Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons^™

Rapid Recovery Of A Coral Reef At Darwin Island, Galapagos Islands, Peter W. Glynn, Bernhard Riegl, Adrienne M. S. Correa, Iliana B. Baums

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Surveys at Darwin Island in 2006 and 2007 have demonstrated that this northernmost Galapagos Islands coral reef has recovered significantly since the 1982–3 El Niño event. When first surveyed in 1975, this structural reef exhibited actively accreting frameworks of pocilloporid and poritid corals. The coral suffered severe mortality in 1983, resulting in the near total loss of pocilloporids and extensive partial mortality of poritid corals. Large sections of the reef had not recovered by 1992 and dead frameworks were subject to bio-erosion, although small numbers of sexual recruits of pocilloporid corals and numerous recruits plus regenerating patches of Porites lobata …

Markov Models For Linking Environments And Facies In Space And Time (Recent Arabian Gulf, Miocene Paratethys), Bernhard Riegl, Samuel J. Purkis

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

If, as comparative sedimentology maintains, knowledge of the Recent can sometimes be helpful to explain the past (and vice-versa), common quantitative denominators might exist between Recent and fossil systems. It may also be possible to describe dynamics and find linkages between space and time with a unique set of quantitative tools. To explore such conceptual links, spatial facies patterns mapped using satellite imagery were compared with temporal patterns in analogous ancient outcropping facies using Markov chains and graphs. Landsat and Ikonos satellite imagery was used to map benthic facies in a nearshore carbonate ramp (Ras Hasyan) and offshore platform system …

The Influence Of Artificial Reef Associated Fish Assemblages And Varying Substrates On Coral Recruitment, T. Patrick Quinn

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examined enhancing coral recruitment to artificial substrate by manipulating fish assemblages and the use of coral attractant substrates. One hundred sixty artificial reef modules were organized into 40 four-module replicate configurations (quads) of varying complexity to induce different fish assemblages. The deployment array consisted of the 40 quads, each in a square configuration with three to four-meter sides (approximately 1 m separation between modules) measured from the outside corners. The quads were divided into four fill treatments of differing complexity: Empty, Small, Mixed, and Large. Each quad had four potential coral attractant treatments on settlement plates: CaCO3, iron, …

New Perspectives On Ecological Mechanisms Affecting Coral Recruitment On Reefs, Raphael Ritson-Williams, Suzanne N. Arnold, Nicole D. Fogarty, Robert S. Steneck, Mark J. A. Vermeij, Valerie J. Paul

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Coral mortality has increased in recent decades, making coral recruitment more important than ever in sustaining coral reef ecosystems and contributing to their resilience. This review summarizes existing information on ecological factors affecting scleractinian coral recruitment. Successful recruitment requires the survival of coral offspring through sequential life history stages. Larval availability, successful settlement, and post-settlement survival and growth are all necessary for the addition of new coral individuals to a reef and ultimately maintenance or recovery of coral reef ecosystems. As environmental conditions continue to become more hostile to corals on a global scale, further research on fertilization ecology, connectivity, …

Advances In The Study Of Marine Mammal Predator-Prey Interactions: A Novel Real-Time Visualization Of Independently Collected Echosounder Data Using Geozui4d, Roland J. Arsenault, Ari S. Friedlaender, Elliott L. Hazen, Colin Ware, David N. Wiley

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

No abstract provided.

Limnological Analyses Of Cutler Reservoir And Dingle Marsh With Respect To Eutrophication, J. D. Abbott, Deb Collins, Colin Cook, Dan Lamarra, Ryan Leonard, Ben Marret, Justin Stout, Gilbert Rowley, Jeremy Rowley, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Cutler Reservoir is located in Cache county, Utah and was created for the purposes of irrigation, water storage and flood control. High nutrient loading to Cutler has raised concerns about the health of this system and has resulted in it being listed on the state's 303(d) list of impaired waters. The TMDL plan being drafted for Cutler lists dissolved oxygen and phosphorous as the key issues of concern. The underlying problem created by nutrient loading is eutrophication. If Cutler is to remain as a valuable source of recreation, wildlife habitat, and water for the Cache Valley we must understand the …

Potential Export Of Unattached Benthic Macroalgae To The Deep Sea Through Wind Driven Langmuir Circulation, H. M. Dierssen, Richard C. Zimmerman, Lisa A. Drake, David J. Burdige

OES Faculty Publications

Carbon export to the deep sea is conventionally attributed to the sinking of open ocean phytoplankton. Here, we report a Langmuir supercell event driven by high winds across the shallow Great Bahama Bank that organized benthic non-attached macroalgae, Colpomenia sp., into visible windrows on the seafloor. Ocean color satellite imagery obtained before and after the windrows revealed a 588 km² patch that rapidly shifted from highly productive macroalgae to bare sand. We assess a number of possible fates for this macroalgae and contend that this event potentially transported negatively buoyant macroalgae to the deep Tongue of the Ocean …

Influence Of Irradiance And Iron On The Growth Of Colonial Phaeocystic Antarctica: Implications For Seasonal Bloom Dynamics In The Ross Sea, Antarctica, Nathan S. Garcia, Peter N. Sedwick, Giacomo R. Ditullio

OES Faculty Publications

Laboratory culture experiments were used to investigate the growth rate of colonial Phaeocystis anarctica as a function of irradiance and dissolved iron concentration. The experiments were conducted with a P. antarctica strain isolated from the southern Ross Sea, Antarctica, and made use of natural, low-iron (P. antarctica attained an average maximum cell-specific growth rate of 0.37 d^-1at an irradiance of 68 μE m^-2s^-1, above which growth rates decreased to 0.27 d^-1 at an irradiance of 314 μE m^-2s^-1. The dependence of growth rate on ambient dissolved iron concentration was …

Thin Layer Formation During Runaway Stratification In The Tidally Dynamic San Francisco Estuary, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Stephen M. Bollens

OES Faculty Publications

During the course of a year, we repeatedly collected high-resolution vertical fluorometer data timed to coincide with a specific state during the tidal cycle. The time (end of the ebb during neap tide) and the location (a deep channel half-way between the Golden Gate and the point of tidally averaged bottom salinity of 2 psu) were chosen with the goal to observe runaway stratification. We consistently found at least one pronounced chlorophyll peak in the water column; however, the vertical location of these peaks varied within three types including surface, bottom and subsurface maxima. Our results showed that heterogeneity of …

Peptide Hydrolysis And The Uptake Of Dipeptides By Phytoplankton, Margaret R. Mulholland, Cindy Lee

OES Faculty Publications

Rates of peptide hydrolysis (using the fluorescent substrate, lucifer yellow anhydride-labeled tetra-alanine) and dipeptide uptake (using dually labeled, ¹⁵N and ¹³C, dialanine) were measured in phytoplankton cultures and in natural populations during algal blooms dominated by one or two taxa. During most sampling events, both peptide hydrolysis and dipeptide uptake were greatest in the size fraction containing the dominant phytoplankter, suggesting that phytoplankton contribute substantially to or may even dominate observed extracellular peptide hydrolysis and dipeptide uptake in the environment. These are the first data suggesting that dipeptides may be taken up directly by phytoplankton and this may …

Spatial Variation In Otolith Chemistry Of Atlantic Croaker Larvae In The Mid-Atlantic Bight, Jason J. Schaffler, Christian S. Reiss, Cynthia M. Jones

OES Faculty Publications

Larval Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus (1 to 7 mm in standard length) were collected on the east coast of the United States from North Carolina to Delaware during 2000. We defined 3 water-mass boundaries for potential groups of spawning Atlantic croaker using temperature and salinity measured at each sampling station. We tested the hypothesis that distinct otolith chemistries existed among 3 groups of larval Atlantic croaker collected from these water masses using solution-based inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that otolith chemistry differed significantly among water masses. Using a quadratic discriminant function, we were able to correctly …

Patterns Of Larval Atlantic Croaker Ingress Into Chesapeake Bay, Usa, Jason J. Schaffler, Christian S. Reiss, Cynthia M. Jones

OES Faculty Publications

We compared ingress patterns of Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus larvae into Chesapeake Bay, USA, with published ingress patterns through barrier island inlets, the accepted model for larval fish ingress. This model asserts that larvae ingress on night flood tides at the flooddominated side of the inlet and at all depths. At the Chesapeake Bay mouth and in the adjacent coastal waters, we compared the distribution of abundance, size, age, and growth rates of croaker prior to ingress, In contrast to the barrier island inlet model, croaker larvae were more abundant at depth than closer to the surface regardless of location. …

Synergistic Effects Of Iron And Temperature On Antarctic Phytoplankton And Microzooplankton Assemblages, J. M. Rose, Y. Feng, G. R. Ditullio, R. B. Dunbar, C. E. Hare, P. A. Lee, M. Lohan, M. Long, W. O. Smith Jr., B. Sohst, S. Tozzi, Y. Zhang, D. A. Hutchins

OES Faculty Publications

Iron availability and temperature are important limiting factors for the biota in many areas of the world ocean, and both have been predicted to change in future climate scenarios. However, the impacts of combined changes in these two key factors on microbial trophic dynamics and nutrient cycling are unknown. We examined the relative effects of iron addition (+1 nM) and increased temperature (+4° C) on plankton assemblages of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, a region characterized by annual algal blooms and an active microbial community. Increased iron and temperature individually had consistently significant but relatively minor positive effects on total phytoplankton …

Cross-Basin Comparison Of Phosphorus Stress And Nitrogen Fixation In Trichodesmium, Annette M. Hynes, P. Dreux Chappell, Sonya T. Dyhrman, Scott C. Doney, Eric A. Webb

OES Faculty Publications

We investigated the phosphorus (P) status and N₂ fixation rates of Trichodesmium populations from the North Pacific, western South Pacific, and western North Atlantic. Colonies of Trichodesmium were collected and analyzed for endogenous alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity using enzyme-labeled fluorescence ( ELF) and for nitrogenase activity using acetylene reduction. AP hydrolyzes dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP) from dissolved organic phosphorus and is active in Trichodesmium colonies experiencing P stress. Across multiple stations in the subtropical North and South Pacific, there was low to moderate ELF labeling in Trichodesmium, although labeling was present in other taxa. In contrast, Trichodesmium ELF …

Winter 2009, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.

Is Seagrass An Important Nursery Habitat For The Caribbean Spiny Lobster, Panulirus Argus, In Florida?, Donald C. Behringer, Mark J. Butler Iv, William Herrnkind, John H. Hunt, Charles A. Acosta, William C. Sharp

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) settle preferentially in macroalgal-covered hard-bottom habitat, but seagrass is more prevalent in Florida (United States) and the Caribbean, so even low settlement of lobsters within seagrass could contribute substantially to recruitment if post-settlement survival and growth were high. We tested the role of seagrass and hard-bottom habitats for P. argus recruitment in three ways. We first explored possible density-dependent regulation of early benthic juvenile lobster survival within cages deployed in seagrass and hard-bottom habitats. Second, we compared settlement and survival of P. argus in both habitats, by comparing the recovery of microwire-tagged early …

The Malina Oceanographic Expedition: How Do Changes In Ice Cover, Permafrost And Uv Radiation Impact On Biodiversity And Biogeochemical Fluxes In The Arctic Ocean?, Phillippe Massicotte, Rainer Amon, David Antoine, Philippe Archambault, Sergio Balzano, Simon Bélanger, Ronald Benner, Dominique Boeuf, Annick Bricaud, Flavienne Bruyant, Gwenaëlle Chaillou, Malik Malik, Bruno Charrière, Jing Chen, Hervé Claustre, Pierre Coupel, Nicole Delsaut, David Doxaran, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

The MALINA oceanographic campaign was conducted during summer 2009 to investigate the carbon stocks and the processes controlling the carbon fluxes in the Mackenzie River estuary and the Beaufort Sea. During the campaign, an extensive suite of physical, chemical and biological variables was measured across seven shelf–basin transects (south-north) to capture the meridional gradient between the estuary and the open ocean. Key variables such as temperature, absolute salinity, radiance, irradiance, nutrient concentrations, chlorophyll-a concentration, bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance and taxonomy, and carbon stocks and fluxes were routinely measured onboard the Canadian research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen and from a barge …

Nutrient Dynamics In A Created Desert Wetland: Implications For The Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, Ruth Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rio Bosque Wetland Park is an arid wetland currently under restoration, which primarily receives water inputs from the Bustamante Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) during the non-irrigation season. Understanding the ability of a desert wetland to remove nutrients from the water column through uptake by primary producers or sediment transformations is key to justifying the protection and creation of other similar wetland sites. Nitrate concentrations tended to be reduced, relative to the inflow, near the outflow of the wetland.To further understand these trends, sediment nutrient release experiments and algal nutrient limitation experiments were completed. Sediment phosphorus release experiments indicated that …

Understanding How Disease And Environment Combine To Structure Resistance In Estuarine Bivalve Populations, Eileen E. Hofmann, David Bushek, Susan E. Ford, Ximing Guo, Dale Haidvogel, Dennis Hedgecock, John M. Klinck, Coren Milbury, Diego Narvaez, Eric Powell, Yongping Wang, Zhiren Wang, Liusuo Zhang

CCPO Publications

Delaware Bay oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations are influenced by two lethal parasites that cause Dermo and MSX diseases. As part of the US National Science Foundation Ecology of Infectious Diseases initiative, a program developed for Delaware Bay focuses on understanding how oyster population genetics and population dynamics interact with the environment and these parasites to structure he host populations, and how these interactions might modified by climate change. Laboratory and field studies undertaken during this program include identifying genes related to MSX and Dermo disease resistance, potential regions for refugia and the mechanisms that allow them to exist, …

Enso And Variability Of The Antarctic Peninsula Pelagic Marine Ecosystem, Valerie J. Loeb, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck, Osmund Holm-Hansen, Warren B. White

CCPO Publications

The West Antarctic Peninsula region is an important source of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the Southern Ocean. From 1980-2004 abundance and concentration of phytoplankton and zooplankton, krill reproductive and recruitment success and seasonal sea ice extent here were significantly correlated with the atmospheric Southern Oscillation Index and exhibited three- to five-year frequencies characteristic of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability. This linkage was associated with movements of the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front and Boundary, a changing influence of Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Weddell Sea waters, and eastward versus westward flow and mixing processes that are consistent with forcing by …

State Of The River Report For The Lower St. Johns River Basin, Florida: Water Quality, Fisheries, Aquatic Life, And Contaminants 2009, Environmental Protection Board, City Of Jacksonville, University Of North Florida, Jacksonville University

State of the River Report

No abstract provided.

Land Resources Series No 21 - Tambellup-Borden Area Land Resources Survey, Angela Stuart-Street, Rohan Marold

Natural resources published reports

AGDEX 526

Land Resources Series No. 21

This report presents results from soil-landscape mapping at a scale of 1: 100,000 in the Tambellup- Borden area of Western Australia. It is accompanied by a soil-landscape map covering almost 511,000 hectares.

Most of the survey occurs within the upper Frankland-Gordon, Kent, North Stirlings Basin and upper reaches of the Pallinup and Kalgan River catchments. The survey falls within the Katanning and Albany Department of Agriculture and Food advisory districts.

Seventeen soil-landscape systems have been identified and are represented on the map on the accompanying CD-ROM. These systems have been further divided into …

Setting Targets For Resource Condition In Yilliminning Catchment, Leon Van Wyk, Gregory Paul Raper

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Regional Characterisation Of Hard-Bottom Nursery Habitat For Juvenile Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Argus) Using Rapid Assessment Techniques, Rodney D. Bertelsen, Mark J. Butler Iv, William F. Herrnkind, John H. Hunt

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Shallow, hard-bottom habitat constitutes approximately 30% of the coastal waters of south Florida, United States, yet it is a chronically understudied feature of the marine seascape in this region. In this study, we characterised the general biogeographic and structural features of shallow benthic hard-bottom communities in the Florida Keys, and related those to the abundance of juvenile Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), the target of one of Florida's most economically valuable fisheries. We used rapid assessment techniques to survey more than 100 hard-bottom sites in the Florida Keys to estimate the percentage bottom coverage of vegetation (seagrass and …

Progress In Strategic Research Areas, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

Three years ago through conversations with resource managers, assessing the status of knowledge of the scientific literature, and our own interests, we set forth several strategic research areas that we believed would be timely for advancing Mojave Desert conservation and management.

The Epidemiological Status Of Pav1, And The Effects Of Infection On Caribbean Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Argus) Condition, Olfaction, And Predation Risk, Donald C. Behringer, Mark J. Butler Iv, Jeffrey D. Shields

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patterns Of Spiny Lobster (Panulirus Argus) Postlarval Recruitment In The Carribbean: A Crtr Project, Mark J. Butler Iv, Angela M. Mojica, Eloy Sosa-Cordero, Marines Millet, Paul Sanchez-Navarro, Miguel A. Maldonado, Juan Posada, Bladimir Rodriguez, Carlos M. Rivas, Adrian Oviedo, Marcio Arrone, Martha Prada, Nick Bach, Nilda Jimenez, Maria Del Carmen Garcia-Rivas, Kirah Forman, Donald C. Behringer Jr., Thomas Matthews, Claire Paris, Robert Cowen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

As part of the Coral Reef Targeted Research (CRTR) Program, a partnership between the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank, our research team examined the recruitment patterns of Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) postlarvae among regions in the Caribbean, with a particular focus on Mesoamerica. Our goal was to collect comparable information on postlarval supply among regions and to provide data to test predictions of connectivity generated from a coupled biophysical oceanographic model of lobster larval dispersal. Here we present the results of the postlarval recruitment monitoring program. We monitored the catch of postlarvae on Witham-style collectors …

Phytoplankton Blooms: Their Occurence And Composition Within Virginia's Tidal Tributaries, Harold G. Marshall, Todd A. Egerton

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Sporadic algal bloom development within a 10 year monitoring program in Virginia tidal tributaries of Chesapeake Bay is reviewed. These blooms were common events, characteristically producing a color signature to the surface water, typically short lived, occurring mainly from spring into autumn throughout different salinity regions of these rivers, and were produced primarily by dinoflagellates. The abundance threshold levels that would identify bloom status from a non-bloom presence were species specific, varied with the taxon's cell size, and ranged from ca. 10 to 10(4) cells mL(-1). Among the most consistent sporadic bloom producers were the dinoflagellates Akashiwo sanguinea, Cochlodinium …

Limnological Assistance For The Lake Mead National Recreation Area In Meeting The Challenge Of The Water 2025 Initiative: Quarterly Report, Period Ending December 31, 2008, Margaret N. Rees

Limnological Studies

Project 1: Technical input has been provided at four advisory team meetings attended this quarter.

Project 2: A formal report titled, Surface Water Monitoring for Indicator Bacteria in High-use Sites of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, has been prepared; an accompanying poster presentation for the Lake Mead Science Symposium is in preparation.

Project 3: A draft document titled, “Interagency Monitoring Action Plan (I-MAP): Quagga Mussels in Lakes Mead and Mohave” has been presented to an interagency core group to review and input. Six oral presentations related to quagga mussels are in preparation by this group for the Lake Mead …

Lidar-Derived Benthic Habitat Maps Enable The Quantification Of Potential Dredging Impacts To Coral Reef Ecosystems, Brian K. Walker, Richard E. Dodge, David S. Gilliam

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

An essential component to the analysis of ecosystem services is to characterize and define the major habitats within the area of interest. Aerial photography and/or satellite imagery coupled with geographic information systems (GIS) are frequently used to identify and quantify habitats in open terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is more difficult to successfully apply this methodology to deeper, <20 m, underwater environments. Light detection and ranging (LIDAR), a relatively new remote sensing technology that provides detailed bathymetry, can be used when adequate imagery is not available. This study uses LIDAR as the basis to characterize various benthic habitats in a coral reef ecosystem in order to quantify the habitats for a Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA) related to planned dredging activities to expand the Port Everglades entrance channel, Broward County, FL. As part of a regional mapping effort, marine benthic habitats were characterized for Broward County, FL. A mosaic of interpolated, sunshaded, laser bathymetry data served as the foundation upon which acoustic ground discrimination, limited subbottom profiling and aerial photography, and groundtruthing data were added in a GIS to aid in interpretation of benthic habitats. Expert-driven visual interpretation outlined geomorphological features in the LIDAR data at a scale of 1:6000 with a minimum mapping unit of 1 acre. The map of Broward County yielded a high overall accuracy of 89.6%. To quantify the potential dredging impacts, the habitat layer was clipped in GIS to the boundaries of anticipated direct and indirect impacts of the proposed project. Then the area of each clipped polygon was totaled for each habitat by impact type. HEA and Florida’s Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM) were performed using these areas. This work would not have been possible using satellite imagery or aerial photography alone and illustrates the capability of relatively new remote sensing technologies to aid in the definition and quantification of habitats for ecosystem service analyses.