Long Island Sound

Fishery Bulletin publishes black sea bass diet metabarcoding study

Posted on November 23, 2024November 23, 2024 by Hannes Baumann

22 November 2024. We are happy to share that our paper on black sea bass stomach content metabarcoding has been published today in the traditional NOAA journal Fishery Bulletin. Our study used black sea bass juveniles caught in Mumford Cove to study their diet via a molecular approach known as metabarcoding. This method often detects rare or soft-bodied prey better than traditional morphological content analyses. We found that small, newly settled black sea bass eat mostly shrimp, but also many softbodied polychaetes. And weirdly, they seem to like one particular kind of (invasive) amphipod. Only larger juveniles seem to add fish to their diet.

Our study is a great first collaboration between our departments genomic experts (Ann Bucklin, Paola Batta-Lona) and the Evolutionary Fish Ecology Lab. The first product of our collaborative efforts has seen the light!

Fishery Bulletin is the 143 years old peer-reviewed journal managed and published by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It publishes Open Access at no costs to authors. Click the link below to download the paper.

Batta-Lona, P.G., Wojcicki, M.L., Zavell, M.D., Bucklin, A., and Baumann, H. (2025)
Using DNA metabarcoding to reveal prey diversity in diets of juvenile black sea bass (Centropristis striata) in Long Island Sound in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean.
Fishery Bulletin 123:22-33

BSB-COI-summary-web — Composition of prey detected in samples from stomachs of juvenile black sea bass (*Centropristis striata*), collected in Mumford Cove off Connecticut in August 2020, through metabarcoding with (A) the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene region and (B) the V9 hypervariable region of 18S rRNA. Bars represent the total number of COI and V9 gene sequences identified for each of 6 and 10 major prey taxa in DNA samples from 35 and 99 stomachs, respectively. In panel A, lists / pictures of the major prey species and their relative proportions for each prey taxon are provided (modified after Figure 1 in Batta-Lona et al. 2025)

[Media] WSHU public radio covers Project Oceanology story

Posted on April 4, 2019April 4, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

4 April 2019. Following the publication of our study on the Project Oceanology time-series in Marine Environmental Research and the subsequent article about it in TheConversation, today the story was featured by WSHU public radio, in Ron Ropiak’s show “The Full Story“.

Have a listen, how Hannes describes both the findings and the significance of the Project Oceanology time series.

[Publication] The Project Oceanology time-series has been published!

Posted on March 28, 2019November 5, 2019 by Hannes Baumann

21 March 2019. We are happy to announce that Marine Environmental Research just published our most recent paper about long-term ecological change in eastern Long Island Sound based on data collected by Project Oceanology!For his Master’s thesis, Jacob Snyder painstakingly retrieved and digitized more than 40 years of environmental observations from Project Oceanology. This non-profit ocean literacy organization has educated middle and high school students on boat trips to nearby estuarine sites for decades. For the first time, his work allowed a quantitative evaluation of these data and glimpses into the abiotic and biotic changes in nearshore waters of Eastern Long Island Sound.

Highlights

Citizen-science observations revealed rapid warming, acidification, and dissolved oxygen loss over the past 40 years in eastern Long Island Sound
Otter trawl catches showed significant decreases in overall species diversity and richness
Cold-water adapted species (American lobster, winter flounder) decreased, but warm-water adapted species (spider crabs) increased since 1997

Citation

Snyder, J.T., Whitney, M.M., Dam, H.G., Jacobs, M.W., and Baumann, H. (2019). Citizen science observations reveal rapid, multi-decadal ecosystem changes in eastern Long Island Sound. Marine Environmental Research 146: 80-88

Public outreach

The publication of this work is also featured in an article for the online magazine TheConversation.com titled
“Citizen science shows that climate change is rapidly reshaping Long Island Sound“

News coverage: UConn Today | New Haven Register | The Hour | NonProfit Quarterly | WSHU Public Radio

Fig_2-abiotic-conditions_new — Long-term changes in temperature, pH, and oxygen in the Thames River Mouth (eastern Long Island Sound)

Fig_6-CPUEs_4-species — Catch indices of four major species in Project Oceanology trawls over the past two decades