Marine Biology Commons^™

Tropical Fish Study In Tahiti, French Polynesia, Miranda Brainard, Caitlyn Swango, Paityn Houglan, Richard Londraville

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In May of 2023, I embarked on an exciting research journey to Moorea, French Polynesia, alongside fellow students and faculty members from the University of Akron and Syracuse University. This expedition was part of the university-sponsored Tropical Vertebrate Biology course, where we delved into the exploration of various tropical species inhabiting the island, including sea urchins, geckos, and my primary focus, the blackspotted rockskipper.

My research team, composed of my co-authors and me, was particularly intrigued by the unique refuge-seeking behavior displayed by blackspotted rockskippers. These amphibious fish are renowned for their remarkable ability to inhabit tide pools and rocky …

Interactions Between Sediment Mechanical Structure And Infaunal Community Structure Following Physical Disturbance, William Cyrus Roger Clemo

Theses and Dissertations

Shallow, river-influenced coastal sediments are important for global carbon storage and nutrient cycling and provide a habitat for diverse communities of invertebrates (infauna). Elevated bed shear stress from extreme storms can resuspend, transport, and deposit sediments, disrupting the cohesive structure of muds, and sorting and depositing sand eroded from beaches. These physical disruptions can also resuspend or smother infauna, decreasing abundances and changing community structure. Infaunal activities such as burrowing, tube construction, and feeding can impact sediment structure and stability. However, little is known about how physical disturbance impacts short and long-term sediment habitat suitability and whether disturbance-tolerant infauna influence …

Gut Microbial Communities Of Hybridising Pygmy Angelfishes Reflect Species Boundaries, Megan J. Huggett, Jean-Paul A. Hobbs, Federico Vitelli, Michael Stat, Tane H. Sinclair-Taylor, Michael Bunce, Joseph D. Dibattista

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hybridisation and introgression of eukaryotic genomes can generate new species or subsume existing ones, with direct and indirect consequences for biodiversity. An understudied component of these evolutionary forces is their potentially rapid effect on host gut microbiomes, and whether these pliable microcosms may serve as early biological indicators of speciation. We address this hypothesis in a field study of angelfishes (genus Centropyge), which have one of the highest prevalence of hybridisation within coral reef fish. In our study region of the Eastern Indian Ocean, the parent fish species and their hybrids cohabit and display no differences in their diet, behaviour, …

Aquaculture Governance: Five Engagement Arenas For Sustainability Transformation, Darien D. Mizuta, Stefan Partelow

VIMS Articles

A greater focus on governance is needed to facilitate effective and substantive progress toward sustainability transformations in the aquaculture sector. Concerted governance efforts can help move the sector beyond fragmented technical questions associated with intensification and expansion, social and environmental impacts, and toward system-based approaches that address interconnected sustainability issues. Through a review and expert-elicitation process, we identify five engagement arenas to advance a governance agenda for aquaculture sustainability transformation: (1) setting sustainability transformation goals, (2) cross-sectoral linkages, (3) land–water–sea connectivity, (4) knowledge and innovation, and (5) value chains. We then outline the roles different actors and modes of …

Quantifying The Role Of Water Quality On Nitrogen Cycling In A Trophic Estuary, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Jobos Bay Estuary is an intertidal, tropical estuary located in southern Puerto Rico. The estuary covers about 12 km² and has a variety of habitats, such as seagrass beds, mangroves, mud flats, and coral reefs, which play important roles in sediment trapping and water quality maintenance. Seagrasses also serve as nursery and feeding grounds and provide shelter for macrofauna. Currently, the role of seagrasses and water quality on nitrogen (N) cycling in trophic estuaries is not well constrained. Understanding variations in sediment-based effects on N cycling rates and transformations, and how they are associated with water quality, is an …

Culled Lionfish Sexual Maturity Over A Four-Year Timespan​, Christina Bland, Jurgen Hauer, Bilal Saleem, Noelle James

Symposium of Student Scholars

Lionfish are invasive in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Like many other invasive species, they do not have any natural predators in these areas, so their population can grow unchecked. This can decrease the population of native fish species due to lionfish eating to excess. Because of their impact on native species, resource managers have incentivized lionfish hunting. Hunters were paid $6 USD for every pound of lionfish they brought in, so they possibly favored larger lionfish to increase their reward which would lead to an adaptive advantage for fish of smaller sizes. We hypothesized that the lionfish bounty program …

Coastal Water Temperature Guide, Andrew Allegra

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

● Near real-time temperatures are from NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) tidal stations and Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®).

● Recent and near real-time water temperatures are also from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) moored buoys.

● Daily Averaged Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is from NOAA NCEI’s 1/4° Daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) data set. It is a blended SST file of buoy, ship, Argo, and satellite observations.

The Olympic Coast As A Sentinel: An Integrated Social-Ecological Regional Vulnerability Assessment To Ocean Acidification, Courtney Cochran

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

Timestamp: 44862.4626207986 Email Address: courtney.cochran@noaa.gov Name: Courtney Cochran Affiliation: NOAA Affiliate (UCAR Contractor) Program Office/Division: Ocean Acidification Program Position Title: Program Specialist III Title of use case: The Olympic Coast as a Sentinel: An Integrated Social-Ecological Regional Vulnerability Assessment to Ocean Acidification Authors or Creators: Newton, J. ; Poe, M. ; Alin, S. ; Chadsey, M. ; Feely, R. ; Fradkin, S. ; Hagen, J. ; Ledford, J. ; Koehlinger, J. A. ; Schumacher, J. ; Siedlecki, S. ; Svec, R. ; Waddell, J. ; Watkinson-Schutten, M Affiliations of Authors or Creators: University of Washington Applied Physics Lab and the …

Marine Heat Waves, Andrew Allegra

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

Marine heatwave data sets are calculated by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information using Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) data. The NOAA 1/4° OISST is a long-term Climate Data Record that incorporates observations from different platforms (satellites, ships, buoys and Argo floats) into a regular global grid. The in situ component of this input is critical.

Geo Blueplanet - Noaa Coastwatch - Esri Coastal Eutrophication Index In Support Of Sustainable Development Goal 14.1.1, Merrie Beth Neely

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

Timestamp: 44819.6683347106 Email Address: merrie.neely@noaa.gov Name: Merrie Beth Neely Affiliation: Global Science and Technology Program Office/Division: NESDIS/STAR/SOCD/NOAA CoastWatch Position Title: research scientist (contractor) Title of use case: GEO BluePlanet - NOAA CoastWatch - ESRI Coastal Eutrophication Index in support of Sustainable Development Goal 14.1.1 Authors or Creators: Neely, M and Lance, V Affiliations of Authors or Creators: GST, Inc. (Neely) and NOAA Federal (Lance) Contributors: Smail, E. and Ramachandran, S Affiliation of Contributors: GEO BluePlanet (Smail) and RIVA (Ramachandran) Description: UN Environment requested assistance developing two satellite-based ocean color indicators of coastal eutrophication. This global product covers the EEZs for …

Critical Use Of Noaa Coastwatch Great Lakes Node Remote Sensing Of Sea Ice For Uscg Mission Planning, Merrie Beth Neely

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

Timestamp: 44823.3273319444 Email Address: merrie.neely@noaa.gov Name: Merrie Beth Neely Affiliation: Global Science and Technology, Inc. Program Office/Division: NESDIS/STAR/SOCD/NOAA CoastWatch Position Title: Research Scientist (contractor) Title of use case: Critical Use of NOAA CoastWatch Great Lakes Node Remote Sensing of Sea Ice for USCG mission planning Authors or Creators: Neely, M.B. and Lance, V. Affiliations of Authors or Creators: GST, Inc. (Neely) and NOAA Federal (Lance) Contributors: VanderWoude, A and Liu, S. Affiliation of Contributors: NOAA Federal (VanderWoude), CIGLR - University of Michigan (Liu) Description: USCG uses NOAA CoastWatch-supplied true-color imagery, the RADARSAT ice classification, and ice extent imagery when selecting …

Booc Api Test, Anthony Castellletto

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

This is just a test to see if I can read data from a published case through the Digital Commons API. Just ignore this case.

Tony Castelletto

Global Forecasts Of Marine Heatwaves, Michael Jacox

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

Timestamp: 44862.4486656366 Email Address: michael.jacox@noaa.gov Name: Michael Jacox Affiliation: NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory Program Office/Division: Position Title: Research oceanographer Title of use case: Global forecasts of marine heatwaves Authors or Creators: Jacox, M., Alexander, M., Amaya, D., Becker, B., Bograd, S., Brodie, S., Hazen, E., Pozo Buil, M., Tommasi, D., Hsu, C.-W., Smith, C. Affiliations of Authors or Creators: NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory; NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center; University of Colorado; University of Miami; University of California Santa Cruz Contributors: Affiliation of Contributors: Description: Researchers used climate forecast systems to develop global marine heatwave …

Understanding Comprehensive Flood Risk With Noaa Data, Kate Quigley

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

Timestamp: 44806.3799229514 Email Address: kate.quigley@noaa.gov Name: Kate Quigley Affiliation: NOAA Program Office/Division: NOS OCM Position Title: Economist Title of use case: Understanding Comprehensive Flood Risk with NOAA Data Authors or Creators: NOAA OCM Digital Coast website Affiliations of Authors or Creators: NOAA OCM Contributors: Doug Marcy Affiliation of Contributors: NOAA OCM Description: The Beyond Floods app features a flood outlook score and detailed reports for each individual property. This score is an abstraction of more than 25 factors related to real estate, social perception, flood insurance, flood mitigation and losses, infrastructure, and geomorphology. Syndeste used data from NOAA’s digital elevation …

An Intersection Of Science & Art: Vitrification Approaches And Open-Fabricated Tools For The Biomedical Model Sea Hare, Aplysia Californica, Allyssa M. Oune

LSU Master's Theses

The California sea hare (Aplysia californica) is an important biomedical model for molecular neurobiology, electrophysiology, learning, and memory due to their well-mapped and large neurons and well-characterized learning capabilities. The National Resource for Aplysia (NRA, University of Miami) maintains large stocks of live animals and relies on regular shipments of wild-caught individuals to maintain genetic diversity. This is labor and cost-intensive, and environmental changes could alter the availability of wild animals increasing the need to preserve this genetic resource. One solution is vitrification, ultra-fast cooling which produces an amorphous glass that minimizes damage to cells. Aplysia californica presents …

Modeling Single And Multiple Pacemaker Interaction In Jellyfish Locomotion, Alexander Hoover

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

A Mathematical Model Of Acanthocephalan Parasite Infection In Gull-Billed Terns, Charlotte Moser

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Microcystin Aids In Cold Temperature Acclimation: Differences Between A Toxic Microcystis Wildtype And Non-Toxic Mutant, Gwendolyn F. Stark, Robbie M. Martin, Laura E. Smith, Bofan Wei, Ferdi L. Hellweger, George S. Bullerjahn, R. Michael L. Mckay, Gregory L. Boyer, Steven W. Wilhelm

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

For Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806, temperature decreases from 26 °C to 19 °C double the microcystin quota per cell during growth in continuous culture. Here we tested whether this increase in microcystin provided M. aeruginosa PCC 7806 with a fitness advantage during colder-temperature growth by comparing cell concentration, cellular physiology, reactive oxygen species damage, and the transcriptomics-inferred metabolism to a non-toxigenic mutant strain M. aeruginosa PCC 7806 ΔmcyB. Photo-physiological data combined with transcriptomic data revealed metabolic changes in the mutant strain during growth at 19 °C, which included increased electron sinks and non-photochemical quenching. Increased gene expression was observed for …

Draft West Coast Rock Lobster Resource Harvest Strategy, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries management papers

Harvest strategies for Western Australia’s (WA) aquatic resources are formal documents developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD, the Department) to support decision-making processes that ensure the outcomes are consistent with the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD; Fletcher 2002a) and Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM; Fletcher et al. 2012). Harvest strategies are a key component of all contemporary fishery management systems and a requirement for certification under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The objectives of ESD are reflected in the objectives of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 (FRMA) and the Aquatic Resources Management Act …

Nutritional Challenges Of Substituting Farmed Animals For Wild Fish In Human Diets, Sebastian A. Heilpern, Rafael M. Almeida, Kathryn J. Fiorella

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wild fisheries provide billions of people with a key source of multiple essential nutrients. As fisheries plateau or decline, nourishing more people will partially rely on shifting consumption to farmed animals. The environmental implications of transitions among animal-sourced foods have been scrutinized, but their nutritional substitutability remains unclear. We compared concentrations of six essential dietary nutrients across >5000 species of wild fishes, aquaculture, poultry and livestock species, representing >65% of animals consumed globally. Wild fishes are both more nutrient-dense and variable than farmed animals; achieving recommended intake of all nutrients with farmed species could require consuming almost four times more …