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RECONSTRUCTION OF FAMILY-LEVEL PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN DEMOSPONGIAE (PORIFERA) USING NUCLEAR ENCODED HOUSEKEEPING GENES.
No full textBackground: Demosponges are challenging for phylogenetic systematics because of their plastic and relatively simple morphologies and many deep divergences between major clades. To improve understanding of the phylogenetic relationships within Demospongiae, we sequenced and analyzed seven nuclear housekeeping genes involved in a variety of cellular functions from a diverse group of sponges. Methodology/Principal Findings: We generated data from each of the four sponge classes (i.e., Calcarea, Demospongiae, Hexactinellida, and Homoscleromorpha), but focused on family-level relationships within demosponges. With data for 21 newly sampled families, our Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian-based approaches recovered previously phylogenetically defined taxa: Keratosap, Myxospongiaep, Spongillidap, Haploscleromorphap (the marine haplosclerids) and Democlaviap. We found conflicting results concerning the relationships of Keratosap and Myxospongiaep to the remaining demosponges, but our results strongly supported a clade of Haploscleromorphap+Spongillidap+Democlaviap. In contrast to hypotheses based on mitochondrial genome and ribosomal data, nuclear housekeeping gene data suggested that freshwater sponges (Spongillidap) are sister to Haploscleromorphap rather than part of Democlaviap. Within Keratosap, we found equivocal results as to the monophyly of Dictyoceratida. Within Myxospongiaep, Chondrosida and Verongida were monophyletic. A wellsupported clade within Democlaviap, Tetractinellidap, composed of all sampled members of Astrophorina and Spirophorina (including the only lithistid in our analysis), was consistently revealed as the sister group to all other members of Democlaviap. Within Tetractinellidap, we did not recover monophyletic Astrophorina or Spirophorina. Our results also reaffirmed the monophyly of order Poecilosclerida (excluding Desmacellidae and Raspailiidae), and polyphyly of Hadromerida and Halichondrida. Conclusions/Significance: These results, using an independent nuclear gene set, confirmed many hypotheses based on ribosomal and/or mitochondrial genes, and they also identified clades with low statistical support or clades that conflicted with traditional morphological classification. Our results will serve as a basis for future exploration of these outstanding questions using more taxon- and gene-rich datasets
SOUTH ATLANTIC MPAS AND DEEPWATER CORAL HAPCS: CHARACTERIZATION OF BENTHIC HABITAT AND FAUNANOAA SHIP PISCES CRUISE 12-03 UNCW SUPER PHANTOM ROVJULY 6-19, 2012.
Get PDFA 14 day research cruise was conducted July 6-19, 2012, on the NOAA Ship Pisces with the UNCW Super Phantom ROV by NOAA National Marine Fisheries in collaboration with the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU), and other academic and federal partners (including NOAA NCCOS and University of North Carolina at Wilmington).
Recently, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) established eight deepwater Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along the outer continental shelf off the southeastern U.S. This project is one of several research cruises to document and characterize the benthic habitat, benthic biota, and fish populations within and adjacent to these protected areas within the jurisdiction of the SAFMC. This monitoring program for the MPAs will ensure the Council remains well informed of changes within reef fish populations and coral habitats associated with these MPAs
SOUTH ATLANTIC MPAS AND DEEPWATER CORAL HAPCS: CHARACTERIZATION OF BENTHIC HABITAT AND FAUNA.
Get PDFThe primary objectives of the cruise were to gather additional data on habitat and fish assemblages in five of the South Atlantic Grouper/Tilefish MPAs as part of a long term sampling program to document changes in these areas before and after fishing restrictions were implemented. Efficacy testing of this management tool will aid fishery managers in future use of area restrictions for the protection of valuable habitat and fishery resources
NOAA CIOERT REPORT: SURVEY OF THE PULLEY RIDGE MESOPHOTIC REEF ECOSYSTEM. NOAA SHIP NANCY FOSTER FLORIDA SHELF-EDGE EXPLORATION II (FLOSEE) CRUISE LEG 1-SEPTEMBER 12-19, 2011.
Get PDFIn September 2011, a three week research cruise was conducted by the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute-Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU) in collaboration with NOAA. This CIOERT Florida Shelf-Edge Exploration II (FLoSEE) Cruise was conducted in two legs using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster and the University of Connecticut’s (UCONN) Kraken 2 ROV. CIOERT is grateful for the funding and resources provided by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), the NOAA Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP), and the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) in support of the research, ship time, and ROV time. This Preliminary Cruise Report is for Leg 1 of the cruise to characterize and document the habitat, benthic and fish communities, and to assess the coral health on southern Pulley Ridge and within the Pulley Ridge Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC); these sites are in the Gulf of Mexico on the southwest Florida shelf (Fig. 1). Leg 2 was on Pourtalès Terrace which is south of the Florida Keys and is reported separately. This Preliminary Cruise Report includes SEADESC Level I data analysis (Appendix 1) which describes in detail each ROV dive including: cruise metadata, figures showing each dive track overlaid on the new multibeam sonar maps, dive track data (start and end latitude, longitude, depth), objectives, general description of the habitat and biota, and images of the biota and habitat that characterize the dive site. The Final Cruise Report will include the SEADESC Level II Report which will provide for each dive site quantitative analyses detailing the densities of the benthic biota and CPCE 4.0© Coral Point Count for percent cover of substrate type and sessile biota
VARIABILITY OF COLD-WATER CORAL MOUNDS IN A HIGH SEDIMENT INPUT AND TIDAL CURRENT REGIME, STRAITS OF FLORIDA.
Get PDFCold-water coral mound morphology and development are thought to be controlled primarily by current regime. This study, however, reveals a general lack of correlation between prevailing bottom current direction and mound morphology (i.e. footprint shape and orientation), as well as current strength and mound size (i.e. footprint area and height). These findings are based on quantitative analyses of a high-resolution geophysical dataset collected with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle from three cold-water coral mound sites at the toe of slope of Great Bahama Bank. The three sites (80 km2 total) have an average of 14 mounds km)2, indicating that the Great Bahama Bank slope is a major coral mound region. At all three sites living coral colonies are observed on the surface of the mounds, documenting active mound growth. Morphometric analysis shows that mounds at these sites vary significantly in height (1 to 83 m), area (81 to 6 00 000 m2), shape (mound aspect ratio 0Æ1 to 1) and orientation (mound longest axis 0 to 180_). The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle measured bottom current data depict a north–south flowing current that reverses approximately every six hours. The tidal nature of this current and its intermittent deviations during reversals are interpreted to contribute to the observed mound complexity. An additional factor contributing to the variability in mound morphometrics is the sediment deposition rate that varies among and within sites. At most locations sedimentation rate lags slightly behind mound growth rate, causing mounds to develop into large structures. Where sedimentation rates are higher than mound growth rates, sediment partially or completely buries mounds. The spatial distribution and alignment of mounds can also be related to gravity mass deposits, as indicated by geomorphological features (for example, slope failure and linear topographic highs) in the three-dimensional bathymetry. In summary, variability in sedimentation rates, current regime and underlying topography produce extraordinarily high variability in the distribution, development and morphology of coral mounds on the Great Bahama Bank slope
DEEP-WATER BENTHIC HABITAT CHARACTERIZATION AND CABLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR THE SOUTH FLORIDA OCEAN MEASUREMENT FACILITY (SFOMF).
Get PDFThe purpose of this effort was to (1) provide a characterization of benthic habitats within the South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF) OP AREA cable corridor along deep fiber optic cable C/S 96 from a depth of ~30 m to the reported eastern seaward terminus on the Miami Terrace (~500 m depth), and (2) identify and estimate impacts to deep benthic habitat resources from cable infrastructure in the same corridor preparatory to an Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) Assessment.
The project was carried out in response to a request from the SFOMF (a detachment of Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division [NSWCCD]). This effort was carried out within the SFOMF OP AREA located just south of the Port Everglades entrance channel in Broward County, Florida (Figure 1-1). The survey consisted of a videographic and still photographic survey executed using the NSWCCD’s Television Observed Nautical Grappling System (TONGS) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to examine a cable route and comparable areas without cables. The survey included a 26.2-km-long transect along a cable route, 1-km-long parallel transects 150 m on each side of the cable route between 30 m and 90 m depth, a 20.2-km-long transect ~1.6 km north of the cable route between 250 and 500 m depth, a 13.4-km-long transect ~2.2 km south of the cable route between 285 and 565 m depth, plus three north south oriented transects along the cable route. The total length of the survey was approximately 67 km (=~36 nm).
Tasks included (1) review of video and still photographic data for organism identification, (2) analyses of still images for substrate type, taxon abundances and density by habitat/substrate type and location, and percent cover by taxon, (3) characterization and mapping of benthic habitats/biological zones, and (4) comparison of Cable and Non-Cable habitats.
The data and analyses in this report are part of a larger study that also assessed cable impacts in seven selected shallower-water habitats (0-30 m) in the OP AREA. Major differences in methodologies between the shallow-water study and this one necessitated different approaches to data collection. Environments beyond scuba depth are inherently far more difficult of access, and data acquisition is more limited for a given time effort. In addition, resource management agencies (e.g., BOEM, NOAA, SAFMC) apply different regulatory criteria to shallow versus deeper-water habitats (e.g., Coral Habitat of Particular Concern for deep water corals; Section 2.4, below). The survey reported here was carried out at depths greater than recreational scuba diving limits (30 m). As a result, all data were collected remotely; results and analyses were based entirely on video and photographs, and all data were analyzed and reported to conform with agency criteria for deep-water habitats.
Although cable-associated EFH impacts may occur during cable deployment and continuously over the time cable remains on reef habitat, this project was not designed to and could not distinguish among impacts associated with deployment and those that have occurred since deployment. Similarly, it cannot anticipate the nature and breadth of future deployment impacts
NOAA CIOERT CRUISE REPORT: SURVEY OF THE PULLEY RIDGE MESOPHOTIC REEF ECOSYSTEM.
Get PDFIn September 2011, a three week research cruise was conducted by the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute-Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU) in collaboration with NOAA. This CIOERT Florida Shelf-Edge Exploration II (FLoSEE) Cruise was conducted in two legs using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster in conjunction with University of Connecticut’s (UCONN) Kraken 2 ROV. CIOERT is grateful for the funding and resources provided by the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), the NOAA Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP), and the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) in support of the research, ship time, and ROV time. This Preliminary Cruise Report is for Leg 1 of the cruise to characterize and document the habitat, benthic and fish communities, and to assess the coral health on southern Pulley Ridge and within the Pulley Ridge Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC); these sites are in the Gulf of Mexico on the southwest Florida shelf (Fig. 1). Leg 2 was on Pourtalès Terrace which is south of the Florida Keys and is reported separately. This Preliminary Cruise Report includes SEADESC Level I data analysis (Appendix 1) which describes in detail each ROV dive including: cruise metadata, figures showing each dive track overlaid on the new multibeam sonar maps, dive track data (start and end latitude, longitude, depth), objectives, general description of the habitat and biota, and images of the biota and habitat that characterize the dive site. The Final Cruise Report will include the SEADESC Level II Report which will provide for each dive site quantitative analyses detailing the densities of the benthic biota and CPCE 4.0© Coral Point Count for percent cover of substrate type and sessile biota
DEEP-WATER BENTHIC HABITAT CHARACTERIZATION AND CABLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR THE SOUTH FLORIDA OCEAN MEASUREMENT FACILITY (SFOMF). REPORT TO NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER, CARDEROCK DIVISION.
Get PDFThe purpose of this effort was to (1) provide a characterization of benthic habitats within the South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF) OP AREA cable corridor along deep fiber-optic cable C/S 96 from a depth of ~30 m to the reported eastern seaward terminus on the Miami Terrace (~500 m depth), and (2) identify and estimate impacts to deep benthic habitat resources from cable infrastructure in the same corridor preparatory to an Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) Assessment.
The project was carried out in response to a request from the SFOMF (a detachment of Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division [NSWCCD]). This effort was carried out within the SFOMF OP AREA located just south of the Port Everglades entrance channel in Broward County, Florida (Figure 1-1). The survey consisted of a videographic and still photographic survey executed using the NSWCCD’s Television Observed Nautical Grappling System (TONGS) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to examine a cable route and comparable areas without cables. The survey included a 26.2-km-long transect along a cable route, 1-km-long parallel transects 150 m on each side of the cable route between 30 m and 90 m depth, a 20.2-km-long transect ~1.6 km north of the cable route between 250 and 500 m depth, a 13.4-km-long transect ~2.2 km south of the cable route between 285 and 565 m depth, plus three north-south oriented transect
FINAL REPORT: SITING STUDY FOR A HYDROKINETIC ENERGY PROJECT LOCATED OFFSHORE SOUTHEASTERN FLORIDA: PROTOCOLS FOR SURVEY METHODOLOGY FOR OFFSHORE MARINE HYDROKINETIC ENERGY PROJECTS.
Get PDFThe purpose of the project was to enhance the certainty of the survey requirements and regulatory review processes for the purpose of reducing the time, efforts, and costs associated with initial siting efforts of marine and hydrokinetic energy conversion facilities that may be proposed in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Southeast Florida. To secure early input from agencies, protocols were developed for collecting baseline geophysical information and benthic habitat data that can be used by project developers and regulators to make decisions early in the process of determining project location (i.e., the siting process) that avoid or minimize adverse impacts to sensitive marine benthic habitat
NOAA CIOERT REPORT: SURVEY OF THE DEEP-SEA CORAL AND SPONGE ECOSYSTEM OF POURTALÉS. NOAA SHIP NANCY FOSTER FLORIDA SHELF-EDGE EXPLORATION II (FLOSEE) CRUISE LEG 2-SEPTEMBER 23-30, 2011. (NOAA PROJECT NUMBER: NF-11-09-CIOERT).
Get PDFIn September 2011, a three week research cruise was conducted by the Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technology (CIOERT) at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute-Florida Atlantic University (HBOI-FAU) in collaboration with NOAA. This CIOERT Florida Shelf-Edge Exploration II (FLoSEE) Cruise was conducted in two legs using the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster and the University of Connecticut’s (UCONN) Kraken 2 ROV. This Preliminary Cruise Report is for Leg 2 of the cruise which was funded in part by the NOAA Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program (DSCRTP) which supported seven days of ROV time to explore and sample deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems (DSCEs) within the newly designated Deepwater Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (CHAPC) and the ‘East Hump’ Marine Protected Area (MPA) on the Pourtalès Terrace off the Florida Keys (Figure 1). This Preliminary Cruise Report includes SEADESC Level I data analysis (Appendix 1) which describes in detail each ROV dive including: cruise metadata, figures showing each dive track overlaid on the new multibeam sonar maps, dive track data (start and end latitude, longitude, depth), objectives, general description of the habitat and biota, and images of the biota and habitat that characterize the dive site. The Final Cruise Report will include the SEADESC Level II Report which will provide quantitative analyses for each dive site detailing the densities of the benthic biota and CPCE 4.0© Coral Point Count for percent cover of substrate type and sessile biota