert D. Stedtfeld, Syed A. Hashsham, Peter A. Noble

Faculty Publications

Microarray experiments typically involve washing steps that remove hybridized nonspecific targets with the purpose of improving the signal- to- noise ratio. The quality of washing ultimately affects downstream analysis of the microarray and interpretation. The paucity of fundamental studies directed towards understanding the dissociation of mixed targets from microarrays makes the development of meaningful washing/ dissociation protocols difficult. To fill the void, we examined activation energies and preexponential coefficients of 47 perfect match ( PM) and double- mismatch ( MM) duplex pairs to discover that there was no statistical difference between the kinetics of the PM and MM duplexes. Based …

Fecundity And Survival Of The Calanoid Copepod Acartia Tonsa Fed Isochrysis Galeana (Tahitian Strain) And Chaetoceros Mulleri, Angelos Apeitos

Master's Theses

Historically, red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) larviculture at the Gulf Coast Research Lab (GCRL) used 25 ppt artificial salt water and mixed, wild zooplankton composed primarily of Acartia tonsa, a calanoid copepod. Acartia tonsa was collected from the estuarine waters of Davis Bayou and bloomed in outdoor tanks from which it was harvested and fed to red snapper larvae. We are developing a more controlled copepod mass culture system to support finfish larviculture. To that end, I examined the effect of single species versus mixed species of algae as food for the copepods. Wild A. tonsa were isolated and reared in …

Stoichiometric Controls Of Mercury Dilution By Growth, Roxanne Karimi, Celia Y. Chen, Paul C. Pickhardt, Nicholas S. Fisher, Carol L. Folt

Dartmouth Scholarship

Rapid growth could significantly reduce methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in aquatic organisms by causing a greater than proportional gain in biomass relative to MeHg (somatic growth dilution). We hypothesized that rapid growth from the consumption of high-quality algae, defined by algal nutrient stoichiometry, reduces MeHg concentrations in zooplankton, a major source of MeHg for lake fish. Using a MeHg radiotracer, we measured changes in MeHg concentrations, growth and ingestion rates in juvenile Daphnia pulex fed either high (C:P = 139) or low-quality (C:P = 1317) algae (Ankistrodesmus falcatus) for 5 d. We estimated Daphnia steady-state MeHg concentrations, using a …

Meso- And Bathypelagic Fish Interactions With Seamounts And Mid-Ocean Ridges, Tracey Sutton, Filipe M. Porteiro, John K. Horne, Cairistiona I. H. Anderson

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures

The World Ocean's midwaters contain the vast majority of Earth's vertebrates in the form of mesoand bathypelagic ('deep-pelagic,' in the combined sense) fishes. Understanding the ecology and variability of deep-pelagic ecosystems has increased substantially in the past few decades due to advances in sampling/observation technology. Researchers have discovered that the deep sea hosts a complex assemblage of organisms adapted to a “harsh” environment by terrestrial standards (i.e., dark, cold, high pressure). We have learned that despite the lack of physical barriers, the deep-sea realm is not a homogeneous ecosystem, but is spatially and temporally variable on multiple scales. While there …

Upper-Ocean Response To Hurricane Ivan In A 1/25 Degrees Nested Gulf Of Mexico Hycom, T. G. Prasad, Patrick J. Hogan

Faculty Publications

[ 1] A 20-layer, 1/25 degrees nested Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) has been employed to examine the evolving three-dimensional ocean response to Hurricane Ivan during 14 - 16 September 2004. Results from several combinations of numerical experiments with and without assimilation of satellite-altimetry sea-surface height (SSH) are being analyzed and compared for the September 2004 hurricane period. A comparison of simulated zonal and meridional velocities using data assimilation shows improved agreement with profiler observations. The amplitude of the cold wake ( similar to 6 degrees C) produced by these simulations compared reasonably well with the …

Factors Influencing Zooplankton Distribution In The Chesapeake And Delaware Bays, Pia Marie Paulone

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The Chesapeake and Delaware Bays are well known and extensively studied for their commercial value and environmental quality. There have been multiple studies based on salinity and temperature in these bays, but little is known about the influence of these factors on zooplankton distribution. Salinity has an effect on physiological processes, and, as a result, species have adapted for certain salinities. Temperature impacts both species physiology and primary productivity, which, in turn, impacts feeding rates of zooplankton. Based on previous studies on zooplankton distribution and current knowledge of physical variables, it was expected that salinity is the major variable in …

Investigation Of The Summer Kara Sea Circulation Employing A Variational Data Assimilation Technique, G. Panteleev, A. Proshutinsky, M. Kulakov, Dmitri A. Nechaev, W. Maslowski

Faculty Publications

[ 1] The summer circulations and hydrographic fields of the Kara Sea are reconstructed for mean, positive and negative Arctic Oscillation regimes employing a variational data assimilation technique which provides the best fit of reconstructed fields to climatological data and satisfies dynamical and kinematic constraints of a quasi-stationary primitive equation ocean circulation model. The reconstructed circulations agree well with the measurements and are characterized by inflow of 0.63, 0.8, 0.51 Sv through Kara Gate and 1.18, 1.1, 1.12 Sv between Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, for mean climatologic conditions, positive and negative AO indexes, respectively. The major regions of …