Off-campus FIU users: To download campus-access content, please use the following link to log in to our proxy server with your FIU library username and password.
Non-FIU users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this content through interlibrary loan.
Date of Award
Spring 4-15-2019
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Biology
Abstract
Hurricanes are natural disturbances that can have tremendous impacts on coastal zones including long-term changes in conditions that may affect ecosystem structure, community dynamics, and trophic interactions. Previous studies have demonstrated that juvenile sharks may leave nurseries as hurricanes approach. For example, juvenile bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) abandoned their nursery in the coastal Everglades when hurricane Irma approached Florida in 2017 and traveled northeast along the coast. How hurricanes might affect the foraging behavior of these estuarine top predators remains poorly understood. In this study, stable isotope analyses were conducted on muscle and plasma samples from sharks caught a year before and few months after Hurricane Irma to investigate potential differences in ẟ15N and ẟ13C isotopic values. Such shifts provide insights into potential changes in relative trophic level and basal food web sources supporting their diets, respectively. There were no significant changes found in ẟ13C, but, ẟ15N values were lower in individuals sampled after the hurricane. These findings suggest that juvenile bull sharks, or their prey, were likely feeding at lower trophic levels after the hurricane and/or shifted to consuming prey with low protein content.
Recommended Citation
Samara, Yamilla N., "The Effects of Hurricane Irma on the Foraging Ecology of Juvenile Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus Leucas) in a Tropical Estuary" (2019). Department of Biological Sciences - Undergraduate Honors Theses. 89.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/bio_honors/89
Rights Statement
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).