PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT SITE, AND THE CONTENT DOES NOT REFLECT THE MOST CURRENT INFORMATION.
Reef-building corals inhabiting the mesophotic zone (30-150 m) not only survive but thrive in light-limiting environments. Similar to shallow corals, mesophotic corals also exhibit coral fluorescence. Because fluorescent proteins (FPs) absorb high-energy light and emit lower-energy light, FPs could play an important role in mesophotic coral physiology and ecology. For 4 species of the Hawaiian … Read more
A caveat in the concluding section of our paper states that it would be impossible to provide a comprehensive sample of synthesis case studies that reflects all the major research areas in estuarine and coastal science. In retrospect, however, we realize that the paper generally ignores two key fields of study, which are particularly active … Read more
The incidence and intensity of hypoxic waters in coastal aquatic ecosystems has been expanding in recent decades coincident with eutrophication of the coastal zone. Worldwide, there is strong interest in reducing the size and duration of hypoxia in coastal waters, because hypoxia causes negative effects for many organisms and ecosystem processes. Although strategies to reduce … Read more
A long-term abundance record of the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa in the Maryland portion of Chesapeake Bay was compiled from 1966 to 2002. A significant downward trend in the summertime abundance of Acartia tonsa was found in central Chesapeake Bay. We propose that environmental and food web changes occurred as the Chesapeake Bay became increasingly … Read more
Efforts to assess the ecological impacts of the marked increase in coastal hypoxia worldwide have been hampered by a lack of biomarkers of hypoxia exposure in marine benthic organisms. Here, we show that hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) transcript levels in the heart and cerebral ganglion of mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) collected from hypoxic sites in Tokyo … Read more
There is an urgent need to develop reliable biomarkers of environmental hypoxia exposure in marine organisms in order to assess the ecological impacts of the marked increase in coastal hypoxia worldwide. Full-length hypoxia-inducible factor HIF-1α and HIF-2α cDNAs were cloned and characterized from dragonet Callionymus valenciennei, a representative epibenthic teleost inhabiting hypoxic areas in Tokyo Bay, … Read more
In Palau and everywhere in the world, coastal coral reefs are threatened by sedimentation resulting from land clearing in the watersheds. Palau’s largest island of Babeldaob is particularly susceptible to significant erosion due to its steep topography, high rainfall, and highly erodible volcanic soil. Previous studies have shown the damaging impacts of sedimentation on coral … Read more
The continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico receives high dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus loads from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. The nutrient load results in high primary production in the river plumes and contributes to the development of hypoxia on the Louisiana shelf in summer. While phytoplankton growth is considered to be … Read more
We examined the processes influencing summer hypoxia in the mainstem portion of Chesapeake Bay. The analysis was based on the Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Program data collected between 1985 and 2007. Self-organizing map (SOM) analysis indicates that bottom water dissolved oxygen (DO) starts to be depleted in the upper mesohaline area during late spring, and hypoxia … Read more
This paper provides a summary of the state of knowledge regarding behavioral impacts of domoic acid exposure on fish. Initial studies by authors of this paper suggested that fish are behaviorally impacted by domoic acid in the same way that birds and mammals are impacted during toxic Pseudo-nitzschia blooms. However, subsequent research and field observations … Read more