Thesis (doctoral)--University of Queensland, 2005.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

The production of an economic good derived from a renewable natural resource base involves the extraction of ecosystem function values as represented by the contribution made to production by the originating ecosystem. The artisanal fisheries of Jamaica is used as a case study in the examination of the characteristics of economic production processes and the development of a biophysically-based index to account for captured ecosystem values. The following is provided: (i) a description of the fisheries of Jamaica and derivation of economic production function models; (ii) a description of the socio-economic condition of the fisheries of Montego Bay Marine Park (Montego Bay, Jamaica) which serves to further illustrate the nature of artisanal fisheries in Jamaica, as well as a more traditional economic approach to resource valuation; and, (iii) the development of an index which as a proxy measure captures the biophysical values of the contributions of the natural biotic environment (the “embodied ecosystem values”) to the fisheries, and an examination of the extent to which those values are proportionately reflected in monetary exchange values. In addition, contributions are made concerning: (i) the development of an economic data collection and analysis programme for Jamaica (also more widely applicable to countries of the developing tropics) which will allow for more informed decisions concerning the management of coral reef fisheries; (ii) general principles concerning the development of biophysical indices, such as indices of biodiversity, which will ultimately be used to inform government policy and management decisions; (iii) the validity of indices derived from ecosystem statistics; and, (iv) the potential for the further development of models which explicitly incorporate the contributions of ecosystems to economic production processes. Cobb-Douglas and translog models of fishing effort are derived from catch and effort data for the years 1996 and 1997 to describe the relationships between catch and firm-level inputs as they vary by fishery within Jamaica. Data on the total catch, crew size, gear soak time, and quantity of gear used yield separate functions of effort for the use of China net, trap, hand line, palanca, speargun, and troll fishing technologies. By further accounting for the month and fishing location (i.e. north coast versus south coast), the seasonal and regional influences on catch rates are explored. Patterns of production include reduced catch rates associated with fishing the north coast shelf and a seasonal peak in catch levels during the late summer and fall. The use of production function models of effort are found to provide informative descriptions of fishery production processes, yet avoid many of the technical difficulties associated with more traditional bioeconomic approaches. The Index of Captured Ecosystem Value (ICEV) is developed from a basis in information theory relevant to an analysis of network flows in ecosystems. Technical coefficients, describing the production relationship between ICEV values and market values of catches associated with individual fishing efforts, revealed that captured ecosystem function associated with fisheries using distinct technologies (i.e. China net, trap, hand line, palanca, and speargun) were valued differently by the market. This “surplus value” appears to be rooted in the observation that certain fisheries target species which are more connected within the coral reef food web than those species typically captured by other fisheries. Consideration of the biophysical contributions of coral reef ecosystems to fisheries production reveals distortions between market and supply-side values, indicating that the role of ecosystems is not being consistently treated. / Graduate

Coral reef cryptobenthic communities are largely understudied yet they contribute to the large majority of coral reef biodiversity. The main aim of this dissertation was to understand the effects of the organic C, temperature, surrounding benthic communities, salinity, catastrophic events, time, and limitations to dispersal of the cryptobenthic communities. Using 54 ARMS along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast, we found that temperature, chlorophyll-a concentration, and photosynthetic active radiation affected the number of OTUs of the cryptobiome, i.e., its biodiversity. We found temperature, energy available, and benthic structure to be associated with distinct cryptobenthic communities and to influence its diversity patterns. These environmental conditions affected differentially the abundance of specific organisms. We also investigated the inter-annual patterns of variability of this biological component in the central Red Sea. We deployed and collected ARMS in four reefs along a cross shelf gradient in three sampling periods spanning 6 years (2013-2019). This period included the 2015/2016 mass bleaching event. We observed cross shelf differences in community composition to be consistent over time and maintained after the bleaching event. However, turnover was significantly higher between prebleaching and post bleaching sampling years than between post bleaching comparisons. Cryptobenthic communities of 2019 presented a slight return to prebleaching composition. In light of predictions of returning bleaching events every 6 years, the observed return might not be sufficient for reaching a full recovery. We investigated the relative contribution of two ecological theories: the neutral theory (associated with the limitations to dispersal and therefore geographic distance) and the niche filtering (associated with environmental conditions that limit colonization). We used 50 ARMS collected from the north, central, and south Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and Oman Gulf. We found that limitation to dispersal and environmental filtering to influence beta diversity. However, the geographic distance had a better fit with the beta diversity patterns observed, suggesting a preponderance of the neutral theory of ecology explaining the community patterns. This dissertation provides fundamental information on characterization of the cryptobiome in the Arabian Peninsula.

No description available.

No description available.

Coral reefs are declining globally, calling for better ways to quantify coral health and predict resilience to future stress. The relationship between bleaching and fitness is key, as is reserve capacity to deal with physical trauma. This dissertation is an integrative study of the coral-algal symbiosis, holobiont performance under varied environmental conditions, and interactions between holobiont and environment on coral colony health and ability to recover from routine partial damage. I utilize the facultatively symbiotic, temperate coral Astrangia poculata as a natural model to explore the dynamics of colony health, performance, and the influence of environmental and nutritional stress under stable aposymbiotic and symbiotic states. Unlike most tropical hermatypic corals that rely heavily upon photosynthetic symbionts for energy, A. poculata can (1) flexibly use both heterotrophic and autotrophic nutritional pathways and (2) exist in naturally occurring, stable, and measurable aposymbiotic and symbiotic states. I begin by describing the impacts of environmentally relevant (winter, summer, and above range) temperatures on small-scale wound healing and recovery. Next, I explore the effects of nutritional and symbiotic states by comparing wound recovery, total colony health, host behavior, and symbiont performance in fed and starved colonies. Finally, I generate a novel reference transcriptome for A. poculata, and use computational approaches to characterize variation in gene expression between the symbiotic and aposymbiotic states. This analysis reveals that regardless of temperature, and with or without the potential for heterotrophic nutritional sources, a relationship with Symbiodinium enhances wound recovery and resilience to stress. Compromised healing ability and tissue cover at low temperatures suggest that in temperate stony corals, recovery and survival are more impacted by winter conditions than by exposure to high summer temperatures. Differential expression analysis revealed predictable enhancements to photosynthesis-related gene expression in symbiotic colonies. Together these results illuminate the complex interactions among symbiotic state, stress, recovery, and performance. We propose that studies like ours that examine the effects of combined stressors, as opposed to a monotonic focus on coral bleaching per se, are essential to clinical diagnosis and stewardship for coral reefs subjected to intense, cumulative human impacts.

No description available.