Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia have all developed nutrient trading programs to defray the cost of achieving mandated nitrogen load reductions in Chesapeake Bay, and there is increasing interest in the role oysters can play in generating credits. A number of bioeconomic models highlight the impact these credits have...
Population dynamics of coral reef fishes and spiny lobster appear to be determined by variable recruitment interacting with post-settlement processes, particularly predation. The risk of predation may be modified by the scaling between prey and shelter size, which enhances the protective capacity of a reef. We experimentally tested these predictions...
The main focus of this work is on the problem of existence of nonlinear optimal controllers
realizable by artificial neural networks. Theoretical justification, currently
available for control applications of neural networks, is rather limited. For example,
it is unclear which neural architectures are capable of performing which control
tasks. This...
The commercial Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) fishery is Oregon’s largest trap-based fishery. Each year, crab vessels discard millions of pounds of bait, including squid, razor clams, and sardines, into the near-coastal ocean. Although the fishery season typically runs from December 1st through August 14th, most landings occur within the first...
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) species, such as seagrasses, are highly valued in estuaries because of the many economic, ecological, and cultural services that they provide, including shelter for fisheries, minimizing water turbidity, and improving am-bient water quality. SAV can also alter its physical environment by attenuating wave and current velocities,...
Benefits humans rely on from the ocean - marine ecosystem services - are increasingly vulnerable under future climate. This paper reviews how three valued services have, and will continue to, shift under climate change: (1) capture fisheries, (2) food from aquaculture, and (3) protection from coastal hazards such as storms...
In marine ecosystems, rising atmospheric CO2 and climate change are associated with concurrent shifts in temperature, circulation, stratification, nutrient input, oxygen content, and ocean acidification, with potentially wideranging biological effects. Population-level shifts are occurring because of physiological intolerance to new environments, altered dispersal patterns, and changes in species interactions. Together...
As a key historic component of prairies in the Pacific Northwest, Camassia spp. should play a role in the restoration of these ecosystems. To do so effectively, further study of Camassia spp. propagation is warranted. Thus, the growth, N uptake and allocation, and seasonal thermoperiodicity of Camassia spp. was examined....
Two native shrub species (Piliostigma reticulatum and Guiera senegalensis) are prominent vegetation components in farmers’ fields in Senegal. However, their role in nutrient cycling and ecosystem function has largely been overlooked. A study including both laboratory and field experiments was conducted to evaluate potential biophysical interactions of the two shrub...