Kenneth Sulak, Ph.D. (Former Employee)

Although saltmarshes are thought to enhance the productivity of open estuarine waters, the mechanism by which energy transfer occurs has been debated for decades. One possible mechanism is the transfer of saltmarsh production to estuarine waters by vagile fishes and invertebrates. Monthly estimates of fish standing stock, net fish ingress, and predation were used to develop a biomass...

Deep-water (307-697 m) antipatharian (black coral) specimens were collected from the southeastern continental slope of the United States and the north-central Gulf of Mexico. The sclerochronology of the specimens indicates that skeletal growth takes place by formation of concentric coeval layers. We used 210Pb to estimate radial growth rate of two specimens, and to establish that they...

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...

Gulf sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi, forage extensively in the Suwannee River estuary following emigration out of the Suwannee River, Florida. While in the estuary, juvenile Gulf sturgeon primarily feed on benthic infauna. In June–July 2002 and February–April 2003, random sites within the estuary were sampled for benthic macrofauna (2002 n = 156; 2003 n = 103). A mean abundance...

We document the continued population expansion of red lionfish, Pterois volitans, the first documented successful introduction of an invasive marine fish species from the western Pacific to Atlantic coastal waters of the United States. Red lionfish are indigenous to the Indo-Pacific and have apparently established one or more breeding populations on reefs off the southeastern United...

Along the southeastern coast of the United States, hardground systems support a high diversity of sub-tropical and tropical fishes. Many of these hardgrounds occur in deep (ca. ??? 50 m) waters and their fauna is still poorly described; however, with concentrated sampling in these deeper areas, new records of fishes continue to emerge. In the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and off North...