Publications

Forest structure of mangrove restoration sites (6 and 14 years old) at two locations (Henderson Creek [HC] and Windstar [WS]) in southwest Florida differed from that of mixed-basin forests (>50 years old) with which they were once contiguous. However, the younger site (HC) was typical of natural, developing forests, whereas the older site (WS) was less well developed with low structural...

Proportions of American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) nests sighted during aerial survey in Florida were estimated based upon multiple surveys by different observers. We compared sighting proportions across habitats, nesting seasons, and observer experience levels. The mean sighting proportion across all habitats and years was 0.736 (SE=0.024). Survey counts corrected by the...

Size distribution information is useful for crocodilian management, but can be hard to obtain. Indirect and less costly demographic inferences made from track measurements may be valuable for management decisions. We related hind-foot lengths (HF) with total length (TL) to determine if we could indirectly assess alligator size using track length. Regression showed that HF was an...

No abstract available.

St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The refuge was acquired in 1968 from a private land owner and occupies all of St. Vincent Island, a barrier island located off the southern coast of the Florida Panhandle near Apalachicola (fig. 1). The island, which covers 12,358 acres, is about 9 miles long and 4 miles across at its widest...

An extensive deep (~100 m) reef tract occurs on the Mississippi-Alabama outer continental shelf (OCS). The tract, known as "The Pinnacles", is apparently part of a sequence of drowned reef complexes along the "40-fathom" shelf edge of the northern Gulf of Mexico (Ludwick and Walton, 1957). It is critical to determine the accurate geomorphology of deep-reefs because of their importance as...

The USGS National Wetlands Research Center has documented that Seagrasses in the northern Gulf of Mexico constitute an ecosystem in trouble. From studies in St. Andrews Bay, Period Bay, the Chandeleur Islands, and the Gulf Islands National Seashore, scientists have discovered that declining seagrass acreage ranges from 12% to 66% in bays and estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico. Not only are...

This project examined the pathways of mercury (Hg) bioaccumulation and its relation to trophic position and hydroperiod in the Everglades. I described fish-diet differences across habitats and seasons by analyzing stomach contents of 4,000 fishes of 32 native and introduced species. Major foods included periphyton, detritus/algal conglomerate, small invertebrates, aquatic insects...

No abstract available. Review info: Nonlinear dynamic of interacting populations. By Alexander D. Bazykin, 1998. ISBN: 978-9810216856, 193 pp.

A replacement name, Cottus paulus, is proposed for the Pygmy Sculpin, Coitus pygmaeus. The name Coitus pygmaeus was preoccupied by Coitus quadricornis pygmaeus Lonnberg (1932).

Most harmful algal blooms are relatively short, violent paroxysms to aquatic systems. The Texas brown tide was unique in its 7-year domination of upper Laguna Madre wherein it reduced light penetrating 1 m from 31 to 63% on an annual basis between June 1990 and May 1997. In response, seagrasses declined in biomass in deep areas for two years. Over the next three years, bare areas opened...

Cogongrass is a nonindigenous species perceived to threaten native communities of the southeastern United States through modification of species composition and alteration of community processes. To examine how gap size and disturbance type influence the invasion of wet pine savannas by cogongrass, we performed three field experiments to evaluate the response of cogongrass seeds and...