• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • University of Alaska Fairbanks
    • UAF Graduate School
    • Marine Sciences
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • University of Alaska Fairbanks
    • UAF Graduate School
    • Marine Sciences
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of Scholarworks@UACommunitiesPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypeThis CollectionPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsType

    My Account

    Login

    First Time Submitters, Register Here

    Register

    Statistics

    Display statistics

    Environmental influence on size frequency distributions of the Pacific blue mussel (Mytilus trossulus) in two glacially inlfuenced estuaries

    • CSV
    • RefMan
    • EndNote
    • BibTex
    • RefWorks
    Thumbnail
    Name:
    Dowling_A_2021.pdf
    Size:
    2.506Mb
    Format:
    PDF
    Download
    Author
    Dowling, Amy
    Chair
    Konar, Brenda
    Committee
    Iken, Katrin
    Horstmann, Lara
    Keyword
    Mytilus trossulus
    Gulf of Alaska
    Freshwater ecology
    Estuaries
    Intertidal animals
    Habitat
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12915
    Abstract
    The Pacific blue mussel (Mytilus trossulus) is a foundation species in high-latitude intertidal and estuarine systems that can create complex habitats, provide sediment stability, serve as food for top predators, and act as connectors between the water column and the benthos. M. trossulus also makes an ideal model species to assess biological responses to environmental variability, as its size frequency distributions can be influenced by the environment in which it lives. Size frequency distributions can provide valuable information about ecological systems that are experiencing environmental change (e.g., increased global temperatures). M. trossulus populations in high latitude estuaries receive freshwater runoff from snow and glacial-fed rivers or can be under oceanic influence. These hydrographic conditions work together with local static environmental variables, such as substrate, fetch (potential for wave action), beach slope, distance to freshwater, and percent glaciation (glacial discharge) to influence recruitment, growth, and mortality of mussels. In 2019 and 2020, M. trossulus was collected from 15 intertidal sites in two Gulf of Alaska ecoregions with varying hydrographic conditions to determine if and how mussel size frequencies change over spatial and hydrographic scales, and whether any static environmental characteristics correlated with this variability. This study demonstrated that M. trossulus size frequencies were most comparable at sites with similar hydrographic conditions and grouped according to the ecoregion and year of collection. M. trossulus recruits (0-2 mm) were mostly seen at sites with higher fetch, while large mussels (> 20 mm) were mostly seen at more protected sites (low fetch) and in areas with more freshwater influence. Hydrographic conditions explained approximately 43% of the variation in M. trossulus size frequencies for both years, which was three times more than the variation explained by ecoregion and four times more than collection year. Fetch and distance to a freshwater source explained most of the variation in mussel size frequencies for both years, while substrate type was also important in 2019, and percent glaciation in 2020. M. trossulus recruitment was significantly different between 2019 and 2020, possibly resulting in the different static variable correlates between the two years. This study suggests that hydrographic conditions play an important role in structuring M. trossulus size frequencies, and that these differences also depended on environmental conditions.
    Description
    Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2021
    Table of Contents
    Introduction -- Materials and methods -- Field site descriptions -- Mytilus trossulus size frequency -- Static environmental correlates -- Data analyses -- Results -- Mussel size frequency -- Static environmental correlates -- Environmental influence on mussel size frequencies -- Discussion -- References -- Appendix.
    Date
    2021-12
    Type
    Thesis
    Collections
    Marine Sciences

    entitlement

     
    ABOUT US|HELP|BROWSE|ADVANCED SEARCH

    The University of Alaska Fairbanks is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and educational institution and is a part of the University of Alaska system.

    ©UAF 2013 - 2023 | Questions? ua-scholarworks@alaska.edu | Last modified: September 25, 2019

    Open Repository is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
     

    Export search results

    The export option will allow you to export the current search results of the entered query to a file. Different formats are available for download. To export the items, click on the button corresponding with the preferred download format.

    By default, clicking on the export buttons will result in a download of the allowed maximum amount of items.

    To select a subset of the search results, click "Selective Export" button and make a selection of the items you want to export. The amount of items that can be exported at once is similarly restricted as the full export.

    After making a selection, click one of the export format buttons. The amount of items that will be exported is indicated in the bubble next to export format.