No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Habitat fragmentation is often regarded as a biodiversity threat associated with habitat degradation; however, research has also revealed beneficial effects on biodiversity as well, depending on the ecosystem and species community. This study examined the biodiversity of small nekton residing in seagrass meadows characterized by three levels of habitat fragmentation, and as a habitat gradient comprised of measures such as habitat amount, connectivity, patch shape, and proximity. Landscapes were mapped using recent advances in GPS and GIS technology, and analyzed using established methods from research in terrestrial ecosystems. Species richness was not significantly different as a function of fragmentation regardless of season, suggesting that the amount of habitat and configuration of several patches in fragmented habitats is sufficient to support comparable numbers of species in several patches compared to communities in large, continuous seagrass meadows. Species evenness declined significantly in fragmented habitats versus continuous ones in both seasons. Within fragmented landscapes, evenness progressively declined as habitat amount and connectivity decreased and patch isolation and density increased, suggesting that changes in landscape qualities can differentially impact processes supporting metapopulations such as dispersal and reproduction in certain species, thereby influencing community structure. Analyses that included measures of habitat connectivity, proximity, and patch density in addition to habitat amount accounted for more variability in species evenness than those just containing percent cover, and showed that fragmentation’s impacts can differ geographically. These data suggest that community resilience to fragmentation can differ between similar animal communities residing in separate locations, and that landscape configuration plays an important role in determining how communities respond to fragmentation after a threshold of change in habitat amount has been exceeded. / text

No description available.

No description available.

Streams have been impacted by human activities in a variety of ways. Over time, these ecosystems become dominated by the most resilient species, with significant losses in the natural components that provide valuable ecosystem services to people. In impacted streams, the loss of ecosystem services often is not recognized until the stream has already been dramatically altered. In this study, I provide data on the natural distribution of freshwater decapods and the status of decapod communities in streams with different land use histories. I reviewed the decapod distribution for the Caribbean to provide an update of the species that inhabit the freshwater systems. I determined the presence of 18 species of decapods in Puerto Rico and concluded that these decapods follow the island-species relationship in the Caribbean. Also, I present data associated with decapod community dynamics in watersheds with different urban development. As, expected the highly urban watershed had lower diversity and density of decapods than the medium and low urban watersheds. The variations in decapod communities among watersheds correlated with the degradation of the physical-chemical environments and clearing of the riparian zones. I compare the food webs among streams with different human impacts. Specific influences of point/nonpoint sources of N could be distinguished in food web components. This shows to an effect of human activities on the stream and watershed. In addition, I determined the effect of abiotic and biotic factors on the growth of A.lanipes (0.27 mm) and X.elongata (0.1 mm) over the 10-year period of study. The results showed that these species transform a wide range of organic materials into their biomass. Finally, I developed a series of education projects which promote the understanding and knowledge of freshwater ecosystems; interactions and the organisms that inhabit these systems. The results showed an increasing interest about freshwater fauna and ecosystems. I concluded that: a) the distribution of freshwater decapods in the Caribbean islands follows the area-species relationship; b) urbanization represents one of the many distinct land uses that affect habitat structure, energy sources and biotic interactions; and c) it’s necessary to present the results of our research to the general public in ways that are easily understood.

No description available.

No description available.

In this thesis I assessed the causes of long-term changes in two large, commercially important decapod crustacean populations, American lobster (Homarus americanus) and snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio), in the northwest (NW) Atlantic Ocean. By combining available time-series data, including commercial landings, research surveys, and local ecological knowledge (LEK), I explored the causes of an observed ecosystem shift in the NW Atlantic (~1950–2009) which entailed a region-wide decline of groundfish and an increase in benthic invertebrates, including these decapods. Three hypotheses were examined to explain the increase in decapod abundance: (1) the predation hypothesis, whereby a decrease in predatory groundfish led to an increase in their decapod prey (top-down effects); (2) the climate hypothesis, whereby changes in temperature or other climatic variables helped to increase decapod numbers (bottom-up effects); and (3) the anthropogenic hypothesis, whereby changes in fishing pressure drove decapod population dynamics. I explored these hypotheses separately for lobster and snow crab, which may experience different ecological and commercial pressures. First, I investigated the interactions between predatory groundfish and lobster in the inshore region of southwest Nova Scotia. Long-term fisheries-independent abundance indices for lobsters and their predators are available for Gulf of Maine (GOM) waters in the USA, but not in Canada. To address research gaps I designed and executed a survey to collect the LEK of lobster fishermen fishing in the Canadian GOM. Forty-two fishermen were interviewed. Corresponding survey results from the USA were compared to the LEK results. Both sources provided evidence for a top-down effect (predation release), contributing to observed increases in GOM lobster abundance and landings. Second, I explored relationships between lobster abundance and landings in the NW Atlantic as they may relate to temporal changes in predators, temperature, climate (North Atlantic Oscillation Index, NAOI), and fishing. Available landings data and fisheries-independent abundance estimates were collated to investigate trends in lobster abundance and catch. Links between lobster, groundfish, temperature and climate indices were explored using mixed effects models. Results offered partial support for the predation hypothesis, namely in the waters off Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and southern New England as well as broad support for a climate effect on early life stages. This effect appeared related to a region-wide climate signal, the NAOI, but was independent of changes in water temperature. Fishing effort appeared to be following lobster abundance, rather than regulating abundance in a consistent way. Third, variation in snow crab abundance was examined through meta-analysis of time-series data of cod and crab abundance and temperature. Temperature had opposing effects on the two species: snow crab abundance was negatively correlated with temperature whereas cod and temperature were positively related. Controlling for the effect of temperature, the analysis revealed significant negative interactions between snow crab and cod abundance, with cod leading snow crab up to a five-year lag. Results indicate that snow crab is largely influenced by temperature during early post-settlement years and becomes increasingly regulated by top-down mechanisms as they approach fishery recruitment. Overall, I conclude that both climate and predation can act as population controls on large decapod populations, but these variables affect decapods at different life stages.