Publications
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Barrier island habitat map and vegetation survey—Dauphin Island, Alabama, 2015
Barrier islands are dynamic environments due to their position at the land-sea interface. Storms, waves, tides, currents, and relative sea-level rise are powerful forces that shape barrier island geomorphology and habitats (for example, beach, dune, marsh, and forest). Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in 2010 are two major events that have affected habitats and natura
Authors
Nicholas M. Enwright, Sinéad M. Borchert, Richard H. Day, Laura C. Feher, Michael J. Osland, Lei Wang, Hongqing Wang
The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) immunoglobulin heavy chain suggests the importance of clan III variable segments in repertoire diversity
Manatees are a vulnerable, charismatic sentinel species from the evolutionarily divergent Afrotheria. Manatee health and resistance to infectious disease is of great concern to conservation groups, but little is known about their immune system. To develop manatee-specific tools for monitoring health, we first must have a general knowledge of how the immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) chain locus is organi
Authors
Breanna Breaux, Thaddeus C. Deiss, Patricia L. Chen, Maria Paula Cruz-Schneider, Leonardo Sena, Margaret E. Hunter, Robert K. Bonde, Michael F. Criscitiello
Mapping the change of Phragmites australis live biomass in the lower Mississippi River Delta marshes
Multiyear remote sensing mapping of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was carried out as an indicator of live biomass composition of the Phragmites australis (hereafter Phragmites) marsh in the lower Mississippi River Delta (hereafter delta) from 2014 to 2017. Maps of NDVI change showed that the Phragmites condition was fairly stable between May 2014 and July 2015. From July 2015 t
Authors
Elijah W. Ramsey, Amina Rangoonwala
Carrying capacity in a heterogeneous environment with habitat connectivity
A large body of theory predicts that populations diffusing in heterogeneous environments reach higher total size than if non-diffusing, and, paradoxically, higher size than in a corresponding homogeneous environment. However, this theory and its assumptions have not been rigorously tested. Here, we extended previous theory to include exploitable resources, proving qualitatively novel results, whic
Authors
Bo Zhang, Alex Kula, Keenan M.L. Mack, Lu Zhai, Arrix L. Ryce, Wei-Ming Ni, Donald L. DeAngelis, J. David Van Dyken
The estimation of growth dynamics for Pomacea maculata from hatchling to adult
Pomacea maculata is a relatively new invasive species to the Gulf Coast region and potentially threatens local agriculture (rice) and ecosystems (aquatic vegetation). The population dynamics of P. maculata have largely been unquantified, and therefore, scientists and field-workers are ill-equipped to accurately project population sizes and the resulting impact of this species. We studied the growt
Authors
Karyn L. Sutton, Lihong Zhao, Jacoby Carter
Assessing welfare of individual sirenians in the wild and in captivity
Assessing the welfare of wild populations of sirenians has required a “generalist” approach. The outcome has been a subjective decision as to whether what the observers are witnessing in an individual or group of animals is normal and whether that has positive or negative consequences. The understanding of sirenian welfare requirements, and a decision process for whether to support and maintain th
Authors
Mark Flint, Robert K. Bonde
Human interactions with sirenians (manatees and dugongs)
There are three extant sirenian species of the Trichechidae family and one living Dugongidae family member. Given their close ties to coastal and often urbanized habitats, sirenians are exposed to many types of anthropogenic activities that result in challenges to their well-being, poor health, and even death. In the wild, they are exposed to direct and indirect local pressures as well as subject
Authors
Robert K. Bonde, Mark Flint
Historical changes in organic matter input to the muddy sediments along the Zhejiang-Fujian Coast, China over the past 160 years
The burial of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) in the large river-influenced estuarine-coastal regions is affected by hydrodynamic sorting, diagenesis and human activities. Typically, the inner shelf region of the East China Sea is a major carbon sink of the Yangtze River-derived fine-grained sediments. Most of the previous work concentrated on the studies of surface sediments or used a single-pro
Authors
Li-lei Chen, Jian Liu, Lei Xing, Ken W. Krauss, Jia-sheng Wang, Gang Xu, Li Li
The interacting roles of climate, soils, and plant production on soil microbial communities at a continental scale
Soil microbial communities control critical ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling, and soil organic matter formation. Continental scale patterns in the composition and functioning of microbial communities are related to climatic, biotic, and edaphic factors such as temperature and precipitation, plant community composition, and soil carbon, nitrogen, and pH. Although these re
Authors
Mark P. Waldrop, JoAnn M. Holloway, David B. Smith, Martin B. Goldhaber, R. E. Drenovsky, K. M. Scow, R. Dick, Daniel M. Howard, Bruce K. Wylie, James B. Grace
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Energy Resources Program, Land Change Science Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
Gulf Coast vulnerability assessment: Mangrove, tidal emergent marsh, barrier islands and oyster reef
Climate, sea level rise, and urbanization are undergoing unprecedented levels of combined change and are expected to have large effects on natural resources—particularly along the Gulf of Mexico coastline (Gulf Coast). Management decisions to address these effects (i.e., adaptation) require an understanding of the relative vulnerability of various resources to these stressors. To meet this need, t
Authors
Amanda Watson, Joshua Reece, Blair Tirpak, Cynthia Kallio Edwards, Laura Geselbracht, Mark Woodrey, Megan K. LaPeyre, Patricia (Soupy) Dalyander
Prevalence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and B. salamandrivorans in the Gulf Coast Waterdog, Necturus beyeri, from Southeast Louisiana, USA
The globally widespread amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been linked to amphibian declines worldwide (Lips et al. 2006; Skerratt et al. 2007). In Louisiana, USA, Bd has been found in several amphibian species (Chatfield et al. 2012; Rothermel et al. 2008), but to our knowledge no population-level die-offs have been observed. Published literature on Bd prevalence in
Authors
Brad M. Glorioso, J. Hardin Waddle, Corinne L. Richards-Zawacki
Global hotspots and correlates of alien species richness across taxonomic groups
Human-mediated transport beyond biogeographic barriers has led to the introduction and establishment of alien species in new regions worldwide. However, we lack a global picture of established alien species richness for multiple taxonomic groups. Here, we assess global patterns and potential drivers of established alien species richness across eight taxonomic groups (amphibians, ants, birds, fresh
Authors
Wayne Dawson, Dietmar Moser, Mark van Kleunen, Holger Kreft, Jan Pergl, Petr Pysek, Patrick Weigelt, Marten Winter, Bernd Lenzner, Tim M. Blackburn, Ellie Dyer, Phillip Cassey, Sally-Louise Scrivens, Evan P. Economo, Benoit Guenard, Cesar Capinha, Hanno Seebens, Pablo Garcia-Diaz, Wolfgang Nentwig, Emili Garcia-Berthou, Christine Casal, Nicholas E. Mandrak, Pam Fuller, Carsten Meyer, Franz Essl