Seagrass is an underwater flowering plant that thrives in clear, sheltered, coastal waters around the world. As well as providing habitat for the marine fauna, seagrass meadows play an important role in the processes and resources of near-shore ecosystems. Coastal degradation of seagrass is prevalent along the metropolitan beaches of Adelaide, a problem common to settled coastal areas around the world, and although evidence from the literature suggests that loss of seagrass beds adversely affects the abundance of some coastal fish species, no quantification of the effect has been attempted. Moreover, although the economic value of seagrass as an 'ecosystem service' has been estimated, its value as a contributor to the productivity of the marine environment has not. In this thesis, mathematical and statistical models are used to explore the relationships that exist between seagrass habitats and the fish, crustacean, and mollusc species that depend upon them. The result is a model which estimates the annual value of seagrass loss to the secondary production in our coastal waters. / thesis (PhDMathematics)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Seagrass is an underwater flowering plant that thrives in clear, sheltered, coastal waters around the world. As well as providing habitat for the marine fauna, seagrass meadows play an important role in the processes and resources of near-shore ecosystems. Coastal degradation of seagrass is prevalent along the metropolitan beaches of Adelaide, a problem common to settled coastal areas around the world, and although evidence from the literature suggests that loss of seagrass beds adversely affects the abundance of some coastal fish species, no quantification of the effect has been attempted. Moreover, although the economic value of seagrass as an 'ecosystem service' has been estimated, its value as a contributor to the productivity of the marine environment has not. In this thesis, mathematical and statistical models are used to explore the relationships that exist between seagrass habitats and the fish, crustacean, and mollusc species that depend upon them. The result is a model which estimates the annual value of seagrass loss to the secondary production in our coastal waters. / thesis (PhDMathematics)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-250).

Thesis (doctoral)--Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen, 1982. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-161).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 414-437). Also available on microfiche.

Cone snails are predatory marine animals that rely on their venom components to immobilize and capture their prey. According to the type of prey preference, cone snails can be divided into three groups: vermivorous, molluscivorous and piscivorous. Conus ermineus had been identified as the only piscivorous snail of the Atlantic Ocean. Cone snail venom is a complex and rich sources of natural toxins. The majority of the components of the venom are peptidic in nature, and they act over different ionic channels and membrane receptors. Initial studies using mixture of venom collected from dissected venom ducts concluded that the venom from the same species do not exhibit unusual peptide polymorphism [Olivera, Hillyard, et al., 1995] and that the only major difference between individuals of the same species are different concentrations of the venom components [Vianna, et al., 2005]. For this study, peptides in the injected venom were collected from individual snails and characterized usin g analytical RP-HPLC for a maximum of three years. The different fractions collected were processed through capillary HPLC coupled with Q-TOF ESI-MS, and compared with analytical RP-HPLC fractions processed with MALDI-TOF MS. This study demonstrates that there is an animal-to-animal variation in the peptide components of the injected venom. The injected venom remains relatively constant over time for specific specimens in captivity. Finally, there are some peptides that had been found in all specimens both by MALDI-TOF MS and by ESI-MS. In this study, these peptides are called "molecular fingerprint" peptides. Based on matches of their derived masses to those predicted by published cDNA sequences, nine novel peptides were putatively identified. This study establishes that variations due to enzymatic posttranslational modification are omitted when we consider only information extrapolated from cDNA. / The results of this study support the idea of the existence of a novel regulatory mechaism to expressed specific venom peptides for injection into the prey. / by Jose A. Rivera-Ortiz. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 216-234.

Coastal zone definitions are typically guided by the presence of absolute demarcations. As a result, the coastal zone becomes confined to, and identified as, an absolute space. This research challenges the ‘fixed’ nature of the coastal zone and suggests that there are a wide range of relational spaces that overlap and engage with each other to form the coastal space. These spaces and their sphere of influence extend beyond the ‘boundaries’ of what is legally defined as the coastal zone. Multiple coastal spaces have been identified based upon coastal stakeholder perceptions of what is relevant to the management of the coastal zone. Although there is a place for the absolute manner in which coastal zones are defined, definitions founded on absolute parameters tend not only to create a fixed abstract space, but they also naturalize a geographical construct to an unhelpful scale in terms of the functioning of coastal socio-economic and environmental systems. The absolute manner in which the coastal zone is defined and the reduced scale at which such a definition and the associated legislation is directed, severs and discounts, both temporarily and spatially, the influences of relational spaces that function at broader scales. The complication arises when the influences of such spaces are enmeshed within and beyond that legally defined coastal space. The legal definition and the associated legislation, in essence, attempts to address and solve issues occurring within the legal space, but disregards causative mechanisms that may lie outside of that legal space. This study suggests that a broader scaled and more holistic approach to defining the coastal zone, namely a system characterized by flows of interrelated spaces, will enable higher levels of sustainability to be achieved. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.