Marine Biology Commons^™

Investigating Diel Periodicity In Export Flux In The Gulf Of Mexico Using A Particulate Imaging System, Justin Edward Blancher

Master's Theses

To estimate the diurnal periodicity in the biological pump, a floating array with a marine snow camera system at 150 m depth was used, and particles were imaged at a 40 second interval for a 24 to 30 hour period at five sites in the Gulf of Mexico in June 2017. Each image was processed to identify and size all the particles within the frame, which was then processed to determine diameter, an estimated volume, and settling speed for each particle. Using these parameters, particle mass was estimated using algebraically rearranged calculations for settling speed. Each hour during the deployment …

The Effects Of Salinity On Zootechnical Performance Of Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion Nebulosus) In Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, Eric Gigli

Master's Theses

The spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) is a euryhaline finfish candidate for marine aquaculture in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Aquaculture of this species currently uses salinities of 25 psu or greater making production challenging in areas where high salinity water is not available. This study aimed to document the effects of salinity on zootechnical performance of spotted seatrout embryos, early larvae, and juveniles in recirculating aquaculture systems to assist with the development of protocols for low salinity culture.

Embryos obtained from a volitional spawn at 29 psu were incubated at three salinities (12.5, 18.75, or 25 psu) until …

Evaluating Alternate Management Strategies For Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion Nebulosus) In The North-Central Gulf Of Mexico, Nathaniel Wallace Jermain

Master's Theses

Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) receive considerable fishing pressure as the most popular saltwater target species in the north-central Gulf of Mexico. The potential for alternate management strategies, including stock enhancement and reducing discard mortality, to support the sustainability of the stocks and the desires of stakeholders is unknown. The purpose of this study was to provide an objective evaluation of the efficacy of alternate management strategies for Spotted Seatrout in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I used a management strategy evaluation (MSE) to measure the performance of 18 alternate management scenarios relative to control scenarios. Scenarios with a high …

The Sedimentology Of Cay Sal Bank - An Incipiently Drowned Carbonate Platform, Luis Ramirez

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Sediment on Cay Sal Bank (CSB) is characterized by its coarse-grain size, poor sorting, predominance of skeletal fragments, and relatively depleted d¹⁸O isotope values. CSB is an incipiently drowned platform in close proximity to the Great Bahama Bank (GBB), a carbonate platform which is not incipiently drowned and characterized by fine-grained, non-skeletal sediment. The GBB has locally well-developed oolitic grainstone facies and coral reef margins, which are both lacking on CSB. Platform-top water depths on the GBB are typically 10 m or less, but CSB depth ranges between 7 and 30 m. CSB is devoid of mud, whereas …

Determining How Risk Effects Predator-Prey Interactions Of Marine Communities In The Nearshore Environment Of South Bimini, The Bahamas, Kendall Brancart

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Predators often have strong top-down effects on ecosystems and are considered a priority for conservation and management. Predator activity can influence prey distribution, abundance, and foraging behaviors and are likely to influence habitat by impacting ecological and environmental characteristics as well as presence of competitor species. There are knowledge gaps of the functional diversity of fish assemblages, non-consumptive predator effects, and environmental effects on fish assemblages. With this study, effects of top marine predators, such as sharks and great barracuda, on diversity and abundance of prey communities were examined in putative low (north side of South Bimini = lagoon) and …

Assessment Of Heavy Metals In Subsistence-Harvested Alaskan Marine Mammal Body Tissues And Vibrissae, Pilar M. Ferdinando

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The coastal, indigenous communities around Alaska have subsisted on marine animals for generations, often focusing on large apex predators such as seals, sea lions, and whales. Three species of pinnipeds (harbor seal, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal) and the northern sea otter have all undergone significant population declines since the 1970s, some regions more than others. Archived vibrissae (whiskers) and body tissues from these four species were available from the Bering Sea and throughout the Gulf of Alaska from the 1990s and early 2000s. Tissues from these species are exceedingly difficult to obtain; thus, the archived tissues provided a …

Optimizing Restoration Site Selection Along The Florida Reef Tract For The Coral Species Acropora Cervicornis And Acropora Palmata, Samantha King

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The decline of Acropora cervicornis and Acropora palmata populations and consequent listing as endangered species has prompted the need for restoration. Since financial resources are limited, optimal sites for restoration should not only be environmentally suitable for outplant survival, but also have a greater capacity to replenish surrounding reefs with larvae. However, in Florida coral larval dispersal patterns and reef connectivity remain poorly studied. Here, we measured long term larval survival and competency of A. cervicornis to calibrate a high resolution (100m) biophysical larval dispersal model of Acropora in the Florida Reef Tract (FRT). This model revealed that there is …

Effects Of Deposited Sediment And Turbidity On Survival And Growth Of Orbicella Faveolata Recruits, Morgan Stephenson

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Corals are frequently exposed to elevated turbidity and deposited sediment caused from coastal construction, dredging, and/or beach renourishment. This study addresses the effects of turbidity and deposited sediment on the survival and growth of newly settled and 6-week-old Orbicella faveolata recruits and disentangles the effects of turbidity and deposited sediment. We conducted two experiments in which newly settled coral recruits were reared in one of ten different turbidity and deposited sediment treatments for five weeks (0 NTU/ 0 mg cm^-2, 3.4 NTU/ 0 mg cm^-2, 8.2 NTU/ 0 mg cm^-2, 16 NTU/ 0 mg …

The Effects Of Ultraviolet Light Exposure On The Activity Of Catalase In The Coelomocytes Of Sea Urchins Lytechinus Variegatus And Arbacia Punctulata, Kandis Arlinghaus

Undergraduate Theses

Many sea urchins play important ecological roles in their environments, and it is important to study the impacts of environmental stressors on their physiology. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure has significant negative impacts on marine organisms including an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidative damage by ROS at the cellular level can cause lipid peroxidation, DNA fragmentation, and even cell death that may result in inflammation or disease. To prevent this cellular damage, organisms generate enzymes, such as catalase, that breakdown ROS into harmless substances. Elevated catalase activities under UVB, a range of UVR from 280–315 nm, exposure have been …

Indirect Legacy Effects Of An Extreme Climatic Event On A Marine Megafaunal Community, Robert Nowicki, Michael Heithaus, Jordan Thompson, Derek Burkholder, Kirk Gastrich, Aaron Wirsing

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

While extreme climatic events (ECEs) are predicted to become more frequent, reliably predicting their impacts on consumers remains challenging, particularly for large consumers in marine environments. Many studies that do evaluate ECE effects focus primarily on direct effects, though indirect effects can be equally or more important. Here, we investigate the indirect impacts of the 2011 “Ningaloo Niño” marine heatwave ECE on a diverse megafaunal community in Shark Bay, Western Australia. We use an 18‐year community‐level data set before (1998–2010) and after (2012–2015) the heatwave to assess the effects of seagrass loss on the abundance of seven consumer groups: sharks, …

A Comparison Of Circle And J Hook Performance Within The Grenadian Pelagic Longline Fishery, Anthony G. Burns

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

The development and adaptation of gear technologies to local fisheries has been a management-oriented research strategy commonly used to mitigate the ecological effects of pelagic longline (PLL) gear on bycatch species. Grenada’s PLL fishery primarily targets yellowfin tuna, however while minimal, their bycatch of blue marlin and white marlin exceeds the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) allowed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). A switch to circle hooks may benefit these nontargeted, bycatch species by reducing catch rates and haulback mortality, as well as increasing post-release survival. To determine differences in performance, assessments of 16/0 circle …

The Ellis Island Effect: Invasive Species In The Mid-Atlantic, Paul A.X. Bologna

Sustainability Seminar Series

Global invasions of marine species often follow human migration pathways and primary commerce routes. Exploration, immigration, and commerce to the United States has created hot spots for invasive species to become established. In particular, Ellis Island served as a primary spot for European immigrants over the last century. During the last 3 years, we have documented for the first time four non-native hydrozoans in New Jersey using molecular techniques.

Gonionemusvertens, Moerisiainkermanica, and Bougainvilliatriestinahave origins potentially linked to the Mediterranean indicating a potential group invasion from that region. Aequoreaaustralisis a Pacific hydrozoan whose origin pathway is yet unknown, but has now …

High-Resolution Habitat And Bathymetry Maps For 65,000 Sq. Km Of Earth’S Remotest Coral Reefs, Samuel J. Purkis, Arthur C. R. Gleason, Charlotte R. Purkis, Alexandra C. Dempsey, Philip Renaud, Mohamed Faisal, Steven Saul, Jeremy M. Kerr

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

With compelling evidence that half the world’s coral reefs have been lost over the last four decades, there is urgent motivation to understand where reefs are located and their health. Without such basic baseline information, it is challenging to mount a response to the reef crisis on the global scale at which it is occurring. To combat this lack of baseline data, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation embarked on a 10-yr survey of a broad selection of Earth’s remotest reef sites—the Global Reef Expedition. This paper focuses on one output of this expedition, which is meter-resolution seafloor habitat …

The Association Between Stomach Fullness And Vertical Migration Behavior In Deep-Pelagic Crustaceans And Fishes In The Gulf Of Mexico, With Notes On Microplastic Ingestion, Ryan P. Bos

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents: 1) the first statistically rigorous support for the longstanding hypothesis that state of satiation modifies diel vertical migration patterns of deep-sea micronektonic crustaceans and fishes; and, 2) the first assessment of microplastic ingestion by deep-pelagic micronekton in the Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida. Deep-sea pelagic crustaceans and fishes significantly contribute to abundance and biomass of pelagic ecosystems, are frequently consumed by commercially valuable fishery species, and serve to transport both nutrients and pollutants between shallow and deep waters. The results presented herein will be valuable for assessing risk associated with potential biomagnification of plastic through …

Evaluating A New Algorithm For Satellite-Based Evapotranspiration For North American Ecosystems: Model Development And Validation, Bassil El Masri, Abdullah F. Rahman, Danilo Dragoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Highlights

• We developed an algorithm to estimate evapotranspiration based solely on satellite data.

• Our model is able to track the seasonal changes in the flux tower observations.

• The errors in the model ET output were lower than the MODIS ET product.

• The modeled and observed ET strong relationship implies that our model has the potential to be applied to different ecosystems.

Abstract

We introduce a different operational approach to estimate 8-day average daily evapotranspiration (ET) using both routinely available data and the Penman-Monteith (P-M) equation for canopy transpiration and evaporation of intercepted water and Priestley and Taylor for soil evaporation. …

Assessing Deep-Pelagic Shrimp Biomass To 3000 M In The Atlantic Ocean And Ramifications Of Upscaled Global Biomass, Alexander Vereshchaka, Anastasia Lunina, Tracey Sutton

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

We assess the biomass of deep-pelagic shrimps in the Atlantic Ocean using data collected between 40°N and 40°S. Forty-eight stations were sampled in discrete-depth fashion, including epi- (0–200 m), meso- (200–800/1000 m), upper bathy- (800/1000–1500 m), and lower bathypelagic (1500–3000 m) strata. We compared samples collected from the same area on the same night using obliquely towed trawls and large vertically towed nets and found that shrimp catches from the latter were significantly higher. This suggests that vertical nets are more efficient for biomass assessments, and we report these values here. We further compared day and night samples from the …

Vaquita Face Extinction From Bycatch. Comment On Manjarrez-Bringas, N. Et Al., Lessons For Sustainable Development: Marine Mammal Conservation Policies And Its Social And Economic Effects., Karl W. Flessa, Luis Calderon-Aguilera, Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro, David L. Dettman, Gregory P. Dietl, David H. Goodwin, David K. Jacobs, Michal Kowalewski, Steven M. Nelson, Kirsten Rowell, Bernard R. Schone, Jansen A. Smith, Francisco Zamora-Arroyo

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

We are among the scientists who have documented the environmental and ecological changes to the Upper Gulf of California following the reduction in the Colorado River’s flow. We object to any suggestion that our research supports Manjarrez-Bringas et al.’s conclusion that the decline in the Colorado River’s flow is the reason for the decline in the population of the endangered vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus). Manjarrez-Bringas et al.’s conclusions are incongruent with their own data, their logic is untenable, their analyses fail to consider current illegal fishing practices, and their recommendations are unjustified and misdirected. Vaquita face extinction because of bycatch, …

Comparing Feeding Accuracy Between High And Low Predation Trinidad Guppies, Lydia J. Bonnell

Honors College Theses

Efficient feeding accuracy could increase an organism’s survival. Although local adaptation in Trinidad guppies is common, the effects on accuracy are unknown. Guppies were wild caught in 2015 and 2017, filmed while capturing prey. Accuracy wasn’t different within samples but differed across samples, possibly due to the prey types used.

Hepatic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) In Gulf And Southern Hake Collected Aboard Multiple R/V Weatherbird Ii Cruises In The Gulf Of Mexico From 2012-08-21 To 2015-09-24, Erin Pulster, Steven A. Murawski, Rachel Struch

C-IMAGE data

This dataset contains hepatic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Gulf and Southern Hake collected aboard multiple R/V Weatherbird II cruises in the Gulf of Mexico from 2012-08-21 to 2015-09-24. PAH was extracted from liver samples using a modified QuEChERS (Bond Elut, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) method optimized specifically for these study species. Extracts were analyzed using Agilent’s 7890B gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to a 7010 tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) operating in multiple reactions mode (MRM). The dataset contains the location, date, biometrics, and the total concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) in livers. The cruise documentation was provided …

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 …