Edward Buskey | The University of Texas at Austin (original) (raw)

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Several species of shellfish and finfish of commercial or recreational importance in the Nueces a... more Several species of shellfish and finfish of commercial or recreational importance in the Nueces and Mission-Aransas Estuaries possess life history patterns that are dependent upon estuaries, whereby juvenile members of these species live and mature in these estuary "nurseries", then migrate to the Gulf of Mexico as reproductive adults, releasing their eggs and planktonic larvae in the open ocean. The larvae feed, grow and develop in the Gulf of Mexico, but must return back to these estuaries to complete their life cycle. These planktonic larvae possess weak swimming skills and are too small to migrate directly back into the estuaries under their own power, so they must depend on hydrodynamic and environmental signals to selectively ride tidal and meteorologically driven currents back into the estuaries and avoid being flushed back out when these currents reverse. Tides are relatively small in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and especially for estuaries in South Texas with little inflow of freshwater, meteorological forcing over times scales of several days play a significant role in estuarine-shelf water exchanges (Smith 1978). The Aransas Pass connecting the Nueces and Mission-Aransas Estuaries to the Gulf of Mexico was originally a shallow inlet between Mustang and San Jose Islands and it has been dredged to allow access for ocean-going vessels to the Port of Corpus Christi. This deeper channel now delivers most of the water exchange between the Nueces/Mission-Aransas Estuaries and the Gulf of Mexico, which has reduced the flow through other shallow historical passes between these estuaries and the Gulf, causing them to fill in with sediments and close unless maintained through dredging (e.g. Fish Pass, Cedar Bayou). As a result of historical passes closing due to the already permitted deepening of the Aransas Pass, this channel is now the main route available for larvae to recruit from the Gulf to local estuaries. It is unclear how additional alterations to the depth of the Aransas Pass and adjacent waters will alter hydrodynamics in this channel, or other remaining channels, and affect the recruitment of estuarine dependent larvae. Below are several examples of important estuarine species that could be impacted. Shrimp Brown and white shrimp are both estuarine-dependent species and have similar life history stages (see Figure below). Adult shrimp migrate out to the open Gulf of Mexico through the narrow passes between barrier islands and females spawn their eggs there. Each female will release between 100,000 and one million eggs (a in Figure 1) that typically hatch within one day into larvae called nauplii (b in

Bulletin of Marine Science, 1993

Page 1. BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, 53(1): 29-43, 1993 LOCOMOTORY PATTERNS OF MICROZOOPLANKTON: P... more Page 1. BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, 53(1): 29-43, 1993 LOCOMOTORY PATTERNS OF MICROZOOPLANKTON: POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON FOOD SELECTIVITY OF LARVAL FISH Edward J. Buskey, Cammie Coulter and Suzanne Strom ...

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 1992

Frontiers in Physiology, Jul 23, 2018

Marine and Freshwater Research, 2020

$Research paper thumbnail of Impaired grazing of marine protozoa in sub-lethal exposure to the water accommodated fraction of crude oil and dispersant$

Environmental Pollution, Dec 1, 2022

Marine Pollution Bulletin, May 1, 2022

Microzooplankton (<200 μm) are essential intermediates between primary production and organism... more Microzooplankton (<200 μm) are essential intermediates between primary production and organisms at the higher trophic levels. Their ecological functions could be substantially affected by crude oil pollution. A natural plankton community was exposed to 10 μL L-1 of chemically dispersed crude oil (DOil) in outdoor mesocosms for 7 days, with control (Ctrl) mesocosms set up for comparison. Dilution experiments were conducted to estimate the grazing rates of microzooplankton on the 2nd and 6th days of the pollutants exposure. Results showed 0.36-2.28 d-1 microzooplankton grazing rates in the Ctrl mesocosms on both days but negative rates in the DOil mesocosms. A significant linear relationship between in situ phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing rates was found in the Ctrl treatment but not in the DOil treatment. This suggests a de-coupling between phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton and the potential for the formation of phytoplankton blooms in seawater after an oil spill event.