Marine Biology Commons^™

A Quieter Ocean: Experimentally Derived Differences In Attentive Responses Of Tursiops Truncatus To Anthropogenic Noise Playbacks Before And During The Covid-19-Related Anthropause, Paige E. Stevens, Veda Allen, Jason N. Bruck

Faculty Publications

The effects of anthropogenic noise continue to threaten marine fauna, yet the impacts of human-produced sound on the broad aspects of cognition in marine mammals remain relatively understudied. The shutdown of non-essential activities due to the COVID-19-related anthropause created an opportunity to determine if reducing levels of oceanic anthropogenic noise on cetaceans affected processes of sensitization and habituation for common human-made sounds in an experimental setting. Dolphins at Dolphin Quest Bermuda were presented with three noises related to human activities (cruise ship, personal watercraft, and Navy low-frequency active sonar) both in 2018 and again during the anthropause in 2021 via …

Inorganic Carbon Outwelling From A Mediterranean Seagrass Meadow Using Radium Isotopes, Claudia Majtényi-Hill, Gloria Reithmaier, Yvonne Y. Y. Yau, Oscar Serrano, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Isaac R. Santos

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrass meadows are ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems widely recognised for their potential role in climate change mitigation. Previous studies have focused mainly on carbon storage within meadows and sediments. However, little is known about contribution of outwelling (i.e., lateral transport) to seagrass carbon budgets. Here, radium isotopes (²²³Ra and ²²⁴Ra) were used to assess dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) outwelling from a Mediterranean Posidonia oceanica meadow during early autumn. DIC outwelling was 114 ± 61 mmol m ^{− 2} day ^{− 1} and exceeded above-meadow CO2 outgassing (3 ± 1 mmol m ^{− 2} day …

Methodological Precision Of In Situ And In Vitro Algal Density Measurements In The Model Cnidarian, Exaiptasia Diaphana, Lauren R. Bolzan, Alison M. Roark

Open Access Fund Publications

In cnidarian symbiosis research, studying algal uptake, maintenance, and expulsion typically requires quantification of algal density in host tissue. Multiple methods are used to measure algal density including in vitro cell counts of holobiont homogenate and in situ cell counts of tentacle clippings. The relative precision of both types of measurement has not previously been reported for the model cnidarian Exaiptasia diaphana in the fully symbiotic state. The objective of this study was to evaluate the precision of in vitro and in situ algal density measurement protocols using light, fluorescent, and confocal microscopy and an automated cell counter. In situ …

Biodiversity Of Forage Fishes In The Lower Laguna Madre, Southernmost Texas, David Camarillo Jr., Elizabeth Mogus Garcia, Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Coastal estuarine ecosystems serve as nursery habitats for many commercially and recreationally important fishes. Biodiversity is a structural indicator and has been used as a metric for conservation and management. In the hypersaline Lower Laguna Madre of Texas, a variety of organisms makes their living in and around the dominant seagrass vegetation. This study provides a general assessment of forage fishes biodiversity collected seasonally with bag seines in two sites: Holly Beach (HB) and South Bay (SB) within the most southern Texas bay system as part of a broader study on fish biology. A total of 15,880 fishes representing 32 …

Anomalies In The Mitochondrial Genomes Of Members Of Aliciidae, Boloceroididae, And Gonactiniidae (Actiniaria:Metridioidea), Isabel Pen

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Analysis of gene sequences from three mitochondrial and two nuclear genes for a broad sampling of actiniarian taxa proposed a novel grouping of the families Aliciidae, Boloceroididae, and Gonactiniidae. (Rodríguez et al., 2014). Although previously unlinked, the association of these taxa was credible given the consistency of the genetic data and the shared occurrence of anatomical traits, including complex column structures (Aliciidae and Boloceroididae), tentacular sphincters (Boloceroididae and Gonactiniidae), and retention of juvenile musculature in adults (Boloceroididae and Gonactiniidae). Although the mitochondrial genome structure of actiniarians is generally conserved, complete mitochondrial genomes identify unusual gene orders (Alicia sansibarensis: …

Vocal Copying Responses Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) To Auditory Playbacks Of Signature And Non-Signature T. Truncatus Whistles, Larissa K. Michel

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) communicate primarily through vocalizations, of which two primary types are signature whistles (function to convey identity information) and non-signature whistles (function presently unknown). They are also adept at copying other dolphins’ whistles. Currently, knowledge about copies is limited. My project aims to further the understanding of the context of whistle copy production in bottlenose dolphins.

My research investigates whether bottlenose dolphins produce vocal copies in response to playbacks of signature whistles (SW) or non-signature whistles (NSW), using subsets of playback experiments generated between 1989 and 2014 at Sarasota Bay (Florida) health assessments. Using Raven …

Genomic Basis Of Antifreeze Trait Divergence In Antarctic And Patagonian Toothfish, Shriram Bhat

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The Dissostichus genus of notothenioid fish contains two giant, iconic sister species, Dissostichus mawsoni (Antarctic toothfish) and Dissostichus eleginoides (Patagonian toothfish), which inhabit thermally distinct environments. D. mawsoni is protected by antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) from freezing in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean, while D. eleginoides lacks detectable antifreeze activity despite its recent divergence. Interestingly, recent evidence suggests the possibility of a third species in the Dissostichus genus, which is currently believed to be a separate population of D. eleginoides closer to the Southern Ocean whose genome has recently been published. Our study focuses on D. eleginoides specimens from …

Preliminary Report On Fossil Marine Vertebrates From The Mid-Pfeifer Shale (Upper Cretaceous) From Central Kansas, Alison G. Mieczkowski

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The Pfeifer Shale is a 93-million-years-old rock unit belonging to the Upper Cretaceous Greenhorn Limestone broadly distributed in central Kansas, where it formed in the Western Interior Seaway, a Late Cretaceous epicontinental seaway in North America. Here, we describe fossil marine vertebrates collected from the middle portion of the Pfeifer Shale at a locality in Russell County, Kansas. Surface-collected specimens are largely represented by teeth of some extinct sharks, such as Ptychodus, Cretoxyrhina, and Squalicorax, that are typical for rock units of the Western Interior Seaway immediately above and below the Pfeifer Shale. Examination of microscopic fossils …

A Preliminary Observation Of A New Skeletal Specimen Of A Plethodid Bony Fish (Actinopterygii: Tselfatiiformes) From The Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale, Texas, Marcelina A. Skowronski

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Tselfatiiformes was a group of small to medium-sized actinopterygian fishes that lived during the Cretaceous. Recently, a new tselfatiiform specimen consisting of a nearly complete, articulated skull was discovered from the Upper Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. The specimen suggests that the fish was a deep-bodied form and possibly measured about 50 cm in total length. It exhibits pectoral fins high upon the flank, well-developed preopercles, large infraorbital bones, and well-developed branchiostegal rays. These anatomical characteristics suggest its phylogenetic affinity within the tselfatiiform family Plethodidae. The morphology of the paired premaxillae, which are fused together and massive but do …

Using Podcasts To Bring National Estuarine Research Reserves Into The Classroom For Grades 6-12, Kaitlyn M. Dirr

Senior Theses

In a typical classroom setting, there are significant challenges to exposing students to concepts related to earth sciences and the environment. These challenges are exacerbated when conveying lessons about geographic areas with limited access, such as oceans and coastlines (Louv, 2010). It is now more important than ever for environmental education to improve and adapt to our changing world. Educators may have the opportunity to bring these subjects to life by using media content such as podcasts to introduce students to new places and the scientists, managers and educators that work in those spaces. In the United States, there exists …

Rocky Intertidal Community Structure Along An Upwelling Gradient Between Playa Venao And Nueva Gorgona On Panama’S Pacific Coast, Claire Brady

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ecological research on rocky intertidal ecosystems has increasingly focused on the regional oceanographic processes that shape community structure over functional group interactions. Intertidal communities’ dependence on onshore and offshore transport of intertidal species larvae, dissolved inorganic nutrients, and phytoplankton signal that upwelling and nearshore currents can have an influential role in determining the growth and composition of intertidal systems. The community structure of rocky intertidal areas was compared between two locations along an upwelling gradient in the Gulf of Panama: Nueva Gorgona, with intermittent seasonal upwelling, and Playa Venao, with fringe seasonal upwelling. The surface cover of algae, barnacles, and …

Characterizing The Response Of The Coastal Rio Grande To Upstream Damming, Timothy A. Goudge, John M. Swartz, Tian Y. Dong, David Mohrig

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Dams are major obstructions to the flow of water and the transport of sediment in rivers. Much work has shown the construction of dams, and storage of sediment in reservoirs, can lead to significant changes in the morphodynamic behavior of alluvial rivers; however, in most cases, the effect of damming has a finite downstream limit as sediment is supplied back to the river through channel bed/bank erosion and/or tributary inputs. Here we present a study of a natural experiment that isolates one source of sediment downstream of a dam – the lower Rio Grande, which has no major tributary inputs …

Effects Of Various Dietary Carbohydrate Sources On The Growth Performance And Body Composition Of The Dog Conch, Laevistrombus Canarium, Jen-Hong Chu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study investigates the effects of dietary supplementation with various carbohydrate sources on the growth and dietary nutrient utilization efficiency of a 0.72-g dog conch, Laevistrombus canarium. Five treatment diets had supplementation with alpha-starch (Sta), dextrin (Dex), pullulan gum (Pg), xanthan gum (Xg), and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). At the end of the feeding trial, the best growth performance (weight gain, 442.23%) and diet efficiency (protein efficiency ratio, 1.25, and feed conversion ratio [FCR], 2.04) were exhibited by the dog conch fed the Sta diet, whereas the lowest growth performance was observed in the dog conch fed the Xg and CMC …

Cost Advantages Of Far East/Europe Trunk Route Deployment With Port Selection In East Asia, Tai Hui-Huang, Chang Chin-Wei

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

To cater to the gradually increasing sizes of ships, several traditional container ports in East Asia built deep-water wharves to attract shipping carriers to berth, a decision that is considered highly reasonable because it allows for shipping carriers to gain a cost advantage. For traditional Far East/Europe (F/E) trunk routes, shipping carriers must deploy vessels that are large enough at hub ports to maintain low transshipment costs. However, for a port to attract shipping carriers, it should be able to first meet the cargo demand of these carriers. The port would also need to improve the loading ratio to enjoy …

Influence Of Vacuum Condition On Rapid Chloride Migration (Rcm) Test For Chloride Penetration Resistance Of Concrete, Chih-Yen Lin, Chun-Fu Chang, Chung-Chia Yang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

NT Build 492 regulates that the pressure be set at 7.5–37.5 torr and be maintained for 3 h for vacuum processing. This large range of acceptable vacuum pressure is awkward for research, and 3 h of pump-down time may be excessive. In this study, vacuum conditions were divided into vacuum pressure and pump-down time groups: various vacuum pressures and pump-down times were used to preprocess specimens to explore the effect of vacuum conditions on the RCM test. The salt ponding test was also conducted to identify the optimal vacuum conditions. It is shown that the relationship between vacuum pressure and …

Exhaust Noise Elimination Using Silencers Fortified With Perforated Tubes, Extended Tubes, Penetrable Resin Inlet And Orifice Plate, Min-Chie Chiu, Ho-Chih Cheng

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Pneumatic equipment in marine diesel engine and associated piping system often emit extremely high level of noises when releasing pressure. Concerning the crew’s hearing health, discovering an efficient noise silencing device becomes essential. A silencer fortified with extended tubes, perforated tubes, orifice plate, and penetrable resin inlet is presented in order to competently dampen the blown-up noises. A simplified objective function by means of FEM, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is established to enable the numerical calculation when using a finite element method. Three silencer designs, silencer A (with element A, a penetrable resin inlet), B …

Deep Learning–Based, Oceantdlx Sea Ice Detection Model For Sar Image, Liu Lin, Li Wanwu, Li Hang, Sun Yi

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study constructs four deep-learning OceanTDLx series models and uses a WinR-AdaGrad gradient descent algorithm to train and optimize the constructed models. Through an analysis of the loss, accuracy, and time consumption of the four models (i.e., OceanTDL2, OceanTDL3, OceanTDL5 and OceanTDL8), we reveal that the models’ performance does not improve when the number of layers is increased and that OceanTDL5 provides the optimal performance. OceanTDL5 is compared with OceanTDA9 (a model that we previously constructed), and the curves for training loss_batch and training accuracy_batch indicate that OceanTDL5 is more suitable than OceanTDA9 for detecting distributed targets, particularly semi-melted sea …

Application Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle–Based Infrared Images In Determining Characteristics Of Sea Surface Temperature Distribution, Hsing-Yu Wang, Hui-Ming Fang, Yun-Chih Chiang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study investigated the temperature field of a body of water by using rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual) comprising visible light and infrared cameras to determine sea temperature distribution. With a flight height of 150 m, image overlap of 80%, and image resolution of 4.75 cm/pixel, the proposed method was more effective than the conventional portable conductivity–temperature–depth device in rapidly measuring sea surface temperature and determining sea temperature distribution. The discharged heated water of the Hoping Power Plant traveled 100–330 m from the wastewater outfall and then gradually diffused in the range of 100–490 m before …

Kerstetter Et Al. Supplemental Materials, David Kerstetter, Garrett A. Hardy, L. John

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Datasets

This document provides additional photographs to the Kerstetter et al. main text from baited game camera placements in West Lake Park, Broward County, Florida (USA) from January 2019 through January 2020.

Air Pollution In South Texas: A Short Communication Of Health Risks And Implications, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Esmeralda Mendez, Ismaila Ibrahim, Md. Salahuddin Majumder, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Air pollution is a major public health concern. The region of South Texas in the United States has experienced high levels of air pollution in recent years due to an increase in population, cross-border trade between the U.S.A. and Mexico, and high vehicular activity. This review assesses the relationships between human health and air pollution in South Texas. A thorough scientific search was performed using PubMed, Science Direct, and ProQuest, with most of the literature focusing on the source apportionment of particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less in width (PM2.5), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), Black Carbon …

Habitat Use Of Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi) In Pascagoula River Holding Areas And In Estuarine And Marine Environments Including Ship Island, Mississippi And Mobile Bay, Alabama, Elizabeth M. Greenheck

Master's Theses

Gulf Sturgeon (GS) are a federally threatened, anadromous species that inhabit coastal rivers in the northern Gulf of Mexico and make annual migrations between riverine and marine habitats. They are divided into western or an eastern river systems based on the location of their natal river relative to Mobile Bay. Tracking of GS movements using acoustic telemetry has occurred since the late 1990s but has increased in use since 2015 for monitoring important habitats that GS rely on throughout their lifetime. For this study, tagged GS were monitored in three areas throughout the central Gulf of Mexico: the Mobile Bay …

Margalefidinium Polykrikoides Cyst Resuspension In The Lafayette River, A Sub-Tributary Of The Chesapeake Bay, Gabrielle Greaney, Eduardo Perez Vega, Katherine Crider, Dreux Chappell, Kimberly Powell, Richard Hale, Peter Bernhardt, Margaret Mulholland

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Harmful Algal Blooms are a collection of algae in a body of water that can cause serious environmental issues and health problems in both people and aquatic organisms. Dinoflagellates are microscopic, unicellular, and eukaryotic organisms that are well known for forming harmful algal blooms because of eutrophication. Coastal Virginia suffers from HABs in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. A common species of dinoflagellate, known as Margalefidinium polykrikoides exists in the Chesapeake Bay. The purpose of this study is to determine if sediment resuspension produced by wind generated surface gravity waves cause cysts (dinoflagellate resting stages) to be suspended into …

Using California Harmful Algae Risk Mapping To Predict Sea Lion Strandings, Florybeth La Valle, Sydney Socquet

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Domoic acid (DA) is a toxin produced by marine diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia (Pn) and bioaccumulates in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus). DA toxicosis can cause neurological issues and death, and the rate at which Z. californianus become stranded due to this condition has been increasing since it was first diagnosed in a marine mammal in 1998. We compared geotemporal data of sea lion strandings with data from the California Harmful Algae Risk Mapping (C-HARM) Model to analyze patterns that may indicate when and where a sea lion stranding due to DA toxicosis will occur. C-HARM geographically visualizes the …

Health And Safety Effects Of Airborne Soil Dust In The Americas And Beyond, Daniel Q. Tong, Thomas E. Gill, William A. Sprigg, Robert Scott Van Pelt, Alexander Baklanov, Bridget Marie Barker, Jesse E. Bell, Juan Castillo, Santiago Gassó, Cassandra Gaston, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Risks associated with dust hazards are often underappreciated, a gap between the knowledge pool and public awareness that can be costly for impacted communities. This study reviews the emission sources and chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of airborne soil particles (dust) and their effects on human and environmental health and safety in the Pan-American region. American dust originates from both local sources (western United States, northern Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina) and long-range transport from Africa and Asia. Dust properties, as well as the trends and interactions with criteria air pollutants, are summarized. Human exposure to dust is associated …

Movement, Behavior, And Trophic Ecology Of A Pelagic Predator Guild In The Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, Ryan Keith Logan

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Pelagic apex predators exert strong influences on ecological communities, and often support valuable commercial or recreational fisheries worldwide. Yet, due to their rarity and pelagic lifestyle, many species, such as billfishes, have proven particularly difficult to study at resolutions necessary to define dynamics of recovery from fishery interaction, physical interaction with environmental features and prey exploitation, and competitive interactions among other billfish predators. This leads to a paucity of knowledge on billfish ecology and habitat use, and hinders management efforts. With the ever-improving and miniaturization of technology and oceanographic datasets, the ability to define and quantify these interactions of fish …

Epidermal Threads Reveal The Origin Of Hagfish Slime, Yu Zeng, David C. Plachetzki, Kristen Nieders, Hannah Campbell, Marissa Cartee, M. Sabrina Pankey, Kennedy Guillen, Douglas Fudge

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

When attacked, hagfishes produce a soft, fibrous defensive slime within a fraction of a second by ejecting mucus and threads into seawater. The rapid setup and remarkable expansion of the slime make it a highly effective and unique form of defense. How this biomaterial evolved is unknown, although circumstantial evidence points to the epidermis as the origin of the thread- and mucus-producing cells in the slime glands. Here, we describe large intracellular threads within a putatively homologous cell type from hagfish epidermis. These epidermal threads averaged ~2 mm in length and ~0.5 μm in diameter. The entire hagfish body is …

Age, Growth And Maturity Of The Yellow Stingray (Urobatis Jamaicensis), A Biannually Reproductive Tropical Batoid., Jessica Schieber, Daniel P. Fahy, John K. Carlson, David W. Kerstetter

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Urobatis jamaicensis is a coastal batoid species affected by habitat loss and small-scale exploitation from fisheries and the aquarium trade, yet the life-history information available is limited. This is the first study to assess the vertebral centra from 195 stingrays to estimate age and growth patterns and compare them with the biannual reproductive pattern previously reported for this species. Age-at-size data were compared using five different growth models and found a two-parameter von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF), the Gompertz model, and a modified VBGF fit best for males, females and sexes combined, respectively. Maturity was achieved before one year. However, …

Black Crowned Night Heron, Kevin Rafferty, Briana K. Zaffiro, David Kerstetter

All Scans: Kerstetter Fisheries and Avian Ecology 3D Scan Series

No abstract provided.

Ycnh 3d Skull, Kevin Rafferty, Briana K. Zaffiro, David Kerstetter

All Scans: Kerstetter Fisheries and Avian Ecology 3D Scan Series

No abstract provided.

Mafr 3d Skull, Kevin Rafferty, Briana K. Zaffiro, David W. Kerstetter

All Scans: Kerstetter Fisheries and Avian Ecology 3D Scan Series

3D Scan of a Magnificent Frigatebird