Eastern Shore Laboratory, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) Eastern Shore Laboratory (ESL) is located in the coastal village of Wachapreague, Virginia, on the landward margin of a mid-Atlantic barrier island-salt marsh-la goon system. The facility serves as both a field station in support of re search and teaching activities and as a site for resident research in coastal ecology and aquaculture. By virtue of its access to the unique coastal habi tats, excellent water quality, and an extensive seawater laboratory, the fa cility affords educational and re search opportunities not available elsewhere within the region

Past, Present and Future of Research at VIMS

Mark Luchenbach, Virginia Institute of Marine Science and School of Marine Science, College of William & Mary, Associate Dean of Research and Advisory Services, presents the research of the institute, highlighting the exponential growth of research output. As part of the year-long 75th anniversary celebration, this symposium brings together presentations from both alumni and current students to provide a historical and forward-looking perspective on the impacts that members of the VIMS community have made to the world

Social perception of children with autism spectrum disorders

textA broad review of assessment and intervention research relevant to Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, 1985) and Autism Spectrum Disorders from birth to age twelve was conducted. Nine assessment articles were reviewed to examine the major differences between children with autism spectrum disorders and children who are typically developing, particularly in the area of social perception. Assessment tasks aimed to discover a child's thoughts relevant to another's thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. It was discovered that children with autism spectrum disorders performed less well on Theory of Mind tasks, and tended to provide responses that were more egocentric and idiosyncratic in nature. A review of the intervention research revealed improvement in Theory of Mind domains is possible when teaching strategies explicitly target goals relevant to perspective taking. Generalization of skills to natural environments was a lacking area across all twelve articles, indicating a need for more intensive practice in natural environments. Interestingly, when social skills were taught in the absence of Theory of Mind training, no collateral effects were observed to Theory of Mind domain.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Oyster Gardening in Virginia: An Overview of Techniques

This document is intended to respond to a growing demand for information on intensive, off- bottom aquaculture of the eastern oyster, Crassostrea vlrginica, in Virginia and neighboring coastal states and represents an attempt to partially fulfill the requests from oyster gardeners for information on approaches towards culturing oysters

Post-settlement survival and growth of the Suminoe oyster, Crassostrea ariskensis, exposed to simulated emersion regimes

In high salinity habitats along the Middle and South Atlantic coasts of the United States the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica occupies an intertidal refuge from predation, facilitated by its tolerance of aerial exposure and associated desiccation and temperature stress. Observations of the Suminoe oyster, C. ariakensis in its native environments in Asia reveal that this species is most commonly found subtidally or in the very low intertidal zone, suggesting that it may be less tolerant of aerial exposure. With serious consideration being given to introducing C. ariakensis to the mid-Atlantic region, it is important to understand the ability of this non-native species to invade and become established in the intertidal zone. We conducted experiments in an outdoor quarantined facility to compare the tolerances of C. virginica and C. ariakensis to varying levels of aerial exposure. Diploid C. virginica and C. ariakensis were set on 10 cm x 10 cm PVC tiles, held in a flow-though quarantine system exposed to ambient weather conditions, and subjected for eight weeks to four simulated tidal emersion regimes-(1) high intertidal (3.5 h emersion), (2) mid intertidal (2 h emersion), (3) low intertidal (1 h emersion), and (4) subtidal (constant immersion)-and four exposure orientations-(1,2) vertical north- and south-facing, and (3,4) horizontal up- and down-facing. Complete mortality of both species occurred in the high intertidal treatment by the end of week 1. No C. ariakensis had survived in the mid intertidal treatment by week 2 and very few remained alive in the low intertidal treatment. By the end of week 5, only 1.25% of the C. ariakensis had survived in the low intertidal treatment, whereas survival of C. ariakensis in the subtidal treatment was 36.88%. Significantly, C. virginica survival was 80.63% in the subtidal treatment and 67.50% and 28.13% on the vertically-oriented tiles (north- and south-facing treatments combined) in the low intertidal and mid intertidal treatments, respectively. Growth rates of C. virginica across tidal treatments were greatest in the subtidal treatment and C. ariakensis grew faster in the subtidal treatment than C. virginica. These results indicate that even with modest aerial exposure, under climatic conditions characteristic of summers in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, C. ariakensis would suffer high rates of early post-settlement mortality, effectively restricting this non-native oyster species to subtidal environments if introduced to the region

Population Assessment of Eastern Oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in the Seaside Coastal Bays

Declines of oyster populations and commercial harvest from the Virginia seaside coastal bays have followed similar patterns, though not as severe, as those in Chesapeake Bay. High prevalence of Dermo disease (Perkinsus marinus) and MSX disease (Haplosporidium nelsoni) coupled with over harvest and habitat destruction have dramatically reduced populations. Nevertheless, there are several promising signs that significant enhancement of the population could be achieved with well conceived restoration efforts. Oyster habitat and population distribution were examined in the coastal bay system on the seaside of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. This system is composed of barrier islands, salt marshes, broad and shallow coastal bays, intertidal mud flats, and deeper water channels. Manmade shorelines such as bulkhead and rip rap are prevalent in limited areas. This study provides the first quantitative assessment of oyster population abundance on a region wide scale in the coastal bays on the seaside of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Our estimate of 3.2 billion oysters in this region exceeds the most recent population estimate of 1.8 billion oysters for the entire Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay produced by the VIMS CBOPE (http://web.vims.edu/mollusc/cbope/VAPDFfiles/VABasin2006.pdf). At the time of our sampling, Dec. 2007 – June 2008, the oyster population was comprised of a wide range of sizes representing several year classes that suggest a self-sustaining population with the potential for significant expansion. The spatially-explicit oyster population GIS product developed through this work provides a valuable tool for guiding fisheries resource management and restoration activities for oysters in this region. The ultimate usefulness of this product lies in its integrative aspect as a GIS tool

Recruitment, substrate quality and standing stock monitoring in support of NOAA-ACOA oyster restoration projects in the Great Wicomico, Rappahannock, Piankatank and Lynnhaven River Basins, 2004-2006 : supplementary materials

Many factors affect the success of oyster restoration efforts. This supplemental report details the VIMS effort under this NOAA-funded program to monitor some of those factors in the Great Wicomico, Rappahannock, Piankatank and Lynnhaven Rivers. Specifically, it details monitoring of (1) oyster settlement at two reefs in each of those tributaries from May to November from 2004 – 2006, along with additional widespread recruitment monitoring in the Lynnhaven River in 2005 & 2006, (2) substrate condition on the same eight reefs during spring, summer and fall of 2004 – 2006, (3) oyster abundance on Shell Bar reef in the Great Wicomico River before and the deployment of hatchery-produced oysters in the spring of 2005, and (4) oyster population distribution, abundance and size in the Lynnhaven River basin during the period from April 2005 – March 2006