Download or read book Characterization of Fish Communities and Associated Benthic Habitats in the St Thomas East End Reserves STEER written by Laurie J. Bauer and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located at the southeastern end of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER) is a collection of several existing protected areas, including Cas Cay/Mangrove Lagoon, St. James, and Compass Point Salt Pond Marine Reserves and Wildlife Sanctuaries (MRWS). The marine areas of the STEER include a diverse array of habitats, including coral reefs, lagoons, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests, which support numerous fish and shellfish species. In addition, STEER is an important recreational and commercial resource for the island of St. Thomas. The adjacent watershed is considered highly impacted and urbanized, with numerous sources of point and non-point pollution, leading to concerns about potential contamination and its effects on the marine resources. To fill knowledge gaps and inform management of the STEER, several complimentary projects were developed in coordination with STEER's Core Management Team, including an assessment of biological communities and chemical contamination within the STEER.
Download or read book An Assessment of Chemical Contaminants Toxicity and Benthic Infauna in Sediments from the St Thomas East End Reserves STEER written by Anthony S. Pait and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report contains a chemical and biological characterization of sediments from the St. Thomas East End Reserves (STEER) in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). The STEER Management Plan (published in 2011) identified chemical contaminants and habitat loss as high or very high threats and called for a characterization of chemical contaminants as well as an assessment of their effects on natural resources. The baseline information contained in this report on chemical contaminants, toxicity and benthic infaunal community composition can be used to assess current conditions, as well as the efficacy of future restoration activities.
Download or read book Biogeographic Characterization of Fish Communities and Associated Benthic Habitats Within the Flower Garden Banks NOAA Technical Memorandum NCCOS 81 June 2009 written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Assessment of Chemical Contaminants Toxicity and Benthic Infauna in Sediments from the St Thomas East End Reserves STEER written by Anthony S. Pait and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Benthic Habitat Mapping and Assessment in the Wilmington East Wind Energy Call Area written by Christopher J. Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is responsible for oversight and management of the development of energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). In 2012, BOEM identified three Wind Energy Call Areas and later defined Wind Energy Areas on the OCS of North Carolina. Presently, sufficient uncertainty exists regarding cumulative impacts to ecosystem services such as essential fish habitat and maritime cultural resources as a result of the construction or operation of offshore energy facilities to merit preliminary studies. From rocky outcrops to shipwrecks, hardbottom habitats serve as essential fish habitat for reef fisheries off of North Carolina and along the southeast OCS. This project accomplished the primary objective of describing and delineating rocky outcrops, within the Wilmington-East Call Area. The delineation of rocky outcrops and artificial hardbottom habitats guided an intensive diver visual assessment characterizing the benthic and fish communities, the seasonal changes in communities, and influences of sand and sediment movement around hardbottom habitats. This report is the result of a collaborative effort between the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences and NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management"--Executive summary. [doi:10.7289/V5VM499B (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5VM499B)]
Download or read book Marine Hard Bottom Communities written by Martin Wahl and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-06-22 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marine hard bottoms feature some of the most spectacular and diverse biological communities on this planet. These not only contain a rich treasure of genetic, taxonomic and functional information but also deliver irreplaceable ecosystem services. At the same time, they are highly vulnerable and increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pressures. This volume has collected contributions by 50 scientists from numerous biogeographic regions, dealing with characteristics of hard bottom communities. Distributional patterns in space and time are described, followed by analyses of the intrinsic and extrinsic dynamics producing these patterns. A strong emphasis is placed on the ongoing changes occurring in the structure and diversity of these communities in response to spiralling environmental impacts, and on state-of-the-art countermeasures aiming to preserve these ecological treasures. Finally, various values of diversity are assessed, hopefully as an incentive for enhanced conservation efforts.
Download or read book Benthic Habitat Maps for the Insular Shelf South of St Thomas and St John written by Bryan M. Costa and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The insular shelf south of St. Thomas and St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is an expansive geomorphologic feature with extensive mesophotic coral reefs occurring at 30 to 150 meter depths. These mesophotic reefs are part of a broader coral reef community in the U.S. Caribbean that provide a wide range of ecosystem goods and services estimated to provide $187 million per year (in 2007 US dollars) to local communities. While these reefs provide great economic value to local communities, they are increasingly under threat from multiple human-caused stressors, making it critical for the USVI and Puerto Rico jurisdictions to find ways to preserve and sustainably manage them. Ideally, the first step in any marine management process is to comprehensively map and inventory the location of coral reef resources. The habitat map products provided in this report represent the first complete habitat map for the insular shelf south of St. Thomas and St. John. These products also represent the culmination of an extensive seafloor mapping campaign conducted by NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) in collaboration with regional partners"--Executive Summary. [doi:10.7289/V5/TM-NOS-NCCOS-241 (https://doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-NOS-NCCOS-241)]
Download or read book Advances in the Studies of the Benthic Zone written by Luis Soto and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-06-10 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an unpretentious editing venture to fill the gap in our current knowledge on the ecological implications caused by anthropogenic disturbances upon benthic communities in several regions of the world, including the Western Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, as well as the pristine environments of the Andes in South America. The common goal of the contributing authors in this book was to unravel the complex processes that make possible the life existence of bottom-living animals in different environmental scenarios. To achieve such a goal, the authors focus their attention on the emerging issues inherent to global climate change or the pollution of aquatic systems. These are all themes that might be of interest to scientists active in a wide range of oceanographic subdisciplines. Well-established researchers would appreciate the innovative approach adopted in each chapter of the book, which extends from the ecosystem level to refined molecular interpretations.
Download or read book Identification and Characterization of Arctic Nearshore Benthic Habitats written by D. H. Thomson and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the present study, regional variation in benthic and intertidal biota ofthe central and eastern Canadian Arctic is analyzed. Benthic communities areidentified and the roles of depth, substrate, exposure, food supply andpredation in structuring these communities are identified.
Download or read book Haverstraw Bay Benthic Habitat Characterization written by Robert M. Cerrato and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The principal objective of this study was to collect and analyze sediment and faunal ground truth samples in Haverstraw Bay.
Download or read book Benthic Habitat Characterization Within the Nearshore of Mobjack Bay Virginia written by Donna Marie Bilkovic and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Seascape Ecology written by Simon J. Pittman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seascape Ecology provides a comprehensive look at the state-of-the-science in the application of landscape ecology to the seas and provides guidance for future research priorities. The first book devoted exclusively to this rapidly emerging and increasingly important discipline, it is comprised of contributions from researchers at the forefront of seascape ecology working around the world. It presents the principles, concepts, methodology, and techniques informing seascape ecology and reports on the latest developments in the application of the approach to marine ecology and management. A growing number of marine scientists, geographers, and marine managers are asking questions about the marine environment that are best addressed with a landscape ecology perspective. Seascape Ecology represents the first serious effort to fill the gap in the literature on the subject. Key topics and features of interest include: The origins and history of seascape ecology and various approaches to spatial patterning in the sea The links between seascape patterns and ecological processes, with special attention paid to the roles played by seagrasses and salt marshes and animal movements through seascapes Human influences on seascape ecology—includes models for assessing human-seascape interactions A special epilogue in which three eminent scientists who have been instrumental in shaping the course of landscape ecology offer their insights and perspectives Seascape Ecology is a must-read for researchers and professionals in an array of disciplines, including marine biology, environmental science, geosciences, marine and coastal management, and environmental protection. It is also an excellent supplementary text for university courses in those fields.
Download or read book Benthic Habitats and the Effects of Fishing written by Peter W. Barnes and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 890 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Characterization of Anthropogenic and Natural Disturbance on Vegetated and Unvegetated Bay Bottom Habitats in the Corpus Christi Bay National Estuary Program Study Area written by Paul A. Montagna and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Benthic Community and Habitat Analysis Towards an Application in Marine Management written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Benthic Habitats Fish Assemblages and Resource Protection in Caribbean Marine Sanctuaries written by Christopher Francis Gabriel Jeffrey and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mapping Benthic Habitats for Representation in Marine Protected Areas written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Virtually all marine conservation planning and management models in place or proposed have in common the need for improved scientific rigour in identifying and characterising the marine habitats encompassed. An emerging central theme in the last few years has been the concept of representativeness, or representative systems of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The habitat classification and mapping needed to incorporate considerations of representativeness into MPA planning must logically be carried out at the same scale at which management occurs. Management of highly protected areas occurs almost exclusively at local scales or finer, independent of the reservation model or philosophy employed. -- Moreton Bay, on Australia's east coast, was selected for studies at the local scale to map and classify macrobenthic habitats. In a site scale (1 km) trial for the major habitat classification study, remote underwater videography was used to map and characterise an unusual assemblage of epibenthic invertebrates on soft sediments. The assemblage included congregations of the comatulid crinoid Zygometra cf. Z. microdiscus (Bell) at densities up to 0.88 individuals.m-2, comparable to those found in coral reef habitats. There was no correlation between the distribution of this species and commonly used abiotic surrogates depth (6 - 18 m), sediment composition and residual current. This site scale trial is the first quantitative assessment of crinoid density and distribution in shallow water soft-sediment environments. The high densities found are significant in terms of the generally accepted picture of shallow-water crinoids as essentially reefal fauna. The findings highlight the conservation benefits of an inclusive approach to marine habitat survey and mapping. Assemblages such as the one described, although they may be of scientific and ecological significance, would have been overlooked by common approaches to marine conservation planning which emphasise highly productive or aesthetically appealing habitats. -- Most habitat mapping studies rely solely or in part on abiotic surrogates for patterns of biodiversity. The utility of abiotic variables in predicting biological distributions at the local scale (10 km) was tested. Habitat classifications of the same set of 41 sites based on 6 abiotic variables and abundances of 89 taxa and bioturbation indicators were compared using correlation, regression and ordination analyses. The concepts of false homogeneity and false heterogeneity were defined to describe types of errors associated with using abiotic surrogates to construct habitat maps. The best prediction by abiotic surrogates explained less than 30% of the pattern of biological similarity. Errors of false homogeneity were between 20 and 62%, depending on the methods of estimation. Predictive capability of abiotic surrogates at the taxon level was poor, with only 6% of taxon / surrogate correlations significant. These results have implications for the widespread use of abiotic surrogates in marine habitat mapping to plan for, or assess, representation in Marine Protected Areas. Abiotic factors did not discriminate sufficiently between different soft bottom communities to be a reliable basis for mapping. -- Habitat mapping for the design of Marine Protected Areas is critically affected by the scale of the source information. The relationship between biological similarity of macrobenthos and the distance between sites was investigated at both site and local scales, and for separate biotic groups. There was a significant negative correlation between similarity and distance, in that sites further apart were less similar than sites close together. The relationship, although significant, was quite weak at the site scale. Rank correlograms showed that similarity was high at scales of 10 km or less, and declined markedly with increasing distance. There was evidence of patchiness in the distributions of some biotic groups, especially seagrass and anthozoans, at scales less than 16 km. In other biotic groups there was an essentially monotonic decline in similarity with distance. The spatial agglomeration approach to habitat mapping was valid in the study area. Site spacing of less than 10 km was necessary to capture important components of biological similarity. Site spacing of less than 2.5 km did not appear to be warranted. -- Macrobenthic habitat types were classified and mapped at 78 sites spaced 5 km apart. The area mapped was about 2,400 km2 and extended from estuarine shallow subtidal waters to offshore areas to the 50 m isobath. Nine habitat types were recognised, with only one on hard substrate. The habitat mapping characterised several habitat types not previously described in the area and located deepwater algal and soft coral reefs not previously reported. Seagrass beds were encountered in several locations where their occurrence was either unknown or had not previously been quantified. The representation of the derived habitat types within an existing marine protected area was assessed. Only two habitat types were represented in highly protected zones, with less than 3% of each included The study represents the most spatially comprehensive survey of epibenthos undertaken in Moreton Bay, with over 40,000 m2 surveyed. Derived habitat maps provide a robust basis for inclusion of representative examples of all habitat types in marine protected area planning in and adjacent to Moreton Bay. The utility of video data to conduct a low-cost habitat survey over a comparatively large area was also demonstrated. The method used has potentially wide application for the survey and design of marine protected areas.
