Download Cierra Maszkiewicz Independent Research Annotated Bibliography

Cierra Maszkiewicz
Independent Research
Annotated Bibliography
Barcott, Bruce; Bourne Jr, Joel; Earle, Sylvia. "The Gulf of Oil." National Geographic: The
Spill. 2010: 28-89.
I was able to gain a stronger background the effects that oil has on our aquatic ecosystem.
As oil reserves close to shore have been pumped dry, prospectors are now drilling more than
35,000 feet down through water and rock in the ocean. This is a high risk task, mainly because if
anything goes wrong, thousands of gallons of oil will end up in the ocean. Oil is very difficult to
clean up and remove from open waters, which will make it nearly impossible to prevent harm to
many marine organisms.
Becker, Debra. "Western Fish Health and Disease." USGS, May 2010.
This article touches on many different contributors to the cause of disease in fish.
Upwelling has been a huge negative factor in the marine wildlife area. In addition to the human
economic impacts of the marine population decline, the prolonged ecological impacts have been
devastating.
Brewer, Gary. "Science-Based Strategies for Sustaining Coral Ecosystems." USGS. U.S.
Department of the Interior. 26 November 2012.
This document went into detail on the many different strategies that are currently being
carried out to help preserve coral reefs. I was able to understand that nearly 25 percent of all
marine life is linked directly to coral ecosystems. Also, USGS scientists are working with other
departments and federal agencies to guide research directions and prioritize studies.
Cairns, Stephen. "Coral and Coral Reefs." Ocean Portal Reef Conservation Program. 7 Feb
2013.
This website was full of useful information. It went into great detail about the anatomy
of corals and how they survive. It also touches on many ways that we can conserve corals and
care for their well-being.
Demopoulos, Amanda. "Connectivity of Tropical Marine Ecosystems: An Overview of
Interdisciplinary Research to Understand Biodiversity and Trophic Relationships in the
Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico."USGS. U.S. Department of the Interior, 26
November 2012.
From this document, I was able to understand the relationship between tropical
ecosystems, trophic relationships, and biodiversity. I learned how energy is passed from
organism to organism in the flow of energy occurring between trophic levels. Also, research has
been conducted measuring the effectiveness of marine reserves and protected areas and
determining whether designated areas may need to incorporate additional habitat types to support
the diversity of fish species.
Gammon, Katherine. "Half of Great Barrier Reef Lost in Past 3 Decades." Yahoo! News,
LiveScience, 8 October 2012. <http://news.yahoo.com>.
This article explains the causes and effects of the depletion of the Great Barrier Reef. As
the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, it is highly important to keep this reef system around
and healthy. This article does not give very much insight on the causes of the decrease of the
reef, but it does give excellent information on what causes it to deplete.
Gammon, Katharine. "Oysters' Future Imperiled as Oceans Acidify." Yahoo! News, 12 October
2012. <http://news.yahoo.com/oysters>.
Global oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide pumped into the
air from burning fossil fuels, which makes it difficult for calcifying organisms like oysters to
create their shells. The ocean has become 30 percent more acidic than what it was before the
industrial revolution. This is frightening information because the rise of acidity in the ocean is
changing the environment.
Gammon, Katherine. "Sea Creatures in a Warming World: Winners and Losers." Yahoo! News,
LiveScience, 8 October 2012. <http://news.yahoo.com>.
This article was an excellent source for my research. It explains what changes are
occurring globally in the ocean. Only some marine organisms are able to adapt to the changes in
the environment, but most of these changes are caused by humans. This article informs us that
as we continue to live the way we do, a lot of marine species will not make it.
"Habitat Conservation." NOAA, 2012 <http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/index.html>.
This site gives great examples of how NOAA is trying to restore marine ecosystems.
This site provides a map that pinpoints exact locations of major habitats requiring protection.
The NOAA builds programs and projects to help restore environments that are in crucial need of
attention.
Huckabee, J.W., and D.B. Porcella. "Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Ecosystems." Water,
Air and Soil Pollution, 1 April 2007 <http://water.usgs.gov/wid/FS_21695/FS_216
95.html>.
This article explains what mercury is and how it is toxic for aquatic ecosystems. The
authors focus primarily on mercury in the environment. However, they touch on how mercury
affects not only wildlife, but also humans who consume high levels of mercury. For example,
fish are prone to mercury-related fatal illnesses. This source also explains how mercury is
formed and the cycle which it travels.
Jenkins, Jill. "Aquatic Ecosystem Stressors." USGS National Wetlands Research Center, 19
July 2012 <http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/about/capabilities/stressors.htm>.
The author discusses the long-term issues surrounding the quality of our nation’s waters.
This website gives great insight on what the major stressors of our aquatic ecosystems are. It
informs us about how to help prevent stressing the nation’s waters. The recommended method
focuses mainly on testing and analyzing microscopic organisms.
Kwok, Roberta. "Coral Eaters." Conservation Magazine, 2 October 2012.
<www.conservationmagazine.org>.
This article explains how and why coral reefs are disappearing. It is reliable because it
includes many facts from surveys and tests that have been conducted. Also, this article touches
on how natural disasters and other weather can affect the coral reefs in the ocean.
Llanos, Miguel. "Coral in Caribbean, Florida in Sharp Decline, 'No Signs of Slowing', Report
Finds." NBC News, 1 October 2012. <http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/>.
This article explains the many causes of the sharp decline in the coral reef population.
Many studies have been done to gather this information. Many ways to help fix this problem are
also discussed in this article.
Malakoff, David. "Acid Trip." Conservation Magazine, 9 March 2012.
<http://conservationmagazine.org/>.
This article gives background information on carbon dioxide and the effects it has on
marine life. It explains how carbon dioxide comes about in the ocean and the tests that have been
running for decades. This source helped me to better explain the effects human actions have on
marine life.
Malakoff, David. "A Pox on Coral." Conservation Magazine, 18 August 2011.
<www.conservationmagazine.org>.
This author goes in depth on coral reefs and their disappearance. This article explains
the diseases that are now showing up in coral. It also explains the effects of the disappearing
coral on the ecosystem and what we can do to stop the decline.
Malakoff, David. "Net Gain." Conservation Magazine, 5 December 2011.
<www.conservationmagazine.org>.
This very short article provides some background information on fishing nets and sea
turtles. Many studies were conducted in order to gather information to publish in order to protect
the sea turtles. This article explains the new precautions taken to help reduce the risk of tangling
up a turtle in fishing nets.
Malakoff, David. "Where Did All That Oil Go?"Conservation Magazine, 9 March 2012.
http://conservationmagazine.org/
This article was a great addition to my research. It gave information not only on the
depletion of coral reefs, but also on the oil spills that have occurred in the past. The oil spills,
caused by man, have greatly affected marine life and are slowly killing off different organisms
who cannot adapt to such a drastic change in bacteria and water.
"Marine Ecosystems." Environmental Protection Agency, 2 November 2012.
<http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/aquatic/marine.html>.
From this article, I was able to gain generally information on marine ecosystems. Marine
ecosystems are a part of the largest aquatic system on the planet, covering over 70% of the
Earth’s surface. These ecosystems are home to many different species ranging from planktonic
organisms to whales. Birds are also affected by marine ecosystems.
"Marsh Restoration." USGA, September 2012. 2 November 2012. <http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov>.
This source explains how wetland loss continues to be a major problem along the
northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It is explained how the success of restoration depends on
the development of appropriate vegetation, soils, and hydrology. If plants growing at restoration
sites can produce enough organic matter to supplement outside sources of sediments and growth
exceeds local subsidence, evaluations sufficient to support continued plant growth will be
maintained and the wetlands will persist.
Milius, Susan. "Seaweed-threatened corals send chemical SOS to fish." Science News, 7
December 2012.
<http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/346344/description/Seaweed
-threatened_corals_send_chemical_SOS_to_fish>.
With this website, I was able to find an article explaining how sea-weed is threatening the
livelihood of coral reefs the fish live in. This article also explained how the coral and fish have a
symbiotic relationship; working together to stay alive. When killer seaweed touches a kind of
spiky coral, the coral pushes a chemical panic button that brings small resident fish to the rescue.
Moger, Narasimha. "Human Impact on Marine Ecosystem ." Aquafind, 2012.
<http://aquafind.com/articles/HumanImpact.php>.
Informs the public on aquatic ecosystems that have been affected by humans. This
website has been excellent to my research by providing me with background information on
different impacts of human activity that affect marine life. This article does focus mainly on
estuaries and fish life.
Muller, Erinn. "Coral Diseases Follwing Massive Bleaching in 2005 Cause 60 Percent Decline in
Coral Cover and Mortality of the Threatened Species, Acropora Palmata, on Reefs in the
U.S. Virgin Islands."
From this source, I was able to understand that there are many different causes to coral
bleaching. Recent diseases have emerged on reefs in the Virgin Islands, causing the depletion of
the coral reefs. The recovery of reefs all depends on the severity and frequency of future
bleaching and disease events.
Parry, Wynne "Fishing Technique Flattens the Seafloor." Fox News, 6 September 2012.
<http://foxnews.com/science>.
This is not a very long or detailed article, but it gives a brief description of fishing
techniques used today. This article informs the reader about the types of commercial fishing
techniques used and how these techniques affect marine life. These techniques eliminate the
variation in marine habitats, causing a decrease in the variety of marine organisms.
Schofield, P.J., M.E. Brown and P. Fuller. 2006. “Salinity Tolerance of Goldfish Carassius
auratus, a widely-distributed non-native cyprinid in the U.S.A. Poster presented at the
Southern Division, American Fisheries Society meeting in San Antonio, February2006.”
The Southeast Ecological Science Center has provided me with useful information on the
salinity tolerance of goldfish. I am able to use the data that they have previously collected as a
base for my own research. This is helpful in a way that I do not have to worry as much about
possibly killing the fish that I will be using in my experiment.
"Sharply Declining Caribbean Coral Reefs Alarm Conservationists." Fox News, 7 September
2012. <http://foxnews.com/science>.
This is a very short article, but includes key information. This article benefits my
research by providing basic information about the decline of coral reefs. It does not discuss any
other important information on marine life.
University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. “Too Much Helpful
Algae can be Bad for Corals.” Science Daily, 14 October 2012.
At the University of Miami, students were able to show that coral may be more severely
impacted by climate warming when they contain too many symbiotic algae. Algae are usually
helpful to the growth of corals, but when too much algae is expelled coral bleaching occurs.
University of South Carolina. “Fishery Collapse near Venezuela linked to Climate Change.”
Science Daily, 18 October 2012.
Even small increases in temperature from global warming are causing climatology shifts
harmful to ocean life. Modest changes in temperature have significantly altered trade wind
intensity in the southern Caribbean, undercutting the supply of key phytoplankton food sources
and causing the collapse of some fisheries there.
"Dissolved Oxygen." Water on the Web. 2007.
<http://www.waterontheweb.org/under/waterquality/oxygen.html>.
This source informed me on the importance of oxygen to aquatic organisms. As water
moves past the gills of fish, microscopic bubbles of oxygen gas in the water are transferred from
the water to their blood. Oxygen is also necessary to help the formation of algae, which is
crucial for lakes to function properly.
Wildlife Conservation Society. “Corals and Food Security: Study Shows Nations at Risk.”
Science Daily, 17 October 2012.
From this article, I was able to gain the knowledge that coral reefs effect more than just
the environment, they also affect food security. A study shows that nations with low incomes
that lack the ability to adapt to alternative protein sources and middle-income nations with higher
adaptive capacity, but higher sensitivity to climate change are the most vulnerable to declines in
fisheries. This finding impacts many countries that rely on fishing method as their main source
of food.