UNBOUND

Featured here, are the extraordinary works of our graduating Fashion Design class. This accomplishment is truly a celebration of the tree years of passion, hard work, and dedication of our students. It\u27s our hope that the fashion industry will partake in the creative endeavors of the emerging designers from the Fashion Design program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.https://first.fanshawec.ca/famd_design_fashiondesign_unbound/1002/thumbnail.jp

Long-Term Trends in Estuarine Carbonate Chemistry in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

A four-decade dataset that spans seven estuaries along a latitudinal gradient in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and includes measurements of pH and total alkalinity was used to calculate partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), saturation state of aragonite (ΩAr), and a buffer factor (βDIC, which measures the response of proton concentration or pH to DIC concentration change) and examine long-term trends and spatial patterns in these parameters. With the notable exception of the northernmost and southernmost estuaries (and selected stations near freshwater input), these estuaries have generally experienced long-term increases in pCO2 and decreases in DIC, ΩAr, and βDIC, with the magnitude of change generally increasing from north to south. At all stations with increasing pCO2, the rate of increase exceeded the rate of increase in atmospheric pCO2, indicating that these estuaries have become a greater source of CO2 to the atmosphere over the last few decades. The decreases in ΩAr have yet to cause ΩAr to near undersaturation, but even the observed decreases may have the potential to decrease calcification rates in important estuarine calcifiers like oysters. The decreases in βDIC directly indicate that these estuaries have experienced continually greater change in pH in the context of ocean acidification

Carbonate chemistry in Mission Aransas Estuary from May 2014 to Feb 2017 and Dec 2018 to Feb 2020

Dataset: Carbonate Chemistry 2014-2017 and 2018-2020The Ecosystem Science and Modeling lab has been collecting water samples from five stations in the Mission-Aransas Estuary (MAE, Northwest Gulf of Mexico, Texas coast) for carbonate system characterization on a monthly to twice monthly basis since May 2014. This dataset includes temperature, salinity, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA), calcium, and pH measurements from surface and bottom water samples in MAE from May 2014 – Feb 2017 and Dec 2018 – Feb 2020. Additional data for this estuary to fill in the Feb 2017 – Dec 2018 gap are also archived with BCO-DMO (http://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/784673, doi:10.1575/1912/bco-dmo.784673.1). For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/835227NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-165423

Shell (weight, density, thickness, crushing force, amino acid content) and soft tissue metrics (somatic tissue weight, gonad index) for eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica reared under variable predation conditions (S. Texas, 2013-14)

Inducing defenses to deter predators is a necessary process theorized to incur costs. Although studies have investigated defense trade-offs, quantifying trade-offs is challenging and costs are often inferred. Additionally, prey employ strategies to reduce costs, making costs difficult to predict. Our purpose was to investigate induced defense costs by characterizing the defense mechanisms and costs in eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica). In the field (summer 2014; 28.13°N, 96.98°W), newly-settled oysters reared under field conditions and assigned to control or predator (blue crab, Callinectes sapidus) conditions, were tested for shell weight and crushing force (a proxy for shell strength; both metrics are known to increase in response to exudates from crab predators), and amino acid content. Amino acid content indicates the quantity and type of organic material present in shells and informs our understanding of the physiological mechanism of defense in oysters. Oysters exposed to blue crab exudates grew stronger shells containing less percent organic material than oysters in controls. In oysters collected from natural populations (spring 2014 and 2017; 28°N, 97°W), we tested the correlation between shell density and shell thickness to determine natural patterns of oyster shell morphology. We also performed regression analyses of soft tissue mass and gonad investment (gonad index, calculated as gonad tissue mass/soft tissue mass) to assess the relationship between shell morphology and other biologically valuable processes (growth and reproduction respectively). Shell density was negatively correlated with shell thickness, further suggesting oysters thicken their shells by increasing low-density calcium carbonate. Reproductive investment showed an increasingly negative relationship with thickness as density decreased (and induction increased). In a lab experiment (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; summer 2013), oysters were exposed to a temporal gradient in risk and tested for shell weight and strength to indirectly test hypotheses regarding the mechanism and costs of oyster defenses suggested by the above experiments. Oysters grew heavier shells in all crab treatments, but only grew stronger shells under constant exposure. Collectively, these results suggest oysters initially react to predators by adding inexpensive calcium carbonate to their shells to quickly outgrow risk. However, in high risk environments, oysters may increase production of costly organic material to increase shell strength. Thus, oysters demonstrate a two-tier mechanism allowing them to cheaply escape predation at lower risk but to build stronger shells at greater expense when warranted. These results illuminate the complex strategies prey deploy to balance predation risk and defense costs and the importance of understanding these strategies to accurately predict predator effects