Project Director

Ford, Dawn

Department Examiner

Holmes, Ann

Department

Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Oyster Pond is one of the marine inland ponds located on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. Oyster Pond has connections to the ocean through a series of conduits in the pond, which cause the salinity of the pond to be marine pond, except after a hurricane and during a drought. Oyster Pond has a variety of marine life such as algae, small fish, and invertebrates occurring in mangroves, flocculent, conduits, and biotic outcroppings. The focus of this research was to evaluate the impact of the 2015 Hurricane Joaquin (17 months later) on water chemistry and the marine life of the biotic outcroppings. Findings show that water chemistry had returned to normal levels (pH, salinity) and outcropping biota, as measured by species richness, were the same compared to a March 2016 study. Notably macro algae, that were absent after the hurricane, as reported in 2016, were still not reestablished in 2017. Age estimations of a small sample of Pinctada longisquamosa showed that a majority of the oysters were produced post-Hurricane Joaquin. Based on these results, it seems that while water chemistry is back to normal, not enough time has passed for some biota, specifically species of macro algae, to recover from the storm’s impact.

Acknowledgments

This project was conducted under the Biology, Geology, and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. I would like to give my greatest appreciation to Dr. Ford for her time, commitment, and advice. Since the first class I had Dr. Dawn Ford in Conservation of Biodiversity during my sophomore year, she has continued to change my perspective on this world. I would also like to thank Dr. Ann Holmes for being there to help guide me along the way. I would like to thank Luke Black and Alex Schwartz for helping me gather and identify data, without them I would have not been able to accomplish this. Lastly, I would like to thank the UTC Honors College for opening the doors to be able to experience life-changing adventures such as the Tropical Island Ecology and Geology course that allowed me to travel to San Salvador in March 2016 when I first discovered my passion for biological research.

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

12-2017

Subject

Ecology -- Bahamas -- San Salvador Island; Hurricanes -- Bahamas -- San Salvador Island; Water-supply -- Bahamas -- San Salvador Island

Location

San Salvador Island (Bahamas)

Keyword

Biotic survey

Discipline

Environmental Sciences

Document Type

Theses

Extent

viii, 49 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Download

Share

COinS