Settlement Of Crassostrea Ariakensis Larvae: Effects Of Substrate, Biofilms, Sediment And Adult Chemical Cues

The Suminoe oyster (Crassostrea ariakensis) is being considered for introduction into the Chesapeake Bay. However, our current understanding of the biology and ecology of C. ariakensis is insufficient to predict whether an introduction will be successful, provide desired benefits, or have adverse impacts. Behavior of native Eastern oyster (C. virginica) pediveligers has been studied for many years and it is well established that they use a variety of habitat characteristics when selecting a site for colonization. Perhaps the most important of these are chemical cues emitted by adult conspecifics, which can lead to gregarious larval settlement and dense, persistent reef communities. Conversely, almost nothing is known about the mechanisms that regulate larval settlement and metamorphosis for C. ariakensis or how pediveligers might respond to conditions found in Chesapeake Bay. In a comparative study with C. virginica, we examined how environmental factors such as substrate type, natural biofilms, sediment and waterborne chemical cues influence larval settlement for two C. ariakensis strains (‘‘south China’’ and ‘‘west coast’’). Our results demonstrate many similarities but also potentially important differences. Both species and strains of larvae greatly prefer natural substrates (e.g., shell) covered with biofilms for colonization but the west coast strain of C. ariakensis exhibited greater attachment onto manmade substrates (e.g., fiberglass) than C. virginica. Waterborne chemical cues emitted by adult oysters were also found to enhance substrate attachment for all larval forms but cues do not appear to be species specific. These results provide critical insight to the ability of C. ariakensis larvae to identify and colonize suitable substrates in the Chesapeake Bay, which will have a large impact on recruitment success and their ability to establish self-sustaining populations

Biofilms associated with ship submerged surfaces: implications for ship biofouling management and the environment

Biofouling (including initial microbial biofilms) of submerged ship surfaces can directly impact vessel operations, leading to increases in fuel usage, greenhouse gas emissions, and the likelihood of non-indigenous species (NIS) transfer and impacts. Considerations of attainable and consistent biosecurity goals are paramount to the success of the widespread adoption of biofouling management policy. Proactive in-water cleaning (IWC) of biofilms from submerged ship surfaces may provide a viable option from a biosecurity and ship operations standpoint, however these benefits need to be balanced against other environmental costs, including the potential for increased biosecurity risks associated with the elevated release of diverse microbes from ship surfaces

Alliance for Coastal Technologies: Advancing Moored pCO2 Instruments in Coastal Waters

The Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) has been established to support innovation and to provide the information required to select the most appropriate tools for studying and monitoring coastal and ocean environments. ACT is a consortium of nationally prominent ocean science and technology institutions and experts who provide credible performance data of these technologies through third-party, objective testing. ACT technology verifications include laboratory and field tests over short- and long-term deployments of commercial technologies in diverse environments to provide unequivocal, unbiased confirmation that technologies meet key performance requirements. ACT demonstrations of new technologies validate the technology concept and help eliminate performance problems before operational introduction. ACT’s most recent demonstration of pCO2 sensors is an example of how ACT advances the evolution of ocean observing technologies, in this case to address the critical issue of ocean acidification, and promotes more informed decision making on technology capabilities and choices

Environment and shipping drive environmental DNA beta-diversity among commercial ports

The spread of nonindigenous species by shipping is a large and growing global problem that harms coastal ecosystems and economies and may blur coastal biogeographical patterns. This study coupled eukaryotic environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding with dissimilarity regression to test the hypothesis that ship-borne species spread homogenizes port communities. We first collected and metabarcoded water samples from ports in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. We then calculated community dissimilarities between port pairs and tested for effects of environmental dissimilarity, biogeographical region and four alternative measures of ship-borne species transport risk. We predicted that higher shipping between ports would decrease community dissimilarity, that the effect of shipping would be small compared to that of environment dissimilarity and shared biogeography, and that more complex shipping risk metrics (which account for ballast water and stepping-stone spread) would perform better. Consistent with our hypotheses, community dissimilarities increased significantly with environmental dissimilarity and, to a lesser extent, decreased with ship-borne species transport risks, particularly if the ports had similar environments and stepping-stone risks were considered. Unexpectedly, we found no clear effect of shared biogeography, and that risk metrics incorporating estimates of ballast discharge did not offer more explanatory power than simpler traffic-based risks. Overall, we found that shipping homogenizes eukaryotic communities between ports in predictable ways, which could inform improvements in invasive species policy and management. We demonstrated the usefulness of eDNA metabarcoding and dissimilarity regression for disentangling the drivers of large-scale biodiversity patterns. We conclude by outlining logistical considerations and recommendations for future studies using this approach.Fil: Andrés, Jose. Cornell University. Department Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology;Fil: Czechowski, Paul. Cornell University. Department Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology; . University of Otago; Nueva Zelanda. Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research; AlemaniaFil: Grey, Erin. University of Maine; Estados Unidos. Governors State University; Estados UnidosFil: Saebi, Mandana. University of Notre Dame; Estados UnidosFil: Andres, Kara. Cornell University. Department Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology;Fil: Brown, Christopher. California State University Maritime Academy; Estados UnidosFil: Chawla, Nitesh. University of Notre Dame; Estados UnidosFil: Corbett, James J.. University of Delaware; Estados UnidosFil: Brys, Rein. Research Institute for Nature and Forest; BélgicaFil: Cassey, Phillip. University of Adelaide; AustraliaFil: Correa, Nancy. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Instituto Universitario Naval de la Ara. Escuela de Ciencias del Mar; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; ArgentinaFil: Deveney, Marty R.. South Australian Research And Development Institute; AustraliaFil: Egan, Scott P.. Rice University; Estados UnidosFil: Fisher, Joshua P.. United States Fish and Wildlife Service; Estados UnidosFil: vanden Hooff, Rian. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; Estados UnidosFil: Knapp, Charles R.. Daniel P. Haerther Center for Conservation and Research; Estados UnidosFil: Leong, Sandric Chee Yew. National University of Singapore; SingapurFil: Neilson, Brian J.. State of Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources; Estados UnidosFil: Paolucci, Esteban Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Pfrender, Michael E.. University of Notre Dame; Estados UnidosFil: Pochardt, Meredith R.. M. Rose Consulting; Estados UnidosFil: Prowse, Thomas A. A.. University of Adelaide; AustraliaFil: Rumrill, Steven S.. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; Estados UnidosFil: Scianni, Chris. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto para el Estudio de la Biodiversidad de Invertebrados; Argentina. Marine Invasive Species Program; Estados UnidosFil: Sylvester, Francisco. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto para el Estudio de la Biodiversidad de Invertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; ArgentinaFil: Tamburri, Mario N.. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Therriault, Thomas W.. Pacific Biological Station; CanadáFil: Yeo, Darren C. J.. National University of Singapore; SingapurFil: Lodge, David M.. Cornell University. Department Of Ecology And Evolutionary Biology

Evolving and sustaining ocean best practices and standards for the next decade

The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet’s ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing is the need to follow well-defined and reproducible methods across activities: from strategies for structuring observing systems, sensor deployment and usage, and the generation of data and information products, to ethical and governance aspects when executing ocean observing. To meet the urgent, planet-wide challenges we face, methods across all aspects of ocean observing should be broadly adopted by the ocean community and, where appropriate, should evolve into “Ocean Best Practices.” While many groups have created best practices, they are scattered across the Web or buried in local repositories and many have yet to be digitized. To reduce this fragmentation, we introduce a new open access, permanent, digital repository of best practices documentation (oceanbestpractices.org) that is part of the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The new OBPS provides an opportunity space for the centralized and coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. The OBPS repository employs user-friendly software to significantly improve discovery and access to methods. The software includes advanced semantic technologies for search capabilities to enhance repository operations. In addition to the repository, the OBPS also includes a peer reviewed journal research topic, a forum for community discussion and a training activity for use of best practices. Together, these components serve to realize a core objective of the OBPS, which is to enable the ocean community to create superior methods for every activity in ocean observing from research to operations to applications that are agreed upon and broadly adopted across communities. Using selected ocean observing examples, we show how the OBPS supports this objective. This paper lays out a future vision of ocean best practices and how OBPS will contribute to improving ocean observing in the decade to come