The rocky intertidal zone, experiencing fully marine and fully terrestrial conditions, has become increasingly investigated as a model ecosystem for studying the future implications of climate change. The barnacle, Balanus glandula, a common rocky intertidal inhabitant, plays an important role as a key prey item for many organisms. Low tide can be particularly challenging for barnacles as they are marine organisms subjected to the abiotic conditions of a terrestrial environment. The most stressful of these are increased temperature and decreased oxygen availability. This study aimed to investigate how low tide impacts the energy budget, specifically the digestion, of B. glandula. Barnacles are unable to feed at low tide however, if they were able to digest at low tide, they could maximize their energy intake by emptying their stomach to prepare to feed at the next high tide. However, digestion is a metabolically costly activity, which could make it less energetically favorable to digest when there’s less oxygen available. To test for an effect of low tide on digestion, barnacles were fed, and the time to first fecal production measured as a ‘baseline’. This was repeated, but barnacles were exposed to either a 16ºC or 35 ºC low tide immediately after being fed. The change in digestion time was calculated by comparing these two times for each barnacle. It was found that regardless of temperature, barnacles delayed their digestion by about 50-60 minutes after exposure to a one hour low tide. To determine the energetic cost of digestion, the rate of oxygen consumption was compared between starved and digesting barnacles. I was unable to detect any evidence of elevated metabolic activity during digestion. Additional testing is needed to confirm these results as the barnacles may have not fed during the trial, thus had no food to digest. While it appears that increasing temperatures associated with climate change will have little impact on the digestion of barnacles at low tide, if climate change alters the duration of low tide, there could be an energetic impact to barnacles due to the slowing of their metabolism as indicated by the delay in their digestion.

Os manguezais estão entre os ecossistemas, biologicamente, mais produtivos e importantes do mundo, fornecendo bens e serviços exclusivos para as sociedades e os sistemas costeiros. Entre suas funções destacam-se a estabilização da linha de costa e a redução do impacto de fenômenos extremos, como em casos de tempestades e furacão. No entanto, esse ecossistema têm apresentado alterações significativas oriundas da influência antrópica no ambiente, que modificam a cobertura vegetal e que, por sua vez, influenciam todo o ecossistema, inclusive nas interações microclimáticas. A pesquisa tem como objetivo avaliar a relação existente entre os controles (estrutura da vegetação, variação da maré e sistemas atmosféricos) e atributos climáticos (temperatura do ar, umidade absoluta do ar, radiação solar global, vento e precipitação) no manguezal localizado na Barra do Ribeira-Iguape/SP. Para isso, instalou-se uma torre microclimática contendo duas estações meteorológicas de forma a obter uma análise da variação dos atributos climáticos acima e abaixo do dossel de manguezal. Além disso, analisaram-se ainda as características estruturais da vegetação do manguezal. Constatou-se um aumento na transmissividade da radiação solar no dossel do manguezal, uma redução no albedo e uma diminuição na interceptação vegetal, que está associada a degradação do bosque, que não possui indivíduos novos que prosperam no ambiente, portanto sem renovação do ecossistema, resultado da presença de macrófitas ao longo da área de estudo. Comprovou-se o importante papel da maré no manguezal, contribuindo com entrada e saída de energia, favorecendo o resfriamento/aquecimento relativo do ambiente. Concluiu-se que, do ponto de vista microclimático, há diferenças significativas entre o que acontece acima e abaixo do dossel no manguezal, com diferenças superiores a 5°C, como no caso da temperatura máxima ou ainda entre a temperatura do solo e do ar com diferenças que ultrapassaram 10°C. É perceptível, nesse nível escalar, o acoplamento entre as escalas climáticas superiores com o nível microclimático. Observou-se como os atributos climáticos se conectam e como as diferenças entre os atributos climáticos ficam evidentes em escalas temporais inferiores. / Biologically, the mangrove ecosystems are among the most productive and important in the world, providing resources and services exclusive to societies and coastal systems. Its functions include the stabilization of the shoreline and reduction the impact of extreme weather events such as in cases of storms and hurricane. However, this ecosystem have been presenting significant changes arising from anthropogenic influence on the environment, modifying the vegetation and that, in turn, influence the entire ecosystem, including the microclimatic interactions. The research aims to assess the relation between controls (vegetation structure, tide variations and atmospheric systems) and climatic attributes (air temperature, absolute humidity, solar radiation, wind and rainfall) in the mangrove on the bar the Ribeira-Iguape/SP. To this end, was installed one microclimatic tower containing two weather stations to obtain an analysis of climatic attribute variations above and below the canopy of mangrove. Moreover, was analyzed the structural features of the mangrove vegetation. It was found an increase in transmissivity of solar radiation in the mangrove canopy, a reduction in albedo and a decrease in vegetable interception. These changes are associated with the degradation of the forest, who do not have new individuals who thrive in the environment, there is no renewal of the ecosystem as a result of the presence of macrophytes in the study area. It was proven the important role of tidal in mangrove areas, contributing with input and output power, favoring the cooling / heating relative on the environment. It was concluded that, from the microclimatic point of view, there are significant differences above and below the mangrove canopy. In the case of the maximum temperature, the differences were greater than 5 ° C and exceed 10 ° C between the air and soil temperature. It is noticeable in this scalar level, the coupling between the upper climatic scales with the microclimate level. Was observed how the climatic attributes are connected and how the differences between the climatic attributes are evident in inferior temporal scales.

No description available.

Mass mortalities of Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been attributed to brevetoxins produced by the Florida red tide dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. The multiple routes through which marine mammals can be exposed to brevetoxins have complicated efforts to understand the mechanisms that lead to mass mortality events. In spring of 2002, 34 endangered Florida manatees died in southwest Florida, and in spring of 2004, 107 bottlenose dolphins died in the Florida Panhandle. These events provided unique opportunities to make clear connections between ingested brevetoxins and marine mammal mortalities without the confounding issues of concurrent exposure through direct contact or inhalation. Prior to 2002, the accumulation of brevetoxins on or in seagrass had never been previously reported, and the delayed or chronic exposure of manatees to brevetoxins through seagrass was not recognized as a threat. Brevetoxins were shown to persist in association with seagrass at high levels for weeks and at lower levels for months in the absence of K. brevis. Analyses of the epiphytes and detritus on the surface of the seagrass leaves as well as of the cleaned seagrass leaves and rhizomes revealed that during a K. brevis bloom as much as half of the toxin present in the seagrass may be associated with the leaves themselves, while after a bloom, the majority of the toxin present is associated with the epiphytes. The 2004 mass mortality of bottlenose dolphins in the Florida Panhandle clearly indicated that fish have the potential to vector brevetoxins to higher tropic levels. Analyses of fish collected live from St. Joseph Bay and southwest Florida revealed that brevetoxin accumulation in fish is a common occurrence. Planktivorous clupeid fish are capable of accumulating high concentrations of brevetoxins within their viscera, and their movement can result in spatial separation of a bloom and animal exposure. Sciaenid species and pinfish also accumulated brevetoxins but to a lower extent. These fish, as well as other omnivorous and piscivorous species, may retain brevetoxins in their tissues at significant concentrations after a bloom has dissipated, which may lead to temporal separation of blooms and animal exposure.

Tides are the rise and fall of water level caused by gravitational forces exerted by the sun, moon and earth. Understanding sea level variation and its impact currents is very important especially in coastal regions. With knowledge of the tide-generating force and boundary conditions, hydrodynamic models can be used to predict or model tides in coastal regions. However, these models are not sufficiently accurate, and in-situ tide gauge data may be used to improve them in coastal regions. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) tidal data bank consists of over 4000 tide gauge stations scattered all around the globe, most of which are in coastal regions. These tide gauge data are very valuable for tidal predictions. One drawback of the IHO data is that a considerable number of stations are located in rivers or near man-made structures or small-scale, complex topographic features. Another drawback is the unknown accuracy of the IHO data. To avoid these drawbacks, quality control has been done in the present study. Each IHO tide gauge station has been categorized according to its proximity to rivers, lagoons, man-made harbors, and other factors that may influence tidal elevation. Quantitative metrics such as water depth, distance to the continental shelf break, and horizontal length scale of station site morphology have been computed. Comparisons among IHO data, the output of O.S.U. Tidal Inversion Software (OTIS), and other data sources, such as Global Sea-Level Observing System (GLOSS) data, have been done to test the quality and accuracy of IHO data. Moreover, the characteristics of stations with large error have also been examined. The good comparison of IHO with duplicate GLOSS stations shows that, as far as can be determined, IHO data are reliable and ought to be used in improving coastal tide models. The non-Gaussian character of the errors suggests that further improvements in tidal modeling will require advances in data assimilation which are robust to non-Gaussian data error.

cGMP-dependent protein kinases (PKG) are key players in intracellular second messenger signaling within many cellular systems throughout the body. Most notably PKG is known for its role in smooth muscle relaxation (Pfeiffer et.al, 1999). The Iα PKG isozyme has been identified as the primary effector of the nitric oxide pathway (and serves to be a novel drug target). To date the overall knowledge of structure and function of PKG is lacking in terms of the mechanisms of activation and the structural orientations that coordinate them. Recently, our laboratory has solved the crystal structure of the regulatory domain of PKG Iα, which revealed a previously unknown α-helical domain dubbed the Switch Helix (SW) (Osborne et.al, 2011). The SW domain was found to be a site of interprotomer communication via hydrophobic interactions between its C-terminus and hydrophobic residues, named the nest located on the opposing protomer. Synthetic peptides derived from the SW domain, named S-tides, dosedependently activate PKG Iα (Moon et.al, 2015). In addition, the amino acid residues of the nest are in proximity to the cGMP binding site B. It was hypothesized that the binding site for S-tides (nest) and the cGMP binding site B interact and are co-dependent of one another. The hypothesis of this thesis is the binding site for the S-tides (nest) and the cGMP binding site B interact and are co-dependent of one another. To test this hypothesis two aims were constructed: Aim 1: To develop an S1.5 analog that utilizes both the nest and the B-site to increase S-tide activity, Aim 2: To explore the intricacies of these modes of activation and how they interact with each other to obtain a better understanding of the interplay between these two sites. First, based on the most potent S-tide S1.5 (YEDAEAKAKYEAEAAFFANLKLSD, Ka=6 μM), two analogs were synthesized. The peptide S2.5 which lacked the amino acids LSD at the C-terminus showed a three-fold lower activation constant (Ka= 15 μM), although the molecule retained its helicity as demonstrated by circular dichroism. The second analog, S3.5 contained unnatural amino acid components from a molecular modeling approach in an effort to further increase the affinity by interacting with the adjacent cGMP binding site B. However, S3.5 showed further reduction in activity with an activation constant of 70 μM. These findings led us to conclude that the failure of the SAR approach indicates a different mode of S-tide activation as had been previously thought. Next, we investigated the role of the cGMP binding site B in the mechanism of S-tide mediated PKG Iα activation. Co-activation assays with cGMP and S1.5 demonstrated that cGMP activation is not altered in the presence of S1.5. Furthermore, S1.5 mediated activation is negatively affected in the presence of cGMP. These results suggest that the B-site of cGMP does not positively enforce the S1.5 activation kinetics. Next, we employed the PKG Iα mutant E292A, which cannot bind cGMP to the B-site (Moon et.al., 2018). Interestingly, this mutant retains the activation kinetics of PKG Iα WT when activated via S1.5 and cGMP. Thus, the cGMP binding site B is not crucial in the activation mechanisms of activating PKG Iα with cGMP. Likewise, the cGMP binding site B is not crucial in the activation mechanisms of activating PKG Iα with S1.5. To further support these findings, the PKG Iα mutant C42A, which showed crippled cGMP activation kinetics could be activated with S1.5 with a potency similar to wild type. Taken together, the results in this thesis demonstrate that in contrast to the initial hypothesis the binding sites for S-tides and cGMP, although in proximity, show no experimental support of a positive interaction. These findings are significant as they reveal that S1.5 mediated activation of PKG is truly independent of cGMP, thereby providing a molecular platform for the therapeutic development of these unique peptides.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs, or "red tides") of the brevetoxin-producing dinoflagellate Karenia brevis occur periodically along Florida's Gulf coast. Mass mortalities of marine birds have long been associated with these blooms, yet there are few data documenting the accumulation of brevetoxins (PbTx) in the tissues of birds. Post-mortem evaluations were performed on 185 birds representing 22 species collected from October 2001 through May 2006 during red tide and non-red tide events to quantify their body burdens of brevetoxins. A variety of tissues and organs were selected for brevetoxin analysis including blood, brain, heart, fat, stomach or gut contents, intestinal contents or digestive tract, muscle, lung, liver or viscera, kidney, gonads, gallbladder and spleen. Brevetoxin levels in avian tissues ranged from K. brevis which may amass in various tissues of the body. As a consequence, the birds may exhibit acute brevetoxicosis during red tide events or show chronic accumulation effects during non-red tide events.

Hydraulic lock structures have been used for hundreds of years to control and maintain water levels in waterways. The most common are gated water regulation structures used to catch and divert water, and form an essential and critical part of many flood control and agricultural schemes. Although there are clear economic advantages to building the structures, they can contribute to major water quality problems for the waterways they influence (i.e. increased residence times and a change in mixing ability). Further, in most cases, the methods previously used to assess how the structures and their operations influence the flow regimes between the two connected systems were limited, thus hydraulic designers rely on simple formulations, existing literature and experience. Consequently, the objectives of this thesis were to undertake a detailed field study and develop a methodology and computer simulation tool to calculate the flow through a hydraulic structure connecting two water bodies so that future designs can be undertaken based upon sound knowledge. To demonstrate the outcomes of this thesis, the methodology and model were applied to an existing hydraulic structure (referred to as Structure C). Structure C is used to connect and exchange water between the tidally dominated section of the Nerang River estuary and an artificial lake system (Burleigh Lakes) on the Gold Coast, Australia. The gates of this structure open four times each day (once during each semi-diurnal tidal phase) and remain open for a period of 2 hours, allowing alternative and partial exchange between the two water bodies. To gain a better understanding of the dynamics of each waterbody under the influence of the structure, a series of detailed field experiments were initially undertaken to understand and quantify the exchange of water and its mixing ability. Tide gauges deployed within the lake indicated a water level change during each opening of up to 22 cm, equating to 413,600 m3 of water entering the lake over the 2 hour discharge period. Salinity profiles showed that the structure permitted the exchange of saline and freshwater between the two systems, during each tidal cycle, in turn maintaining the lake system as a saline (brackish environment). However, the field study also revealed that the controlled exchange of water between the systems perpetuated a permanently stratified environment on both sides of the structure. To simulate the flow dynamics influenced by Structure C, new routines were incorporated into an existing hydrodynamic model (BFHYDRO) within the model's grid and computational code, as part of this thesis. To achieve this, the flow in and out of the hydraulic structure cell (used to represent the hydraulic structure's location within the model grid) was calculated entirely from the local water level gradients on either side of the structure at each time-step, and not prescribed. This was found to be essential for complex tidally-dominated systems, such as the Nerang River. Routines were also developed to replicate the opening and closing times of the gates. Following the development of the methodology, the hydraulic structure cells were tested and applied to simulate the flow through Structure C and the complex exchange between the estuary and lake, in 2 and 3-dimensions. Tests indicated that the opening and closing times of the gates and the calibration of the discharge coefficient (which forms part of the broad-crested weir formula) were the most sensitive parameters to ensure the correct volume of water exchange between the two systems. Statistically, the model-predicted results compared very well with available surface elevation data within the estuary and lake, and thus, quantified the ability of the hydraulic structure cells to simulate the flux between the estuary and lake for each opening. Following the model validation process, results from the existing configuration were compared with hypothetical design alternatives and are documented herein. Further, part of the thesis also explored a practical and effective computer based learning strategy to introduce and teach hydrodynamic and water quality modelling, to the next generation of undergraduate engineering students. To enhance technology transfer a computer based instructional (CBI) aid was specifically developed to assist with the setup, execution and the analysis of models' output, in small easy steps. The CBI aid comprised of a HTML module with links to recorded Lotus Screen cam movie clips. The strategy proved to be a useful and effective approach in assisting the students to complete the project with minimum supervision, and acquire a basic understanding of water quality modelling. Finally, it is anticipated that this new modelling capability and the findings detailed herein will provide managers with a valuable tool to assess the influence of these structures on water circulation for present and future operations within the region. This model can also be set up at other sites to pre-assess various design configurations by predicting changes in current flows, mixing and flushing dynamics that a particular design might achieve, and assist with the selection process before the final selection and construction.

As human populations increase along coastal watersheds, the understanding and monitoring of Harmful Algal Blooms (or red tides) is an increasingly important issue. A consistent method for accurately detecting red tides using satellite measurements would bring tremendous societal benefits to resource managers, the scientific community and to the public as well. In the West Florida Shelf, blooms of the toxic dinoflagelate Karenia brevis are responsible for massive red tides causing fish kills, massive die-offs of marine mammals, shellfish poisoning, and acute respiratory irritation in humans. In this work, for the first time a long-term dataset (2002~2006) the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is compared (i.e., matched-up) to an extensive data set of in situ cell counts of K. brevis; provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The pairing of remote sensing data with near-coincident field measurements of cell abundance was successfully used to derive the basis for the development of an alternative ocean color based algorithm for detecting the optical signatures associated with blooms of K. brevis in waters of the West coast of Florida. Conclusions are geographically limited to the Central West Florida Shelf during the boreal Summer-Fall (i.e., the K. brevis blooming season). The new simpler Empirical approach is compared with other two more complicated published techniques. Their potential is verified and uncertainties involved in the identification of blooms of K. brevis are presented. The results shown here indicate that the operational NOAA method for detecting red tides in the Gulf of Mexico (Stumpf et al., 2003; Tomlinson et al., 2004) performs less accurately than the other two algorithms at identifying K. brevis blooms. The sensitivity and specificity of the Bio-optical (Cannizzaro, 2004; Cannizzaro et al., 2008) and Empirical algorithms are simultaneously maximized with an optimization procedure. The combined use of these two optimized algorithms in sequence provides another new monitoring tool with improved accuracy at detecting K. brevis of blooms. The ability of this Hybrid scheme ranges about 80% for both sensitivity and specificity; and the capability at predicting a correct red tides is 70%, and ~85% for non-blooms conditions. The spatial and temporal knowledge of K. brevis blooms can improve the direction of field monitoring to areas that should receive special attention, allowing better understanding of the red tide phenomenon by the scientific community. The relevant agencies can also develop more appropriate mitigation action plans, and public health guidance can be improved with the enhancement of sustainable costal management strategies.

A radar altimetry satellite measures the height of sea surface globally. However, tide gauges, measuring Sea Level Height (SLH), are set up on the Earth surface. Hence, SLHs are involved in vertical motion of the Earth crust. In this study, vertical motions of Earth crust have been separated from sea level variations. After clustering of SSH observations with K-means approach, two outlier detection methods Pope and Interquartile (IQR) Tests are implemented in data. Afterwards, each altimetry measurement is relocated to the center point of own cluster by means of geoid height derived from Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM08). Before application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to see behavior of SSH inbetween clusters, Lomb Scargle algorithm is run to realize power spectrum of every clustered observations distinctly. Besides, tide gauge measurements are used for extracting 68 constituents with T_Tide program from hourly tide gauge observations. Then, predicted signal is produced by means of classical tidal harmonic analysis. To get monthly and daily mean values of hourly data, MSDOS Processing and Quality Controlling Software (SLPR2) has been run and the results are compared with Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) monthly mean sea level values. Afterwards, the trends from altimetry, tide gauge and GPS are investigated to reveal vertical land motion. This study shows that sea level is rising every year more or less 7 mm at the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Although Iskenderun tide gauge subsides 50 mm every year, the other stations do not show huge amount of vertical motion.