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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2006

Fishes associated with North Carolina shelf-edge hardbottoms and initial assessment of a proposed marine protected area

Fish community data are limited from deeper shelf-edge hardbottoms along the southeastern U.S. continental shelf. This lack of data Hampers the design of recently proposed marine protected areas (MPAs) on the outer shelf of the southeastern U.S. During 2001-2004, sampling was conducted (57-25 m) to describe habitats and fish communities within and outside of the North Carolina proposed MPA (p-MPA) using the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK submersible, remotely operated vehicles, otter trawls, and hook and line. Habitats observed included soft substrate or non-hardbottom (NH), a shipwreck ("Snowy Wreck"), low relief hardbottoms (LRH), boulder fields (BF), and high relief ledges (HRL), the latter of which were divided into three mi-crohabitats. Non-metric, multi-dimensional scaling indicated that hardbottom fish assemblages were distinct from NH, and fish assemblages among microhabitats on HRL were different. In total, 152 fish species were documented. Thirty-five species were observed only on NH and 117 were observed or hardbottoms and the Snowy Wreck. Several species of anthiines were the most abundant fishes on most hardbottoms, whereas triglids, synodontids, and Seriola spp. were abundant on NH. Species richness was highest on HRL, and species composition was unique at the Snowy Wreck (238-253 m) and on BF. Future shelf-edge hardbottom research should include more standardized surveys using direct observations. Further, we recommend that the boundaries of the North Carolina p-MPA be redrawn to include more hardbottom habitat. ?? 2006 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2006

Relevance of cryptic fishes in biodiversity assessments: A case study at Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix

Because cryptic fishes are difficult to accurately survey, they are undersampled components of coral reef habitats, and their ecological roles have been generally ignored. Fifty-eight enclosed stations were sampled in shoreline, nearshore reef, lagoon, backreef, forereef, and bank/shelf habitats with an ichthyocide (rotenone) at Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Our samples included 55 families and 228 species, 60 previously unreported from St. Croix. Fish assemblages varied across habitat zones with the shoreline assemblage the most distinct. Only 8% of the species were present in all habitats. Multi-dimensional scaling plots of habitat characteristics and Bray-Curtis similarities of fish assemblages revealed similar patterns. Dominant and rare taxa are enumerated for each habitat sampled. Rotenone and visual census data are compared. While visual surveys accumulated more species per unit of effort, rotenone samples accumulated more species by area. Only 36% of the 228 species sampled with rotenone were visually detected, while 70% of the 115 species visually detected were also collected with rotenone. The use of rotenone is controversial but important for obtaining reasonably complete inventories of reef fishes. Misconceptions about rotenone and the advantages and limitations of alternative biodiversity assessment methods are discussed. ?? 2006 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2007

Deep-sea scleractinian coral age and depth distributions in the northwest Atlantic for the last 225,000 years

Deep-sea corals have grown for over 200,000 yrs on the New England Seamounts in the northwest Atlantic, and this paper describes their distribution both with respect to depth and time. Many thousands of fossil scleractinian corals were collected on a series of cruises from 2003-2005; by contrast, live ones were scarce. On these seamounts, the depth distribution of fossil Desmophyllum dianthus (Esper, 1794) is markedly different to that of the colonial scleractinian corals, extending 750 m deeper in the water column to a distinct cut-off at 2500 m. This cut-off is likely to be controlled by the maximum depth of a notch-shaped feature in the seamount morphology. The ages of D. dianthus corals as determined by U-series measurements range from modern to older than 200,000 yrs. The age distribution is not constant over time, and most corals have ages from the last glacial period. Within the glacial period, increases in coral population density at Muir and Manning Seamounts coincided with times at which large-scale ocean circulation changes have been documented in the deep North Atlantic. Ocean circulation changes have an effect on coral distributions, but the cause of the link is not known. ?? 2007 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2010

Nearshore concentration of pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duorarum) postlarvae in northern Florida bay in relation to nocturnal flood tide

We address the question of whether the low abundance of juvenile pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus duorarum (Burkenroad, 1939) in northern-central Florida Bay results from (i) limiting environmental conditions, (ii) a reduced postlarval transport, or (iii) both. To explore this question, postlarvae were collected during the new moon in both summer and fall of 2004 and 2005 at six stations located on a transect from the bay's western margin to its interior. The highest concentrations of postlarvae occurred at two mid-transect stations located in shallow channels with moderate tidal amplitudes (15-20 cm) and dense seagrass beds. At the two interiormost stations postlarval concentrations decreased together with a reduction of the tidal amplitude (= 1 cm). Estimates of the cumulative flood-tide displacement with the semidiurnal M 2 constituent indicated that the tide moves a maximum of 15 km in four nights, a distance that corresponds to the location of the highest concentrations of postlarvae. The size of postlarvae also reached a maximum at the location of the highest concentrations of postlarvae. Results suggest that postlarvae move into the bay's interior by a cumulative flood tidal process, advancing onshore during successive nights as far as they can go with the tide. Analyses indicate that, in addition to the tidal amplitude, cross-shelf wind stress and salinity also affect the concentrations of postlarvae. Peaks of postlarvae occurred at times of low salinity and strong southeasterly winds. While tidal transport appears to be insufficient for postlarvae to reach Florida Bay's interior, salinity and winds may also contribute to the observed distribution patterns of early pink shrimp recruits. ?? 2010 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2012

Rapid invasion of the Indo-Pacific lionfishes (Pterois volitans and Pterois miles) in the Florida Keys, USA: evidence from multiple pre-and post-invasion data sets

Over the past decade, Indo-Pacific lionfishes, Pterois volitans (Linnaeus, 1758) and Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828), venomous members of the scorpionfish family (Scorpaenidae), have invaded and spread throughout much of the tropical and subtropical northwestern Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. These species are generalist predators of fishes and invertebrates with the potential to disrupt the ecology of the invaded range. Lionfishes have been present in low numbers along the east coast of Florida since the 1980s, but were not reported in the Florida Keys until 2009. We document the appearance and rapid spread of lionfishes in the Florida Keys using multiple long-term data sets that include both pre- and post-invasion sampling. Our results are the first to quantify the invasion of lionfishes in a new area using multiple independent, ongoing monitoring data sets, two of which have explicit estimates of sampling effort. Between 2009 and 2011, lionfish frequency of occurrence, abundance, and biomass increased rapidly, increasing three- to six-fold between 2010 and 2011 alone. In addition, individuals were detected on a variety of reef and non-reef habitats throughout the Florida Keys. Because lionfish occurrence, abundance, and impacts are expected to continue to increase throughout the region, monitoring programs like those used in this study will be essential to document ecosystem changes that may result from this invasion.

Floria Keys↗
USGS2013

Parasites in marine food webs

Most species interactions probably involve parasites. This review considers the extent to which marine ecologists should consider parasites to fully understand marine communities. Parasites are influential parts of food webs in estuaries, temperate reefs, and coral reefs, but their ecological importance is seldom recognized. Though difficult to observe, parasites can have substantial biomass, and they can be just as common as free-living consumers after controlling for body mass and trophic level. Parasites have direct impacts on the energetics of their hosts and some affect host behaviors, with ecosystem-level consequences. Although they cause disease, parasites are sensitive components of ecosystems. In particular, they suffer secondary extinctions due to biodiversity loss. Some parasites can also return to a system after habitat restoration. For these reasons, parasites can make good indicators of ecosystem integrity. Fishing can indirectly increase or decrease parasite populations and the effects of climate change on parasites are likely to be equally as complex.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2013

How old is the Isthmus of Panama?

The Standard Model of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama proposes that final closure occurred at 4–3 Ma. The model is based on evidence from studies of marine stratigraphy, fossil sequences, divergent molecular phylogenies, the timing of the Great American Biological Interchange (GABI), and proxies for marine paleosalinity, paleobathymetry, productivity, and paleotemperatures. The new model uses cooling of magmas in the Cretaceous to Early Miocene Central American Volcanic arc to propose Eocene emergence of the discrete structural blocks of the arc and then U/Pb dating, paleomagnetic pole rotations, and atlantic sea-floor anomalies to reconfigure the blocks for different time slices back to 25 Ma. Closure is proposed at 15 Ma, because by this time the alignment of the blocks leaves no space for trans-isthmian marine passages. We propose that the Indonesian Australian Archipelago (IAA) provides a model for the Central American arc between 15 and 3 Ma because it accounts for the extensive marine interchange between the Pacific and Indian oceans through few and narrow passages while maintaining a complete separation of the terrestrial faunas (Wallace and Lydekker lines) of the two continental platforms of Sunda and Sahul. Using the Indonesian Volcanic arc as a model, we can now accommodate the general tectonic configuration and much of the emergence of the new model, while accounting for the marine fossil record, the molecular evidence of rapid recent speciation, and the delayed Great American Biotic Interchange that the New Model fails to explain.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2013

Whole-body concentrations of elements in three fish species from offshore oil platforms and natural areas in the Southern California Bight, USA

There is concern that offshore oil platforms off Southern California may be contributing to environmental contaminants accumulated by marine fishes. To examine this possibility, 18 kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus Girard, 1854), 80 kelp rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens Jordan and Gilbert, 1880), and 98 Pacific sanddab (Citharichthys sordidus Girard, 1854) were collected from five offshore oil platforms and 10 natural areas during 2005–2006 for whole-body analysis of 63 elements. Forty-two elements were excluded from statistical comparisons as they (1) consisted of major cations that were unlikely to accumulate to potentially toxic concentrations; (2) were not detected by the analytical procedures; or (3) were detected at concentrations too low to yield reliable quantitative measurements. The remaining 21 elements consisted of aluminum, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, iron, lead, lithium, manganese, mercury, nickel, rubidium, selenium, strontium, tin, titanium, vanadium, and zinc. Statistical comparisons of these elements indicated that none consistently exhibited higher concentrations at oil platforms than at natural areas. However, the concentrations of copper, selenium, titanium, and vanadium in Pacific sanddab were unusual because small individuals exhibited either no differences between oil platforms and natural areas or significantly lower concentrations at oil platforms than at natural areas, whereas large individuals exhibited significantly higher concentrations at oil platforms than at natural areas.

California↗
USGS2017

Identification of Chelonid herpesvirus 5 (ChHV5) in endangered green turtles (Chelonia mydas) with fibropapillomatosis in Asia

Fibropapillomatosis (FP), a debilitating tumor disease of sea turtles, was first identified in green turtles [ Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758)] in Florida in 1938. In recent decades, FP has been observed globally and is an emerging panzootic disease in sea turtles. However, few reports of FP in Asia exist. Here, we provide the first evidence of Chelonid herpesvirus 5 (ChHV5) DNA associated with FP in endangered green turtles from Taiwan, through molecular characterization, phylogenetic analysis, and histopathological examination. In our study, ChHV5 was successfully detected by PCR in the FP tumor lesions of green turtles. The sequences were found to be consistent with those of tumor-inducing viruses shown to affect sea turtles in the other parts of the world. ChHV5 RNA from the FP tissues was further detected by RT-PCR, indicating active replication of the viruses inside FP tumors. In addition to the molecular evidence of ChHV5 in FP, epidermal intranuclear inclusions were identified in tumor lesions upon histopathological examination. This further suggests that ChHV5 should be in a transcriptionally active (i.e., non-latent) state in FP tumors of affected green turtles. The phylogenetic tree revealed that ChHV5 from the green turtles in Taiwan were closest to the ChHV5 from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Sao Tome. For conservation of endangered sea turtles, ChHV5 should be considered an emerging virus, which threatens sea turtles in marine waters in Asia.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2019

Estimating the value of mangrove leaf litter in sesarmid crab diets: The importance of fractionation factors

Sesarmid crabs play an important role in organic matter and carbon cycling of mangrove forests. Visual observations and gut content studies have verified that sesarmid crabs are feeding on mangrove leaves, yet stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen ( 13 C and 15 N) have indicated that leaf litter is not assimilated as a food source. Sesarmid crabs tend to be much more enriched in 13 C than leaf litter (0.9‰ – 11.6‰) and have C values that are often more like microphytobenthos (MPB). General 13 C trophic enrichment factors (TEF; 0.1‰ – 0.5‰) suggest crabs feed more heavily on MPB. Field and laboratory-based evidence reveal that general 13 C TEF for crabs feeding on mangrove leaves may be incorrect and much greater than 0.1‰ – 0.5‰. A food web study conducted annually over 2 yrs revealed a shift in the δ 13 C and δ 15 N of Parasesarma sp. crabs similar to mangrove leaves also sampled. This suggested Parasesarma sp. may be feeding more heavily on mangrove leaves than previously reported despite crabs being 4.4‰ – 11.6‰ more enriched in 13 C than mangrove leaves. A laboratory feeding study confirmed that average 13 C TEF between Parasesarma sp. and decayed Rhizophora sp. leaves was 3.3‰ (SE 0.5). The Stable Isotope Analysis in R package (SIAR) used with our TEF and the general 0.5‰ 13 C TEF revealed that published TEFs may underestimate mangrove leaf contributions to sesarmid crab diets on average by 33.3% (SE 0.1) and overestimate MPB and epiphytic algal contributions by 31.3% (SE 0.1). Food web studies in mangroves and other ecosystems will continue to inaccurately identify important food resources or food web structures unless more accurate and species-specific isotope fractionation values are determined.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS2022

Using mollusks as indicators of restoration in nearshore zones of south Florida's estuaries

Current south Florida ecosystem restoration efforts are focused on restoring more natural freshwater flow through the wetlands and into the estuaries to reestablish natural salinity gradients, particularly in the nearshore zones. Indicator taxa are used to monitor and assess restoration progress and the current suite of biota used for the estuaries in south Florida (Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, and the southwest mangrove riverine system) does not include mollusks. Mollusks make excellent indicators because they are found in all south Florida environments, are relatively stationary in postlarval stages, and, therefore, do not leave a site when conditions change. Their hard shells increase the likelihood of preservation after death, thus, making it possible to assess death assemblages. In addition to these features, many mollusks can be quickly sampled in the field and assessed in the lab, so poor visibility and tidal cycles are not an issue for monitoring surveys. Here we examine 27 years of molluscan data from 887 samples from 640 visits to 167 sites in south Florida's estuaries and present a suite of taxa that could be used as indicators for restoration of the oligohaline to mesohaline (0.5 to 17.9 psu) nearshore zones. Cyrenoida floridana , Hydrobiidae, Polymesoda caroliniana , Crassostrea virginica , and additional taxa are included with suggested sampling strategies.

Florida↗
USGS2023

Fish community characterization of mid-shelf and shelf-edge mesophotic coral ecosystems in the expanded Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

The mid to outer continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico is composed of a patchy distribution of coral and rock reefs designated high priority for marine protection. To better understand the influence of deepwater habitat on fish community dynamics and conservation needs, we compared altiphotic-mesophotic transition (20– 40 m), upper mesophotic (40–60 m), and middle mesophotic (60–80 m) fish communities between mid-shelf (Sonnier Bank) and outer-shelf (McGrail Bank) banks from before their inclusion into the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Surveys performed over two years with a remotely operated vehicle indicated that each bank and depth zone had distinct fish communities. Both banks were dominated by planktivores and piscivores, with an increase in depth specialists (e.g., deepwater anthiids and serranids) at the deeper zones surveyed, particularly in middle mesophotic depths at McGrail. An increased frequency of snappers, groupers, and amberjack was observed at Sonnier Bank, predominately in mesophotic depths, indicating the Sonnier Mesophotic Coral Ecosystem as either a hotspot or potential refuge for meso- and apex predators. This study fills a temporal gap in fish community dynamics of these two banks, serving to create a more continuous dataset available to assist in conservation assessments of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

Texas↗
USGS1992

Survey of non-charter boat recreational fishing in the U.S. Virgin Islands

A telephone survey was conducted by the U.S. Virgin Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife from July- September 1986 to evaluate the efficacy of telephone surveys as a sampling technique for obtaining reliable fisheries data, and to collect fisheries data for the recreational non-charter boat fishery around the Virgin Islands. Results suggest that telephone surveys by themselves may provide biased data on recreational fishing in the Virgin Islands. Additional methods, such as mail surveys and limited creel surveys could be used to supplement the fisheries data gathered through telephone surveys. The results of this survey indicate that during the mid 1980s 10.8% of the residents of the Virgin Islands ( similar to 10,800) fished recreationally (i.e., non-charter boat anglers). These anglers made modest demands of the resources (effort: 19,200 manhours/yr;

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS1989

Movements of striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, tagged in Everglades National Park, Florida

The movements of striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, were studied from fish tagged in Everglades National Park. Florida. A total of 16,604 fish were tagged from March 1984 to September 1985. During the period December 1984 through February 1985 recaptured tagged fish moved significantly further and more northerly out of the Park's waters than they did the rest of the year. Tags were returned from 2.8% of the fish tagged along the west coast and from 0.3% of the fish tagged in Florida Bay and west coast mullet form a series of spatially overlapping stocks.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗
USGS1996

New records of fishes at Isla del Coco, Costa Rica

Isla del Coco lies at 5 degrees 32'N latitude, 87 degrees 04'W longitude and is the sole peak of the Cocos Ridge exposed above sea level. This isolated island formed approximately 2 million years ago. It rises 575 m above the surface of the sea and covers 46 km2 (Castillo et aI., 1988). Five hundred km to the NNE is Costa Rica; 630 km SSW are the Galapagos Islands; 650 km to the E is Isla Malpelo, Colombia; and approximately 8,000 km W lie the Line Islands. Costa Rica claimed Isla del Coco in 1832 and declared it a National Park in 1978. The area of the park was increased to include the adjacent waters 5 km offshore in 1984 and 25 km offshore in 1991.

Bulletin of Marine Science↗