No description available.

Understanding the dynamics of open marine populations is difficult. Ecological processes may vary with the spatial structure of the habitat, and this variation may subsequently affect demographic rates. In a series of observational and experimental studies in the Bahamas, I examined the roles of emigration, mortality, and predation in the local population dynamics of juvenile coral-reef fishes. First, I documented mortality and emigration rates in populations of bluehead and yellowhead wrasse. Assuming that all losses were due solely to mortality would have significantly underestimated survivorship for both species on patch reefs, and for yellowheads on continuous reefs. Mortality differed between species, but emigration did not differ between species or reef types. Mortality of blueheads was density-dependent with respect to both conspecific density and total wrasse density on continuous reefs. In contrast, mortality of yellowheads varied inversely with the density of blueheads on patch reefs. Emigration rates varied inversely with distance to the nearest reef inhabited by conspecifics. In subsequent experiments, I manipulated densities of yellowhead wrasse and beaugregory damselfish, and determined that the relationship between density and mortality varied with reef spatial structure. On natural reefs, mortality rates of the wrasse were highly variable among reefs. On artificial reefs, mortality rates of both species were density-dependent on spatially isolated reefs, yet high and density-independent on aggregated reefs. Heterogeneity in the spatial structure of natural reefs likely caused variation in predation risk that resulted in high variability in mortality rates compared to artificial reefs. A final experiment demonstrated that a single resident predator caused substantial mortality of the damselfish, regardless of reef spacing. Patterns suggested that resident predators caused density-dependent mortality in their prey through a type 3 functional response on all reefs, but on aggregated reefs this density dependence was overwhelmed by high, density-independent mortality caused by transient predators. These results (1) suggest post-settlement movement should be better documented in reef-fish experiments, (2) demonstrate that the role of early post-settlement processes, such as predation, can be modified by the spatial structure of the habitat, and (3) have ramifications for the implementation of marine reserves. / Graduation date: 2004

The purpose of this study was to provide a historical overview of the development of the College of the Bahamas, and to examine the development of the College of the Bahamas in light of the College of the Bahamas Act of 1974 and the subsequent Act of 1995. The research was qualitative in nature using historical analysis. The primary means of investigation were analyses of both primary and secondary documents and interviews with key individuals who were important to the development of the College of the Bahamas since the 1960s. The methods of triangulation of data and findings were complemented by member checks to affirm the basic findings of the study. The study was limited in scope to the College of the Bahamas to the exclusion of other tertiary institutions within the country. The College of the Bahamas has advanced greatly and has largely fulfilled the directives and goals of the Act of 1974 and is currently engaged in efforts to meet the goals of the Act of 1995.

Trois cloîtres attribués aux couvents de "Trie-sur-Baïse", "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (aux Cloisters, New York) et "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas) furent remontés outre-Atlantique au cours du XXe siècle. L'installation moderne de tels monuments en Amérique nous incitent à nous intéresser à ce goût, exprimé dés le début du XXe siècle, pour l’architecture médiévale. Selon les premières attributions, les pierres proviendraient d'abbayes des Pyrénées centrales, dont les vestiges furent dispersés au cours de l'Histoire. Les troubles des guerres de Religion, l’abandon progressif des établissements par les communautés religieuses, l’aliénation de leur temporel pendant la Révolution portèrent un coup sévère à l’intégrité des bâtiments monastiques ; mais, de la période post-révolutionnaire jusqu’au début du XXe siècle, ce sont bien les discrètes transactions entre particuliers et antiquaires, qui firent disparaître de la mémoire collective l’origine même des pierres, particulièrement celles des cloîtres en marbre, convoitées pour leur décor. Identifier leur provenance fut l'enjeu majeur de cette étude. Ces marbres sculptés présentent un programme iconographique riche et varié : les ensembles de "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" et de "Montréjeau" proposent un décor de feuillage stylisé tandis que celui de "Trie-sur-Baïse" expose des scènes figurées originales. Mener une analyse de ces sculptures a permis de les restituer dans leur contexte architectural originel. / Three cloisters attributed to the monasteries of "Trie-sur-Baise", " Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (the Cloisters, New York) and "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas) were purchased by American collectors and rebuilt, during the XXth century, in North America. The modern assembly of such monuments generates interest on the taste of these American amateurs, from the beginning of XXth century, for medieval European architecture. While respectively attributed to the monasteries of "Trie-sur-Baise", "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" (the Cloisters, New York) and "Montréjeau" (Paradise Island, Bahamas), the initial attribution states that the stones were from central Pyrenees monasteries, whose ruins were scattered throughout ancient times : the Hundred-year war as well as the wars of religion, the gradual desertion of religious institutions by their communities during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries and, at last, the alienation of their properties during the Revolution seriously damaged the integrity of monastic buildings. However, during the post-revolutionary period until the early XXth century, many discrete transactions between individuals and antique dealers further took away the stones real origin from the collective memory, especially cloisters sculptures coveted for their ornament. Identifying the cloisters provenance was the main subject of this study. The three carved marbles present various iconography ; while the "Bonnefont-en-Comminges" and "Montréjeau" ensembles both show stylized foliage ornaments, the "Trie-sur-Baise" cloister depicts original figurative scenes. Carrying out an in-depth study of these sculptures made it possible to accurately associate the cloisters to their original architectural set and production context.

No description available.

This study investigated a resident community of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) on Little Bahama Bank (LBB) in the Bahamas utilizing a noninvasive molecular approach. Genetic template material was collected and extracted from fecal material of S. frontalis. Fine-scale population structure was found within LBB according to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and microsatellites (Fst = 0.25317, P < 0.0001 and Fst = 0.04491, P < 0.0001, respectively). Three main social clusters (North, Central, South/Roam) exist on LBB and all clusters were found to be genetically distinct according to microsatellite analyses. Mitochondrial haplotypes revealed North and South/Roam were not differentiated, but Central was different from both. When separated by sex, males were less genetically structured than females. Males showed no evidence of structure according to Ost or Rst. / Females of all clusters were differentiated according to microsatellites whereas mtDNA revealed the same pattern in females as was seen for the total population. The structuring patterns of the sexes clearly indicate a pattern of male dispersal and female philopatry for the LBB population. Genetic investigation of mating revealed patterns in the mating system of S. frontalis on LBB. Genotypes of females and offspring were analyzed and revealed that more than two males were required to explain the progeny arrays, indicating promiscuous mating among females. In addition, paternity assessment assigned seven males as fathers to ten of 29 mother-calf pairs. A pattern of reproductive skew according to age was revealed because reproductively successful males were in the oldest age class at the estimated time of conception of the calves. / Patterns in social cluster mating revealed that males from the Central cluster sired offspring with females from both the Central and North clusters, while Roaming males sired offspring with South and Central females indicating that males mate within their social cluster or with females from the next closest cluster. The study has important implications for cetacean research, specifically delphinids. Fine-scale population structure and mating patterns of male and female S. frontalis were revealed through noninvasive methodology presenting a valuable genetic framework with which to support ongoing investigations of life history, behavior, communication and social structure. / by Michelle Lynn Green. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Graduation date: 1998

What do the Madagascan Poinciana tree, the South American Bougainvillea bush, and the Australian Casuarina pine have in common with 300,000 people of primarily West African descent? Firstly, they all contribute to making the Bahamas what it is—paradise. Secondly, they are all well-adjusted aliens; bright, buoyant, beautiful immigrants so well entrenched in Bahamian land, soil, and ways that one might assume they had been in the country for thousands of years. This is preferable. Witness the jaunty effervescence of the tourism jingle 'It's Better in the Bahamas'. As a nation whose livelihood is dependant on the appearance of bliss, it is clearly beneficial to perpetuate the concept of cheery, carefree natives—be they brown of skin or red of flower. Bahamians, it may be said, are like rows of crimson royal Poinciana arching to canopy across a Nassau avenue, like gardens brimming full with peach and fuchsia Bougainvillea, like lines of shore-shading Casuarinas; resplendent beings magnificently entrenched in the land. Gardening explores the identities of these allegedly well-adjusted aliens, both human and botanic. This means celebrating the Poinciana's fiery summertime blooms. This means dipping into the dirt exposed when said Poinciana is toppled, post-hurricane, its root system too weakly joined to the land's thin and rocky soil to withstand strong storm winds. If Bahamian people are like the plants that surround them, what are we to take from the Casuarina pine, an invasive import currently colonizing the island coastlines? And what from the national tree, Lignum Vitae, now virtually unknown? Gardening, through poetry and short fiction, explores the beauty and madness of what are currently considered Bahamian people and plants. This exploration is both explicit and indirect; some pieces ponder the significance of intermittently beautiful and fragile lives. Others seek to capture the incongruity of identity, classification, and everyday life in a land where the concept of indigenity is an enormous fraud.

This document is an oral history of Ester Mae Bodie, one of the Exumas’ renowned plant experts. During the Bahamas Marine Protected Area Study, members of Richard Stoffle’s research team spent numerous hours interviewing Mrs. Bodie a range of topics including ethnobotany, traditional marine use, the proposed MPAs, and her life growing up in the Exumas. In order to honor her contributions to the overall project, members of the Stoffle team constructed this document to share her story.

This is a talk prepared for The Bahamas At 40: Reflecting On The Past, Envisioning The Future Conference. This talk will be given in a session entitled: Small Island Sustainability on June 13, 2013.