Research

Executive Summary Effective management of coupled human-natural systems in the Gulf of Mexico will require integrated approaches that consider landscape-level human-induced stressors (e.g., water use, agriculture, and stressors to natural resources) along with changes in temperature, precipitation, and species distributions resulting from a changing climate. These coupled impacts will ultimately influence the ecological quality and economic value of coastal resources....

Project Status and Accomplishments  The Lone Cabbage Reef Oyster Restoration project was completed this summer marking the end of more than fourteen years of work in the region. This project, which was culminated by the successful restoration of a chain of oyster reef more than three miles long in 2018, is the largest successful oyster restoration project in Florida. Lone...

Sponsor: NOAA Restore Award Dates: 2017 –2022 Investigators: Kelly M. Darnell (The University of Southern Mississippi), Zachary Darnell (The University of Southern Mississippi), Delbert L. Smee (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi), Charles W. Martin (University of Florida), Bradley Furman (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission), and Margaret O. Hall (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)  Marine habitats such as seagrass beds...

Releasing fish can help conserve their populations, but the process of capturing and handling fish also can result in injuries or death. These “discard effects” present a major conservation issue in recreational fisheries: even if the percentage of injuries and mortalities are relatively small, fisheries, where large numbers of fish are released, can have cumulative discard effects that impact the...

Indo-Pacific red lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles complex) in the Western Atlantic Ocean have been the most successful marine fish invasion on record and caused region-wide negative effects on reef fish communities and ecosystem processes. Mitigating their impacts is a top priority for marine resource managers. Developing lionfish fisheries has been proposed as a market-based solution to control their densities and augment...

Project Lead: Audrey Looby (University of Florida) Project Participants: Amalis Riera, Sarah Vela, Kieran Cox, Santiago Bravo, Rodney Rountree, Francis Juanes, Laura K. Reynolds, Charles W. Martin Participating Institutions: University of Florida, University of Victoria, Universidade de São Paulo, MERIDIAN, FishBase Link to website: FishSounds.net Goals and Objectives ​Fish are one of the largest groups of sound-producing vertebrates and have...