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Blue Mussel Hybrid Complex Shifts in the Gulf of Maine towards a Dominance of Mytilus edulis
Get PDFThe Gulf of Maine (GOM) in the United States is the fastest warming body of water in the world. Due to a complex history of glaciation, the GOM has restricted circulation that causes it to function more akin to an enclosed sea. As climate change has disrupted the stable flow of the Gulf Stream, more warm-water currents are entering the GOM at higher frequency. This warming has had a profound impact on the distribution of the blue mussel, Mytilus spp., which inhabits the rocky intertidal habitat within the GOM as the main prey species to a keystone predator. Two sister species, M. edulis and M. trossulus, both inhabit the GOM and hybridize in areas of sympatry. However, in recent years, the population of both hybrids and M. trossulus have been retreating northward in the GOM towards the Canadian coast. This study builds upon previous assessments of Mytilus species distribution along the GOM using two genetic markers, SOD and TAUT, that differentiate between members of each species. Results indicate a dominance of M. edulis, with few remaining refuges for either M. trossulus or hybrid individuals. These refuges are mostly islands, suggesting a potential correlation between exposure and/or temperature caused by increased distance from the mainland. The trends in the GOM are troubling for the intertidal ecosystem, as decreased biodiversity in a key prey species could lead to increased vulnerability to disease and other population threats, which could lead to drastic negative effects on the rest of the local food web
Memory Lane
No full textMemory Lane is a manifestation of these nostalgic
memories through self-reflection and collaboration
with my family. To begin, I asked my parents to
each draw every house I ever lived in from memory.
I then combined their designs and added my own
memories to create the final renderings for each
house. The result is an imaginary suburb, birthed
from inaccessible memories and flawed nostalgia.
By using the theatrical device of the façade, I am
emphasizing the temporary and undefined nature of
each house. These houses do not exist in reality, not
in the way that they are represented here. Time has
altered each house; memory has added windows,
changed colors, made things larger or smaller. This
is my childhood, and yet it isn’t. The weathering and
overgrown look of my sculptures implies that the
memory has been eroded over time. Some houses are
more eroded, or more forgotten, than others. I have
represented the superficiality of suburbia through
creating the houses as façades, like those on a film
set. The renderings that my parents and I created are
featured in the installation to call to mind a process
behind the neighborhood. Behind each cookie-cutter
suburb is an impersonal artistic process in which a
house is designed, then copied and pasted with a few
HOA approved colors and trims. Here, that process
is disrupted by lingering memories and emotions,
leaving each house with a distinct personality that
turns the once monolithic American suburb into my
unique Memory Lane neighborhood.https://scholarship.rollins.edu/studioart_all/1020/thumbnail.jp
