Controls on spatial variation in porewater methane concentrations across United States tidal wetlands.

Tidal wetlands can be a substantial sink of greenhouse gases, which can be offset by variable methane (CH) emissions under certain environmental conditions and anthropogenic interventions. Land managers and policymakers need maps of tidal wetland CH properties to make restoration decisions and inventory greenhouse gases. However, there is a mismatch in spatial scale between point-based sampling of porewater CH concentration and its predictors, and the coarser resolution mapping products used to upscale these data.

Biochemical changes throughout early- and middle-stages of embryogenesis in lobsters () under different thermal regimes.

Most marine crustacean eggs contain the full complement of nutritional resources required to fuel their growth and development. Given the propensity of many ovigerous (egg-bearing) American lobsters () to undergo seasonal inshore-to-offshore migrations, thereby potentially exposing their eggs to varying thermal regimes, the goal of this study was to determine the impact of water temperature on egg quality over their course of development. This was accomplished by documenting changes in total lipids, proteins, and size (volume) of eggs subjected to one of three thermal regimes: inshore, offshore, and constant (16 °C) conditions.

Influence of natural inshore and offshore thermal regimes on egg development and time of hatch in American lobsters, Homarus americanus.

Some egg-bearing (ovigerous) American lobsters (Homarus americanus) make seasonal inshore-to-offshore movements, subjecting their eggs to different thermal regimes than those of eggs carried by lobsters that do not make these movements. Our goal was to determine if differences in thermal regimes influence the rate of egg development and the subsequent time of hatch. We subjected ovigerous lobsters to typical inshore or offshore water temperatures from September to August in the laboratory (n=8 inshore and 8 offshore, each year) and in the field (n=8 each, inshore and offshore), over 2 successive years.

A noninvasive method for in situ determination of mating success in female American lobsters (Homarus americanus).

Despite being one of the most productive fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic, much remains unknown about the natural reproductive dynamics of American lobsters. Recent work in exploited crustacean populations (crabs and lobsters) suggests that there are circumstances where mature females are unable to achieve their full reproductive potential due to sperm limitation. To examine this possibility in different regions of the American lobster fishery, a reliable and noninvasive method was developed for sampling large numbers of female lobsters at sea.