Publications

Carbon (C) sequestration through accumulated plant biomass and storage in soils can potentially make wetland ecosystems net C sinks. Here, we collected GHG flux, plant biomass, and litter decomposition data from three distinct vegetation zones (Spartinaalterniflora, Juncus roemerianus and Spartina patens) on a 7-year-old created brackish marsh in North Carolina, USA, and integrate these data into

Recent studies hypothesize various causes of species‐level trait covariation, namely size (e.g., metabolic theory of ecology and leaf economics spectrum), pace‐of‐life (e.g., slow‐to‐fast continuum; lifestyle continuum), evolutionary history (e.g., phylogenetic conservatism), and ecological conditions (e.g., stabilizing selection). Various methods have been used in attempts to partition trait corr

Mangrove forests are highly-productive intertidal wetlands that support many ecosystem goods and services. In addition to providing fish and wildlife habitat, mangrove forests improve water quality, provide seafood, reduce coastal erosion, supply forest products, support coastal food webs, minimize flooding impacts, and support high rates of carbon sequestration. Despite their tremendous societal

A major goal of this study was to determine whether serum protein fractions of healthy Florida manatees differ with age, sex, or living environments (wild versus housed). A second goal was to determine which serum protein fractions vary in diseased versus healthy manatees. Serum protein fractions were determined using agarose gel electrophoresis. Healthy adults had slightly higher total serum prot

Pomacea maculata (Perry) (Giant Apple Snail) is a freshwater snail native to South America (Hayes et al. 2015) that is an invasive species in the freshwater wetlands and waterways of the northern Gulf of Mexico, peninsular Florida (Benson 2017, Burks 2017) and globally (Hayes et al. 2015). Karraker and Dudgeon (2014) found that Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) (Channeled Apple Snail) opportunistical

Recent simulation modeling has shown that species can coevolve toward clusters of coexisting consumers exploiting the same limiting resource or resources, with nearly identical ratios of coefficients related to growth and mortality. This paper provides a mathematical basis for such as situation; a full analysis of the global dynamics of a new model for such a class of n-dimensional consumer–resour

The West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus is divided into 2 subspecies: the Antillean (T. m. manatus) and Florida (T. m. latirostris) manatees. This study reports sample prevalence of manatee parasites from populations of these 2 subspecies in different geographical locations. Although necropsy is a valuable diagnostic tool for parasite infections, the need for antemortem diagnostic techniques is

Effective management of human activities affecting listed species requires understanding both threats and animal habitat-use patterns. However, the extent of spatial overlap between high-use foraging areas (where multiple marine species congregate) and anthropogenic threats is not well known. Our modeling approach incorporates data on sea turtle spatial ecology and a suite of threats in the Gulf o

Antillean manatees (Trichechus manatus manatus), a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is listed as endangered species in the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The aims of this research were to survey on the possible regional genetic structure in the southern Gulf of Mexico and to compare genetic status of a landlocked population in Laguna de

The invasive Burmese python (Python bivittatus) has been reproducing in the Florida Everglades since the 1980s. These giant constrictor snakes have caused a precipitous decline in small mammal populations in southern Florida following escapes or releases from the commercial pet trade. To better understand the invasion pathway and genetic composition of the population, two mitochondrial (mtDNA) loc

Mammals diversified by colonizing drastically different environments, with each transition yielding numerous molecular changes, including losses of protein function. Though not initially deleterious, these losses could subsequently carry deleterious pleiotropic consequences. We have used phylogenetic methods to identify convergent functional losses across independent marine mammal lineages. In one

AimCorrelative distribution models have been used to identify potential climatic controls of mangrove range limits, but there is still uncertainty about the relative importance of these factors across different regions. To provide insights into the strength of climatic control of different mangrove range limits, we tested whether temporal variability in mangrove abundance increases near range limi