Island Bay Research Articles

Coupled Wave Energy and Erosion Dynamics along a Salt Marsh Boundary, Hog Island Bay, Virginia, USA

The relationship between lateral erosion of salt marshes and wind waves is studied in Hog Island Bay, Virginia USA, with high-resolution field measurements and aerial photographs. Marsh retreat is compared to wave climate calculated in the bay using the spectral wave-model Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN). We confirm the existence of a linear relationship between long-term salt marsh erosion and wave energy, and show that wave power can serve as a good proxy for average salt-marsh erosion rates. At each site, erosion rates are consistent across several temporal scales, ranging from months to decades, and are strongly related to wave power. On the contrary, erosion rates vary in space and weakly depend on the spatial distribution of wave energy. We ascribe this variability to spatial variations in geotechnical, biological, and morphological marsh attributes. Our detailed field measurements indicate that at a small spatial scale (tens of meters), a positive feedback between salt marsh geometry and wave action causes erosion rates to increase with boundary sinuosity. However, at the scale of the entire marsh boundary (hundreds of meters), this relationship is reversed: those sites that are more rapidly eroding have a marsh boundary which is significantly smoother than the marsh boundary of sheltered and slowly eroding marshes.

Chapter 4. The places of Franz Josef Land: current visits and imagery

Recent tourist cruises of Franz Josef Land have offered the chance to search for the remains of historic expeditions to the islands, as well as expeditions that used the islands as a base from which to try to reach the geographic North Pole. Expedition leader Andreas Umbreit discusses his recent such finds at both Greely Island and Teplitz Bay on Rudolf Island, as well as several other sites.

Glider observations of the Dotson Ice Shelf outflow

The Amundsen Sea is one of the most productive polynyas in the Antarctic per unit area and is undergoing rapid changes including a reduction in sea ice duration, thinning ice sheets, retreat of glaciers and the potential collapse of the Thwaites Glacier in Pine Island Bay. A growing body of research has indicated that these changes are altering the water mass properties and associated biogeochemistry within the polynya. Unfortunately difficulties in accessing the remote location have greatly limited the amount of in situ data that has been collected. In this study data from a Teledyne-Webb Slocum glider was used to supplement ship-based sampling along the Dotson Ice Shelf (DIS). This autonomous underwater vehicle revealed a detailed view of a meltwater laden outflow from below the western flank of the DIS. Circumpolar Deep Water intruding onto the shelf drives glacial melt and the supply of macronutrients that, along with ample light, supports the large phytoplankton blooms in the Amundsen Sea Polynya. Less well understood is the source of micronutrients, such as iron, necessary to support this bloom to the central polynya where chlorophyll concentrations are highest. This outflow region showed decreasing optical backscatter with proximity to the bed indicating that particulate matter was sourced from the overlying glacier rather than resuspended sediment. This result suggests that particulate iron, and potentially phytoplankton primary productivity, is intrinsically linked to the magnitude and duration of sub-glacial melt from Circumpolar Deep Water intrusions onto the shelf.

Sargassum accumulation may spell trouble for nesting sea turtles

Sargassum accumulation may spell trouble for nesting sea turtles

Temporal patterns of Pederson shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni Chace 1958) cleaning interactions on Caribbean coral reefs

Dozens of marine species have been identified as “cleaners” and many of these co-occur and have considerable overlap in clientele. Understanding the temporal patterns and processes of these cleaning symbioses can provide insight into differential service provision between cleaner species and the ultimate and proximate causes structuring these interactions. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the ecology and behavior of cleaner fish, yet little basic ecological and behavioral data exist for cleaner shrimp. We deployed remote underwater video cameras on coral reefs in the Bay Islands, Honduras, to explore temporal variation of cleaning interactions at Pederson shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni) stations. We recorded more than 650 individual cleaning interactions in over 190 h of video. We find no significant temporal variation in cleaning station usage patterns across 17 families of reef fish. Our findings are in contrast to previously published data for interactions of Caribbean cleaner gobies, which co-occur at the sites we studied and overlap significantly in client pool with A. pedersoni but which are most active at dawn. These data suggest that the services provided by cleaner shrimp and cleaner gobies, rather than client identity, independently structure these interactions and drive the discordance in usage patterns between cleaner type. We propose two non-exclusive hypotheses to explain the differences in the temporal patterns of activity between cleaner gobies and A. pedersoni: (1) the proximate causes driving fish visitation rate (e.g., parasite removal or tactile stimulation) to goby and shrimp stations differ, and (2) each cleaner type targets different ectoparasites that differ temporally in their diel infestation rate on reef fish. Our study provides an important rationale for pursuing these questions and broadens our understanding of cleaning services on Caribbean coral reefs.

The Italian family, motherhood and Italianness in New Zealand. The case of the Italian community of Wellington

Synopsis Recent studies of the Italian diaspora have examined the role of migrant families in constructing Italian identities. The mother's role is normally that of reproducing and guarding Italian morality. Different scenarios are also possible, with mothers often questioning, resisting or revising the models imported from the homeland. Based on fifty interviews with members of the Italian community of Island Bay, Wellington, the article looks at how the Italian maternal archetype and the extended family have been translated to New Zealand. It focuses on themes which underscore the links between mothering practices and Italianness: food, family, women's work, gender roles, raising sons and daughters, living-at-home children and intergenerational relations. These aspects are examined against ideals, ideologies, practices and policies current in Italy and New Zealand, to assess areas of departure from the Italian models, the influence of the host country and the impact of change on the community's sense of Italianness.

Changes in coral reef communities across a natural gradient in seawater pH.

Ocean acidification threatens the survival of coral reef ecosystems worldwide. The negative effects of ocean acidification observed in many laboratory experiments have been seen in studies of naturally low-pH reefs, with little evidence to date for adaptation. Recently, we reported initial data suggesting that low-pH coral communities of the Palau Rock Islands appear healthy despite the extreme conditions in which they live. Here, we build on that observation with a comprehensive statistical analysis of benthic communities across Palau's natural acidification gradient. Our analysis revealed a shift in coral community composition but no impact of acidification on coral richness, coralline algae abundance, macroalgae cover, coral calcification, or skeletal density. However, coral bioerosion increased 11-fold as pH decreased from the barrier reefs to the Rock Island bays. Indeed, a comparison of the naturally low-pH coral reef systems studied so far revealed increased bioerosion to be the only consistent feature among them, as responses varied across other indices of ecosystem health. Our results imply that whereas community responses may vary, escalation of coral reef bioerosion and acceleration of a shift from net accreting to net eroding reef structures will likely be a global signature of ocean acidification.

Owstonia kamoharai (Perciformes: Cepolidae), a new bandfish from Japan

A new owstoniine bandfish, Owstonia kamoharai, is described based on six specimens (147–402 mm in standard length) collected from off southern Japan: Shikoku Island, Kii Peninsula, and Suruga Bay. The new species differs from its congeners by the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin rays III, 21; anal-fin rays I, 14; pectoral-fin rays 21–23; total caudal-fin rays 17 (branched 13); vertebrae 28–29; gill rakers on first arch 39–40; cheek with 88–123 scales in 8–10 rows; lateral line without branch, not forming loop in front of dorsal fin, ending below 8th–10th dorsal-fin soft rays; scales in longitudinal rows 53–56; lower margin of preopercle smooth; pelvic fin short, not reaching to anus; posterior margin of caudal fin rounded; uniformly reddish coloration with black markings on membranes of both jaws; and white margins of vertical fins.

Extensive Chaetoceros curvisetus bloom in relation to water quality in Port Blair Bay, Andaman Islands.

Blooming of diatom species Chaetoceros curvisetus (Cleve, 1889) was observed in Junglighat Bay and Haddo Harbour of Port Blair Bay of Andaman and Nicobar Islands during June 2010. Physico-chemical parameters, nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton composition data collected from five stations during 2010 were classified as bloom area (BA) and non-bloom area (NBA) and compared. Elevated values of dissolved oxygen were recorded in the BA, and it significantly varied (p < 0.01) from NBA. Among the nutrient parameters studied, nitrate concentration indicated significant variation in BA and NBA (p < 0.01). Phosphate and ammonia concentrations reduced to below detection level (BDL) in the BA and NBA, indicating its utilization. In Junglighat Bay, the C. curvisetus species constituted 93.4 and 69.2% composition of total phytoplankton population during day 1 and day 2, respectively. The bloom forming stations separated out from the non-bloom forming station in non-parametric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) ordinations; cluster analysis powered by SIMPROF test also grouped the stations as BA and NBA.

Do reef fish habituate to diver presence? Evidence from two reef sites with contrasting historical levels of SCUBA intensity in the Bay Islands, Honduras.

Contact between humans and the marine environment is increasing, but the capacity of communities to adapt to human presence remains largely unknown. The popularization of SCUBA diving has added a new dimension to human impacts in aquatic systems and, although individual-level impacts have been identified, cumulative effects on ecosystem function and community-wide responses are unclear. In principle, habituation may mitigate the consequences of human presence on the biology of an individual and allow the quick resumption of its ecological roles, but this has not been documented in aquatic systems. Here, we investigate the short-term impact of human presence and the long-term habituation potential of reef-fish communities to recreational SCUBA divers by studying symbiotic cleaning interactions on coral reefs with differing levels of historical contact with divers. We show that incidences of human contact result in a smaller decline in ecosystem function and more rapid resumption of baseline services on a reef in Utila, Honduras that has heavy historical levels of SCUBA diver presence, compared to an un-dived reef site in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area (CCMPA). Nonetheless, despite the generally smaller change in ecosystem function and decades of regular contact with divers, cleaning behavior is suppressed by >50% at Utila when divers are present. We hypothesize that community-wide habituation of reef fish is not fully achievable and may be biologically restricted to only partial habituation. Differential responses to human presence impacts the interpretation and execution of behavioral research where SCUBA is the predominant means of data collection, and provides an important rationale for future research investigating the interplay between human presence, ecosystem function, and community structure on coral reefs.

The spatial-temporal variability and stability of Vietnamese reef communities

During expeditions in 2010 and 2013 on the R/V Akademik Oparin the individual coral reefs of Vietnam, whose species compositions and structures of benthic communities were first studied and described in the 1980s, were surveyed. The current state of the coral reefs was studied, significant changes in the abundances of certain hydrobionts were considered, and possible causes of these changes were discussed. It was determined that the general geomorphological zoning of the reefs, species composition, and the structure of the coral communities of the Con Dao, Lý Son (Cu Lao Re), and Thu islands have not changed significantly. However, negative changes have occurred in reefs of the Namsu (Gulf of Thailand) and Hon Mieu (Nha Trang Bay) islands as a result of increasing anthropogenic impacts. In reefs of the Cu Lao Cham and Tho Chau islands, which were almost completely destroyed or badly damaged by powerful typhoons in 2006 and 2009, signs of gradual recovery of the surviving coral and the formation of new coral populations were recorded.

Mortalidad infantil y el acceso al recurso humano de salud. Tres años de revisión; 2009-2011

La disponibilidad de programas orientados a disminuir la mortalidad, sobre todo, por causas prevenibles define vínculos importantes, como la de garantizar la disponibilidad de proveedores. La mortalidad infantil ha ido disminuyendo con diferentes estrategias que los países cimentan con este objetivo. El presente trabajo es una investigación descriptiva retrospectiva que toma los datos del Boletín Epidemiológico de la Secretaría de Salud de Honduras en cuanto a los datos de mortalidad infantil en el período 2009 a 2011 y los datos que se encuentran en el Anuario Estadístico de la Secretaría de Salud de los años en mención para el recurso humano hospitalario y no hospitalario, específicamente médicos, profesionales de enfermería y auxiliares de enfermería. Los resultados señalan que el año con mayor cantidad de muertes infantiles fue el año 2011. Los departamentos con mayores tasas de mortalidad en los tres años, fueron Francisco Morazán, Cortés, Olancho. Las mayores tasas de cobertura del recurso humano para la población en general, se encuentran en los departamentos de Islas de la Bahía, Atlántida y Valle. Los que presentaron menor oportunidad de cobertura para este grupo son: Santa Bárbara y El Paraíso. Para el grupo específico de menores de un año, los departamentos que tienen mayor oferta son: Islas de la Bahía, Gracias a Dios, Francisco Morazán. Los que menos ofertan son: El Paraíso, Santa Bárbara, Olancho e Intibucá. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5377/pdac.v10i0.1739 Revista Población y Desarrollo: Argonautas y Caminantes, Vol. 10, 2014: 71-79

Photo-identification of bottlenose dolphins in the far south of New Zealand indicates a ‘new’, previously unstudied population

Declines in the abundance of bottlenose dolphins in the Bay of Islands and in Doubtful Sound have contributed to the species being classified as Nationally Endangered in New Zealand waters. Updated information on distribution and abundance nationwide is therefore a high priority. This study presents data from the first photo-identification surveys of Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island, conducted to document bottlenose dolphin presence, abundance and residency. Open-population mark-recapture models indicate that 18 (95%CI = 15–20) dolphins regularly use Paterson Inlet. Photo-identification of dolphins from unknown populations during two chance encounters in Otago Harbour and Dusky Sound included 11 individuals previously identified at Stewart Island. These results indicate that dolphins found regularly at Stewart Island are part of a larger, wide ranging southern population with a minimum population abundance of 92 (95%CI = 80–111) individuals.

Reconstructing Heritage and Cultural Identity in Marginalised and Hinterland Communities: Case Studies from Western Newfoundland

This essay examines the issue of missing heritage, cultural identity, and regeneration of two historically marginalised communities in the Humber River Basin region of western Newfoundland, Canada: Woods Island and Crow Gulch. This region was shaped by the implementation of international treaties which restricted settlement until the turn of the twentieth century by Britain, France and the United States. The first case study focuses on a former fishing community in the Bay of Islands, Woods Island, whose prosperity once coincided with the need by large fish producers based in Gloucester, Massachusetts; they relied on the Bay of Islands for a herring bait fishery to conduct their operations, making the location one of the most important sources of supply in the North Atlantic. Issues surrounding treaty rights and access to this region’s resources resulted in international arbitration and The Hague Tribunal of 1910, and set a legal precedent for opening up global access to the world’s oceans. A half-century later, in the face of the forces of ‘modernisation’, Woods Island was resettled under pressure from the Newfoundland government, as part of a larger strategy to transform the island’s society and economy. Its heritage remains however important to former residents and their families in understanding a world now lost. The second case study explores an abandoned underclass community, consisting mostly of residents with French/Aboriginal background who were largely discriminated against because of their ethnicity. While also no longer in existence, Crow Gulch in its iconic role is significant in the wake of a recent major Mi’kmaw resurgence in Western Newfoundland. Together, these studies demonstrate how to conserve tangible and intangible culture of marginalised communities by linking micro-history to macro-history and how to preserve the past for future cultural benefit.

Overview of Aquatic Animal Diseases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Andaman and Nicobar Islands are pristine in nature and blessed with a variety of species diversity in general as well as aquatic resources in specific. The three facets of aquatic environment namely, freshwater, brackishwater and marine resources are not fully tapped to the potential and therefore have further scope for improvement. At present, only freshwater carp farming is being practiced in the Bay Islands while brackishwater aquaculture and mariculture are the identified areas for development. Diseases are the major constraints for the development in aquaculture sector. The present study reviews the work carried out till date on the disease aspects of aquatic animals. Abdominal dropsy from freshwater fishes, pop-eye disease, trematode and cestode infestations from marine fishes, White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) and luminescent vibriosis from crustaceans and necrotic patches, yellow spot disease, pink line syndrome, white line syndrome, white plague, black band disease, tissue lesion, ring line syndrome and abnormal growth from corals have been reported from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is interesting to find that the pathogens like virus, bacteria, fungi and parasites were reported from these aquatic animals in the Island ecosystem. This is in contrast to our perception considering the virgin status of the Island. The scanty information available at present on the aquatic animal diseases itself has listed out all the possible diseases which would serve as a base for further studies in future. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to carry out a systematic study on the aquatic animal diseases of Bay Islands. Early detection of the diseases and rapid response to the identified diseases are critical for the effective management of aquatic animal disease emergencies in the Island ecosystem.

Factors Influencing Daily Growth in Young‐of‐the‐Year Winter Flounder along an Urban Gradient Revealed Using Hierarchical Linear Models

AbstractGrowth during early life history plays a key role in the recruitment dynamics of marine fishes; however, the effects of environmental stressors on growth are often difficult to quantify. In this study, increment widths from sagittal otoliths were used as a proxy for daily growth in 102 young‐of‐the‐year Winter Flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus collected over a 2‐year period from three sites in Long Island, New York. We hypothesized that we would observe different growth patterns among bays due to an environmental gradient driven primarily by contaminant loadings and environmental stressors in our study sites. Hierarchical linear models were utilized to associate individual attributes (ontogeny, condition, and gene expression) to daily growth patterns during each year. As expected, daily growth generally displayed a negative relationship with age and daily average temperature, although the effect of temperature was much more variable. Out of 14 individual attributes, the settlement date, the age at capture, the condition indices Fulton's K and hepatosomatic index, and the expression of genes associated with immune response (pleurocidin), contaminant exposure (cytochrome P5401A), and glucose and glycogen metabolism (glycerol‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase) were observed to significantly and consistently affect growth. The results provide evidence of differential growth based on the date of settlement and condition, and the molecular indicators of stress suggest that growth is also influenced by habitat quality. There were significantly different relationships between individual attributes and growth among bays, but these did not always reflect the proposed environmental gradient. Together, the results suggest that anthropogenic stressors likely play a role in growth and recruitment processes in Long Island bays and indicate that growth is both spatially and temporally dynamic at multiple scales. Furthermore, this study highlights the utility of hierarchical linear models in analyzing complex daily growth data in juvenile fish, which may be applicable to other species.

Growth and Mortality in Coastal Populations of Winter Flounder: Implications for Recovery of a Depleted Population

AbstractWe studied growth, mortality, and settlement distributions of juvenile Winter FlounderPseudopleuronectes americanusin two bays of Long Island, New York, to better understand localized population dynamics of a species experiencing a protracted population decline. Juvenile mortality in Long Island bays ranged between 0.02 and 0.04 per day and was as high as or higher than values reported for other systems. Settlement distributions had multiple peaks (cohorts) occurring between March and late July in 2007 and between February and May in 2008. The presence of multiple cohorts limited the usefulness of field‐derived, length‐based estimates of growth, resulting in unrealistic values compared with otolith‐based measures (field based: −0.05 to 0.25 cm/d; otolith based: 0.05–0.06 cm/d). Thus, we recommend the use of otolith methods or the repeated measurement of individuals to estimate growth of juvenile Winter Flounder. Otolith‐based growth rate was significantly higher for Port Jefferson Harbor during 2007 than for all other year × location combinations. Together with previous research showing genetic differentiation and migratory diversity, our finding of multiple spawning cohorts in Long Island Winter Flounder suggests a degree of isolation, and local management will be needed to support healthy populations. Future research to determine adult spawning, migratory behavior, stock structure, duration of the larval period, and settlement timing is required to unravel the complex behavior of Winter Flounder.Received July 10, 2014; accepted April 10, 2015

A new species of Regabellator Siebenaller &amp; Hessler, 1981 (Isopoda, Asellota, Nannoniscidae) from the Amundsen Sea shelf (Southern Ocean)

Based on benthic material collected during the BIOPEARL (Biodiversity, Phylogeny, Evolution and Adaptive Radiation of Life in Antarctica) II expedition on board RRS “James Clark Ross” a new nannoniscid species,Regabellator brixorumsp. n., is described from the Pine Island Bay continental shelf, western Amundsen Sea (Antarctica). The new species most closely resemblesRegabellator armatus(Hansen, 1916) but can be distinguished from this species by possessing ventral spines on pereonites 1-4, the shape of the cephalothorax anterior margin and the length of the pereonite 7 ventral spine. The genusRegabellatorhas been previously recorded from the North and South-eastern Atlantic and here exclusively from the deep sea (1946 m and below). The new species represents the first record of the genusRegabellatorfrom the Antarctic continental shelf and thus greatly extends hitherto known latitudinal and bathymetric ranges for this genus.

Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Yield and Quality in Gladiolus under Bay Island Conditions

Field experiments were conducted for two consecutive seasons during 2011-12 and 2012-13 to study the effect of plant growth regulators on gladiolus cv. Chandini. The results revealed that various growth, flowering and corm characters were significantly affected with the application of different growth regulators at different concentrations. Earliness in corm sprouting, spike emergence and maximum duration of spike was observed in GA3 500ppm. Maximum number of leaves per plant, plant height, maximum spike length, rachis length and number of florets per spike were observed in GA3 750ppm. More number of shoots per corm (3.3) was recorded by Benzyl Adenine (BA) at 75ppm. With respect to corm characters maximum number of corms and cormels per plant were observed in BA 100ppm. Maximum weight of single corm, weight of corms per plant, size of single corm and volume of single corm were recorded in GA3 500ppm. Maximum weight of cormels per plant was recorded in BA 100ppm. Maximum value of propagation coefficient was recorded in GA3 500ppm (318.3%).

Discrimination of marine algal taxonomic groups based on fluorescence excitation emission matrix, parallel factor analysis and CHEMTAX

An in vivo three-dimensional fluorescence method for the determination of algae community structure was developed by parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and CHEMTAX. The PARAFAC model was applied to fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) of 60 algae species belonging to five divisions and 11 fluorescent components were identified according to the residual sum of squares and specificity of the composition profiles of fluorescent. By the 11 fluorescent components, the algae species at different growth stages were classified correctly at the division level using Bayesian discriminant analysis (BDA). Then the reference fluorescent component ratio matrix was constructed for CHEMTAX, and the EEM-PARAFAC-CHEMTAX method was developed to differentiate algae taxonomic groups. The correct discrimination ratios (CDRs) when the fluorometric method was used for single-species samples were 100% at the division level, except for Bacillariophyta with a CDR of 95.6%. The CDRs for the mixtures were above 94.0% for the dominant algae species and above 87.0% for the subdominant algae species. However, the CDRs of the subdominant algae species were too low to be unreliable when the relative abundance estimated was less than 15.0%. The fluorometric method was tested using the samples from the Jiaozhou Bay and the mesocosm experiments in the Xiaomai Island Bay in August 2007. The discrimination results of the dominant algae groups agreed with microscopy cell counts, as well as the subdominant algae groups of which the estimated relative abundance was above 15.0%. This technique would be of great aid when low-cost and rapid analysis is needed for samples in a large batch. The fluorometric technique has the ability to correctly identify dominant species with proper abundance both in vivo and in situ.