R. Well results 205
· Newest (Page 1/9, per page 25)
Author: R. Well ×Clear All Filters
Search Results
Understanding movement and habitat use patterns of co-occurring predatory fishes is crucial for effective conservation and management of estuarine ecosystems, where dynamic seasonal shifts and species interactions play crucial roles in shaping community structure. Using acoustic telemetry and network analysis, we compared the movements of alligator gar ( Atractosteus spatula , n = 13), bull sharks ( Carcharhinus leucas , n = 1...
An experimental approach to assess the combined effects of multiple stressors on a large vertebrate speciesNARA Subscribed
The design of experiments to investigate the combined effects of multiple stressors requires exposing target organisms to multiple combinations of stressor doses. Concurrent manipulation of stressors is often infeasible with wildlife, but long‐lasting health effects allow individual health to be used as an integrator of prior stressor exposure. The population of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, experienced long...
Blacktip sharks ( Carcharhinus limbatus ) are a circumglobal species that rely on nearshore nursery habitats during their early years. Movement patterns and habitat use of blacktip sharks in the Hawaiian Islands is poorly understood, and no nursery habitats have been discovered within Hawai’i. For this study, juvenile blacktip sharks (n = 29) were caught and tagged in Hilo Bay, Hawai’i, USA with acoustic transmitters. Tracking...
Evidence of a potential sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) nursery in the Western Gulf of MexicoOA Marine
Introduction Nursery areas for sandbar sharks ( Carcharhinus plumbeus ) are well-delineated along the Atlantic coast of the United States, with only a single nursery area identified in the Gulf of Mexico on the west coast of Florida. Methods Fishery-independent surveys and fishery-dependent data were used to explore the frequency and seasonality of young-of-the-year (YOY) sandbar sharks off the coast of Texas. Results Data pre...
Assessing the integration of social marketing principles in ivory demand management interventions in China and Southeast AsiaNARA Subscribed
Consumer demand for ivory perpetuates the unsustainable and illegal killing of African elephants and other wildlife species. Interventions that aim to change consumer behavior are increasingly recognized as a crucial element of demand management. However, poor design and implementation have limited their effectiveness. We evaluated how ivory demand‐management interventions in China and neighboring Southeast Asian countries ali...
The stop signal stepping task: how action cancellation commands disrupt step initiation in young and healthy older adultsNARA Subscribed
Action cancellation – the ability to rapidly cancel an initiated movement in response to unexpected events – has been extensively studied in the upper limb using the stop signal task (SST). During gait, action cancellation is critical to stop and modify steps to avoid unexpected hazards and prevent falls. By adapting the SST to step initiation, this study investigated how the anticipatory postural adjustment (APA) and foot-lif...
Octocorals have increased in abundance on many Caribbean coral reefs, and at some sites, “octocoral forest” may be a better community descriptor than “coral reef.” Implicit to the concept of a forest is that structural elements, i.e., trees, colonies, etc., alter the environment in ways that affect the structural elements themselves and the organisms that inhabit the forest. At what density do the structural elements create th...
Marine megafauna species are affected by a wide range of anthropogenic threats. To evaluate the risk of such threats, species’ vulnerability to each threat must first be determined. We build on the existing threats classification scheme and ranking system of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species by assessing the vulnerability of 256 marine megafauna species to 23 at‐sea threat...
Exploring Marine Mammal Cognition as a Conservation ToolNARA Subscribed
Cognition is an animal's real‐time adaptation system for responding to change. Rapid environmental change, often anthropogenic, is expanding the range and severity of challenges confronting wild animals. Effective conservation requires a multifaceted approach that includes animals' capacities. Large‐brained, long‐lived animals such as marine mammals often have extensive capability to adaptively modify their behavior due to the...
The goal of this study was to analyze data from a 10-year bottom longline survey to examine spatial, temporal, and environmental effects on demersal fishes along the Texas coast within the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Generalized additive models (GAMs) and generalized linear models (GLMs) were employed to evaluate trends and patterns in species composition (species richness and species diversity), relative abundance, and prese...
Several legal acts mandate that management agencies regularly assess biological populations. For species with distinct markings, these assessments can be conducted noninvasively via capture‐recapture and photographic identification (photo‐ID), which involves processing considerable quantities of photographic data. To ease this burden, agencies increasingly rely on automated identification (ID) algorithms. Identification algori...
Introduction Exposure to phthalate esters has previously been documented in bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ) inhabiting an urban estuary (Sarasota Bay, FL, USA; 2010-2019). Phthalates are chemicals commonly added to plastic products and consumer goods to enhance qualities such as flexibility, fragrance, and stability. Chemical leaching from products into the marine environment leaves wildlife vulnerable to reproducti...