Activities of dissolved radium (Ra-223, Ra-224, Ra-226, Ra-228), Th-228, and Ac-227, collected on two cruises in the Gulf of Mexico. STING I cruise AE2305 on R/V Atlantic Explorer was deployed from February to March 2023. STING II consisted of EN704 on R/V Endeavor and U.S. Geological Survey small boat surveys and took place from June to July 2023. This project investigates how boundary sources, including rivers and submarine groundwater discharge, deliver important nutrients and metals to the coastal ecosystems of the West Florida Shelf. Here, dissolved radium and parent isotopes have been measured to trace boundary sources of nutrients and metals entering the West Florida Shelf.

Genomes provide tools for reconstructing organismal evolution and larger Earth-system processes. Here, we reconstruct the genomic evolution of cave-adapted amblyopsid fishes. Although microcomputed tomography reveals the strikingly similar skeletons of cave-adapted lineages, analyses of the genomes of all species suggest that amblyopsids independently colonized caves and degenerated their eyes at least four times after descending from populations that already possessed adaptations to low-light environments. By examining pseudogenization through loss-of-function mutations in amblyopsids, we infer that the genomic bases of their vision degenerated over millions of years. We leverage these data to pinpoint the ages of subterranean karstic ecosystems in eastern North America, which are difficult to date using traditional geochronologic techniques. Our results demonstrate how genomes can be used to reconstruct the timescale of Earth system evolution.

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Single crystals of LuNb6Sn6 were polished into bars for resististance measurments with current perpedicular to the hexagonal a axis. The sample had a 120 x 80 mircron cross section and the voltage contacts for the 4-probe measurement were about 170 micron apart. The resistnace values in each run were recorded at different pressures. The pressures of each run are reported in LuNb6Sn6-Pressure_RunSummary.csv.This data supports the work in Physical Review Mateirals https://doi.org/10.1103/hsdc-9j7p and arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.04197 .

Single crystals of LuNb6Sn6 were polished into bars for resististance measurments with current perpedicular to the hexagonal a axis. The sample had a 120 x 80 mircron cross section and the voltage contacts for the 4-probe measurement were about 170 micron apart. The resistnace values in each run were recorded at different pressures. The pressures of each run are reported in LuNb6Sn6-Pressure_RunSummary.csv.This data supports the work in Physical Review Mateirals https://doi.org/10.1103/hsdc-9j7p and arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.04197 .

Allorecognition, the ability of an organism to distinguish kin from non-kin, or self from non-self, has been studied extensively in a group of invertebrate chordates, the colonial ascidians called botryllids (Subphylum Tunicata, Class Ascidiacea, Family Styelidae).  When two conspecific botryllid colonies come in contact, there are two potential outcomes to an allorecognition reaction: fusion or rejection. The rejection outcome of allorecognition varies by species and has been classified by type (referred to as R-type). R-type is defined according to how far the fusion process progresses before the rejection begins, since the rejection reaction appears as an interference of the fusion process. Here, we map evolution of R-types onto an extended and robust phylogeny of the botryllids. In this study, we have reconstructed the largest phylogenomic tree of botryllids, including 98 samples and more than 40 different species, and mapped on it nine of the 12 species for which the R-type is known. Based on the R-type known in a single outgroup species (Symplegma reptans), we infer that at least R-Type B and E are ancestral to the Botrylloides/Botryllus group. However, based on the most basal botryllid clade, the R-Ttype D could also be considered the botryllid ancestral R-type. The R-Type A species are all clustered together and certainly evolved later than R-Type B and E. Our phylogenomic tree has been built on 200 nuclear loci, but it also takes into account the results of species delimitation analyses based on the mitochondrial COI gene and careful morphological analyses of the samples. The implementation of this integrated taxonomic approach, combining morphological as well as nuclear and mitochondrial data, has allowed the description of six new species and the identification of a number of putative unnamed taxa.  Our results demonstrate the existence of an unexplored hidden diversity within botryllids.

Cryptic species (evolutionarily distinct lineages that do not align with morphologically defined species) are being increasingly discovered but are poorly integrated into ecological theory. In particular, we still lack a useful understanding of if and how cryptic species differ in ways that affect community recovery from disturbances and responses to anthropogenic stressors, such as the removal of consumers and pollution from nutrients. On coral reefs, nutrient pollution increases the growth of macroalgae that displaces corals. Reductions in herbivorous fishes reduce the suppression of macroalgae, while reductions in coralivorous fishes reduce predation on corals. An unresolved question is if and how cryptic coral species respond differently to these impacts, thereby differing in their ability to influence coral community dynamics and maintain coral dominance. Therefore, we assessed how the response of cryptic Pocillopora species over a period of three years following a simulated disturbance from a cyclone depended on the experimental reduction of fish consumer pressure and nutrient addition. After three years, five morphologically cryptic, but genetically distinct, Pocillopora species recruited to the reef. However, recruitment was dominated by two species: P. tuahiniensis (46%) and P. meandrina (43%). Under ambient conditions, recruitment of P. tuahiniensis and P. meandrina was similar, but experimentally reducing consumer pressure increased recruitment of P. tuahiniensis by up to 73% and reduced recruitment of P. meandrina by up to 49%. In both species, nutrient enrichment increased recruitment and colony growth rates equally, but colonies of P. tuahiniensis grew faster, and were up to 25% larger after three years, than those of P. meandrina, and growth was unaffected by reduced consumer pressure. Predation by excavating corallivorous fish was higher for P. meandrina than for P. tuahiniensis, especially under nutrient enrichment. In contrast, polyp extension (an indicator of elevated heterotrophic feeding as well as susceptibility and attractiveness to corallivores) was lower for P. meandrina than for P. tuahiniensis, especially under low to medium consumer pressure. Overall, we uncovered ecological differences in the response of morphologically cryptic foundation species to two pervasive stressors on coral reefs. Our results demonstrate how cryptic species respond differently to key anthropogenic stressors, which may contribute to response diversity that can support ecological resilience or increase extinction risk.

Thermal performance curves (TPCs) are important tools for predicting the sensitivity of populations to climate change. The goal of this study was to assess and compare the relationships between temperature and different life-history components in a modular animal to reveal the mechanisms underlying TPCs for fitness. We reared replicated clones of the marine bryozoan Bugula neritina across a thermal gradient (16 values) ranging from 23 to 32°C, which reflected the upper thermal range of seasonal variation in the field. TPCs were constructed for survival (measured as zooids states within a colony), growth rate, development to reproductive maturity and reproductive capacity, which were measured over much of the realized lifespan expected under field conditions (~30 days). The effect of temperature was more acute on zooid states rather than whole-colony survival, and increased temperature increased the frequency of polypide regression. Most colonies reached reproductive maturity up to ~30°C, but growth rate and reproduction decreased at temperatures beyond ~25°C. The decline in reproductive capacity over temperatures above ~25°C was then due to the decline in the production of zooids capable of brooding embryos and zooids transitioning to regressed states up until about 30°C and transitioning to dead state beyond that.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, we performed a series of field experiments using an experimentally tractable species (the bryozoan Bugula neritina) to test the hypothesis that the density, spatial arrangement, and genetic relatedness of neighbours differentially affect survival, growth, reproduction, paternity, and sperm dispersal. We manipulated the density and relatedness of neighbours and found that increased density reduced survival but not growth rate, and that there was no effect of relatedness on survival, growth, or fecundity, in contrast to previous studies. We also manipulated the distances to the nearest neighbour and used genetic markers to assign paternity within known mother–offspring groups to estimate how proximity affects mating success. Distance to the nearest neighbour did not affect the number of settlers produced, the paternity share, or the degree of multiple paternity. Overall, larger than expected sperm dispersal led to high multiple paternity, regardless of the distance to the nearest neighbour.