California Sea Grant College Program

The project hypotheses have not changed. We continue to address questions related to the diversity and distributions of MAR4 actinomycetes in marine sediments, the relationships between who these bacteria are (phylogeny), the types of secondary metabolites they produce, and the mechanistic biochemistry responsible for their biosynthesis.

Our hypothesis is that modeling features common to marine biological invasions, like the ability of the invader to disperse over long distances, will call for invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) control policies that diverge from those that are efficient based on models geared towards terrestrial and freshwater species, and that these differences will be economically significant.

Our hypothesis is that modeling features common to marine biological invasions, like the ability of the invader to disperse over long distances, will call for invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) control policies that diverge from those that are efficient based on models geared towards terrestrial and freshwater species, and that these differences will be economically significant.

Climate change and water diversions have greatly modified freshwater outflow into the San Francisco Estuary, changing the Estuary’s salinity regime. These climate- and water diversion-driven changes in salinities may have a wide range of impacts on important components of the San Francisco Estuary including the distribution of threatened/endangered species, the success of habitat restoration and the management of invasive species.  Previous work has shown significant variation in the recruitment and survival of numerous species throughout the Estuary linked to freshwater outflow levels.

The overall project goal is improved understanding of the physical and biological controls on nearshore (0-15 m water depth) patchiness of nutrients, fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and chlorophyll (chl) near the Tijuana River.

Ichthyoplankton surveys can reveal the location, timing and intensity of spawning activity for many fish species and are widely used to assess fisheries resources. However, the utility of these surveys is limited by the fact that many eggs and larvae cannot be identified to the species level using morphology alone. This project was motivated by the hypothesis that fish eggs and larvae can be more accurately identified by species specific DNA sequences than by morphology alone.