By Patricia Albano, SRC intern Environmental disturbances such as natural disasters, anthropogenic effects, and weather pattern changes have a significant impact on ecosystems. Following such disturbances, communities must adapt and rebuild through succession where they evolve to respond to changes. In this study, researchers Christopher Doropoulous, George Roff, Mart-Simone Visser, and Peter Mumby of the […]
By Kevin Reagan, SRC intern In the countries and territories of the Pacific Islands, the people depend very heavily on fish for food. In Pacific Island countries and territories (PICT’s), 50-90% of the dietary animal protein in coastal communities comes from fish. This is based mostly on small-scale subsistence and commercial fishing for fish mainly […]
By Shannon Moorhead, SRC Masters Student If you’ve ever gone diving on a tropical coral reef, you may have noticed some of the fish seemed to be behaving rather strangely: a solitary fish hovering just above the reef while smaller fish pick at its skin and mouth. While this may appear bizarre compared to the […]
By Brenna Bales, SRC intern Historically, bait fisheries around the world have been perceived as low-value, and their often limited, local extent makes large-scale management and conservation policy difficult to implement. Watson et. al 2016 explored three ragworm fisheries in the United Kingdom to investigate these claims, based on both evidence gathered scientifically and from […]
By SRC intern, Andriana Fragola The goby A. japonica and shrimp A. bellulus symbiosis are a perfect example of a mutualistic relationship between two marine animals. The goby lives in the shrimp’s burrow, which lends it shelter, and the goby warns the shrimp if there is a predatory threat nearby (Kohda et al. 2017). It […]
By SRC intern, Molly Rickles In this study, Frans and Auge looked at baleen whale population in the Falkland Islands in the post-whaling era. Due to whaling in the early 1900s, whale populations here have decreased dramatically, but recent observations suggest that their numbers are currently increasing. However, there is a lack of population data, […]
By Nicolas Lubitz, SRC intern Invertebrates, animals without a backbone, are the oldest form of animals that exist on our planet. The first fossils of invertebrates date back to 665 million years ago, and are sponges. Since then, they have diversified into a spectacular array of organisms, both marine and terrestrial. From insects, to squids and […]
By Dave Lestino, SRC intern Telomeres are located at the ends of each DNA strand. They can be thought of as the plastic tips of shoelaces, and protect the chromosome from deterioration. Although telomeres can’t measure exact chronological age, they can be used to measure individual quality. Use of telomere length, as a quality marker, […]
By Nicole Suren, SRC intern Oysters are not only a preferred dish of much of the human population, but they are also very important parts of the ecosystems they inhabit. As ecosystem engineers, or organisms that significantly modify their habitat, they do not just participate in the habitat they settle in but improve it by […]
It’s been a great year for our team! Here are some of our accomplishments from 2016: 1. We published 15 research papers in scientific journals on a variety of topics 2. Two of our research papers were featured on journal covers, one in Diversity and Distributions that evaluated the effectiveness of marine protected areas for migratory sharks and […]