Thesis (M.S.)--University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, 2008. / Tables. Printout. Abstract in English and Spanish. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-87).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Adam G. Marsh and Nancy M. Targett, Dept. of Marine and Earth Studies. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:03:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo1222_1.pdf: 1993361 bytes, checksum: 25a22c41a98f6b8b589ff036348e6f26 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O octocoral Carijoa riisei Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860 (Alcyonacea: Octocorallia) é abundante no litoral brasileiro, em especial na região nordeste. A reprodução sexual desta espécie foi estudada na Praia de Porto de Galinhas (Pernambuco, Brasil) durante 1 ano a partir de Maio de 2006. C. riisei é uma espécie gonocórica liberadora de gametas com uma proporção sexual de 1:1 (fêmea para macho). A classe de tamanho 8,1-16 cm foi predominante em 72% das amostras. A menor colônia com ovócitos teve 5,39 cm e a menor com cistos espermáticos teve 5,28 cm. O diâmetro médio dos ovócitos maduros foi 466,69 ± 54,25 μm, com um tamanho máximo de 600 μm e para os cistos espermáticos a média foi 247,87 ± 74,22 μm, com um tamanho máximo de 440 μm. Gônadas em todas as fases de desenvolvimento foram encontradas durante todo o ano. Estas características resultam de gametogênese assincrônica e contínua, e se conduz o ano todo com cistos espermáticos e ovócitos em maturação e liberação. As características reprodutivas de C. riisei constituem uma exceção à generalização da livre-desova nos recifes de corais que têm breves e sincronizados episódios de liberação de gametas. Esta espécie demonstra início precoce de primeira reprodução, o que aumenta ainda mais a sua produção reprodutiva

Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from electronic document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 103 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

L’inventaire in situ des gorgones des Petites Antilles françaises dans les années 80 a permis de lister 46 espèces jusqu’à 55m et six taxons exclusivement profonds. Cinq espèces sont signalées pour la première fois. Bien que les gorgones puissent être abondantes et pèsent sur la conservation des écosystèmes et paysages, elles sont peu prises en considération. Pourtant, l’intérêt des humains pour ces organismes n’est pas nouveau. La première partie est donc une approche culturelle. Les conceptions et savoirs liés au contexte idéologique et aux usages locaux ont évolué entre mythe et rationnel. Les gorgones sont devenues des objets de science au XVIIIè s. traitées par l’Histoire Naturelle puis par une approche pluridisciplinaire. Les enquêtes ethnographiques auprès des usagers de la mer confrontés aux mesures de protection révèlent leurs perceptions et connaissances. Mais pour la gestion (évaluation et suivi) ou la recherche, l’expertise taxinomique est fondamentale. La seconde partie aborde donc la systématique et soumet : 1) Les mises en synonymie des éventails de mer Gorgonia ventalina et G. flabellum et du couple Pterogorgia anceps et P. citrina 2) L’élévation des sous-genres Eunicea et Euniceopsis au rang de genres 3) La description d’une espèce d’Eunicea présumée nouvelle 4) La reconnaissance de complexes d’espèces. La pertinence des critères taxinomiques est discutée. De plus, ce travail apporte des données sur la distribution et les assemblages de gorgones. De façon générale, elles constituent une référence avant l’accélération des perturbations locales et globales qui conduisent à des changements récents affectant les paysages et le fonctionnement des écosystèmes. / In the 80's the inventory in situ of the gorgonians in French Lesser Antilles leads to the knowledge of 46 species up to 55 m and six other ones deep. For the first time, five new species have been discovered in these geographical zones. The gorgonians are widespread in the shallow waters. They positively act on the ecosystems but they are not particularly taken into account for conservation of marine areas. However they are of great interest for humans since a long time. The first part of this work is therefore a cultural approach. It consists in describing the evolution in the way of seeing the gorgones. They were scientifically studied from the XVIIIth century and they were afterward noticed by multidisciplinary fields. Ethnological surveys on the users of the sea are interesting but the taxonomic expertise is inevitable for the management issues and researches upon marines ecosystems. Thus, the second part describes the systematic of caribbean gorgonians and submits 1) The sea fans Gorgonia ventalina and G. flabellum and the sister species Pterogorgia anceps and P. citrina are synonymous 2) The rise of the sub-genus Eunicea and Euniceopsis to genus level 3) The description of a new Eunicea species 4) The recognition of species complexes. Each taxonomical feature is analyzed and discussed. Datas of this work are a baseline before local and worldwide changes which affect the landscapes and the marine ecosystems functioning.

Corals are the dominant species of the coral reefs. The diversity of species is classified by traditional morphological traits, especially relied on the calcious deposits-sclerites. The formation of sclerites may be affected by the environmental conditions; therefore, some controversies may exist. The ambiguities may be clarified with molecular approaches. Five soft coral species, Lobophytum pauciflorum, Sinularia leptoclado, Sinularia flexibilis, Sarcophyton sp., Nephthea erecta were chosen for this study. The total mitochondrial DNA sequences were determined by PCR and primer walking. The genome contains 18562 bp, 18732 bp, 18752 bp, 18806 bp, 18716 bp separately, which harbors 14 protein-coding genes (ATP6¡BATP8¡BCOI¡BCOII¡BCOIIII¡BCYTB¡BND1¡BND2¡BND3¡BND4¡BND4L¡BND5¡BND6¡BMSH), 2 rRNA and only 1 tRNA genes. The phylogenetic relationship of alcyonacea corals were analyzed and compared with published sequences. The possibility of using a short ¡§DNA bar-code sequence¡¨ of the mitochondria as an alternative for species identification may be feasible. We found the short DNA signature sequences for these five corals. They may speed up the identification of corals in the long run.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 112 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The Florida Keys Coral Reef Monitoring Project (CRMP) began video transect sampling in 1996 and has continuously monitored 107 Florida Keys stations through 2002. The video was downward pointing and produced images from which planar projection data were calculated to determine percent cover of living benthic organisms. An absence of data assessing correlation between octocoral percent cover and octocoral abundance motivated a study to compare octocoral percent cover with abundance data acquired from the same video transects. The methods employed to extract octocoral abundance data from videotape were validated. Temporal changes in octocoral abundance, size and taxonomic group were determined by examination of video transects of 28 randomly selected stations from 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2002. Size classes were defined as [10cm, 10-40cm, ]40cm (short, medium and tall respectively). / ABSTRACT: Taxonomic groups were Gorgonia ventalina and "other octocorals" in three size classes, and Scleraxonia. An in situ study assessed the accuracy of video-derived counts. Average densities of G. ventalina and Scleraxonia were consistently about one colony/m2. Other octocoral as a group averaged 7-9 colonies/m2. When summarized by height, short and tall averaged about 1-2 colonies/m2, while colonies between 10 and 40 cm in height consistently averaged about 6 colonies/m2. Hurricane Georges, in September 1998, impacted the octocoral assemblage. Abundance declined most at stations near the storm center and stations in shallower water. Storm impact was related to octocoral height. Tall octocorals were removed more frequently than medium, short and encrusting forms. A dramatic increase of short individuals in 2002 is indicative of successful post-hurricane recruitment. By 2002, octocoral abundance had recovered to pre-hurricane levels. / ABSTRACT: This study demonstrated that abundance data can reliably be derived from archived video data, reinforcing the value of standardized video data archives. Octocoral abundance and octocoral percent cover are not strongly correlated because tall individuals disproportionately influence percent cover estimates. Nevertheless, trends in octocoral percent cover are reliable indicators of the trends in octocoral abundance. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.