Publications

Fifty-four right whale mortalities have been reported from between Florida, USA and the Canadian Maritimes from 1970 to 2002. Thirty of those animals were examined: 18 adults and juveniles, and 12 calves. Morphometric data are presented such that prediction of body weight is possible if the age, or one or more measurements are known. Calves grew approximately linearly in their first year...

[No abstract available]

Abalone culture, a developing industry in Baja California, Mexico, would benefit from genetic improvement and controlled breeding. The use of cryopreserved sperm would allow germplasm availability, and this study was designed to develop sperm cryopreservation protocols for red abalone Haliotis rufescens. The acute toxic effects of the cryoprotectants dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), propylene...

We examined 142 papers, which contained 603 separate predator-prey trials, to investigate whether unpalatability is an important defense against predation for amphibian eggs and larvae. Although unpalatability is often cited as an antipredator defense, it was rarely demonstrated that 89% of the trials that we reviewed found prey to be palatable. The most extensively studied taxa, the...

Abstract not supplied at this time

The Kemp's Ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) is one of the most endangered sea turtles in the world, and it possesses temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Sex ratios produced under TSD can vary widely and can affect the reproductive ecology of a population. Therefore, sex ratios produced from TSD are of ecological and conservation interest. The current study validated and utilized a

Abstract not supplied at this time

About 190,000 ha of higher-elevation marl prairies flank either side of Shark River Slough in the southern Everglades. Water levels typically drop below the ground surface each year in this landscape. Consequently, peat soil accretion is inhibited, and substrates consist either of calcitic marl produced by algal periphyton mats or exposed limestone bedrock. The southern marl prairies...

Riparian corridors promote dispersal of several species of exotic invasives worldwide. Dispersal plays a role in the colonization of exotic invasive species into new areas and this study was conducted to determine if the invasiveness of Dioscorea oppositifolia L. (Chinese yam) is facilitated by secondary dispersal of vegetative diaspores (bulbils) by water. Since seed production of this...

Sidescan sonar holds great promise as a tool to quantitatively depict the distribution and extent of benthic habitats in Louisiana's turbid estuaries. In this study, we describe an effective protocol for acoustic sampling in this environment. We also compared three methods of classification in detail: mean-based thresholding, supervised, and unsupervised techniques to classify sidescan...

Question: Can patterns of species frequency in an old-field be explained within the context of a metapopulation model? Are the patterns observed related to time, spatial scale, disturbance, and nutrient availability?Location: Upland and lowland old-fields in Illinois, USA.Method: Species richness was recorded annually for seven years following plowing of an upland and lowland old-field...

The reproductive biology of Cheilopogon melanurus (Valenciennes, 1847) was examined off North Carolina during the summers of 1991–1992 and 1999–2003. Specimens were collected using a small mesh neuston net and dip nets. A spawning event, the first observation of mating behavior for this species, was recorded off Cape Fear, North Carolina, on 19 August 2003. It was considered to be a...