Cnidarians, such as corals and sea anemones serve as hosts to a variety of organisms including symbiotic dinoflagellates, bacteria, virus, and apicomplexans. As corals are vital to the health and productivity of the reef ecosystem it is important to understand how these organisms interact with each component of the holobiont....
Commercial whaling during the 20th century drastically reduced many populations of great whales in the Southern Hemisphere. The Antarctic blue whale, for example, is estimated to have been reduced to less than 0.1% of its original abundance based on catch records and population dynamic models. Despite this population bottleneck, several...
Twentieth century commercial whaling drastically reduced the abundance of great whale populations in the Southern Ocean. Exploitation began on the south Atlantic island of South Georgia, where catch records account for over 175,000 whales killed. Modern whaling within the Southern Ocean depleted populations rapidly, and by 1966, hunting blue whales...
The symbiosis between cnidarians, such as corals and sea anemones, and photosynthetic dinoflagellates belonging to the genus Symbiodinium spp. is one of the most productive in the marine environment. This mutualistic endosymbiosis allow reef-building corals to lay down the foundation of coral reef ecosystems, which supports a highly biodiverse community...
Corals form the foundation for coral reef ecosystems and contain symbiotic dinoflagellates which greatly contribute to reef primary productivity. Loss of dinoflagellates from animal (host) cells results in cnidarian bleaching which leads to decreased coral fitness, and reef deterioration. Elevated temperature, caused by global warming, is the primary environmental stressor...
With changing climate conditions and human impacts on ecosystems becoming a
big focus of study, it has become even more crucial to understand how our ecosystems
work. Community structure within rocky intertidal habitats is governed by a mix of
environmental conditions and species interactions. This project examined the effects of...
Cnidarians and their symbiotic dinoflagellates form a productive mutualism that shapes marine environments. In this symbiosis, dinoflagellate species from the family Symbiodiniacea reside within cnidarian host gastrodermal cells and provide the host with photosynthetically fixed carbon in exchange for host metabolites. This nutritional exchange allows both partners to thrive in...
The endangered Hawaiian common gallinule (Gallinula chloropus sandvicensis) is an endemic Hawaiian waterbird that occurs only on O‘ahu and Kaua‘i. Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) supports the largest population of Hawaiian gallinule on either island and is also one of the highest producers of commercially grown taro in the state....
The influence of the physical environment on organisms has long been a subject of ecological research. But, the complex drivers of environmental variation, and the multiple scales at which this can occur, make studying this topic a difficult challenge. In rocky intertidal habitats, oceanographic- and climate-scale variability influence benthic communities...
Relations between the diversity of juvenile anadromous salmonids and pool features
were examined in a managed and a pristine watershed in Oregon during the summer of
1990. There were no differences (p>0.05) in pool depth, velocity or pool wood volumes
between streams. However, the pristine system had twice the number...