SGER: Effects On and Recovery of Mississipppi Fish Digenean Populations Resulting from Hurricane Katrina

卡特里娜飓风不仅对墨西哥湾北部地区的陆地造成了破坏，还对海洋和海陆边缘造成了破坏。沿海堰洲岛被淹没，许多岛屿的大小被重新塑造，泻湖和沼泽被淹没，鱼类、贝类和其他海洋和沿海生物的种群可能被破坏或以各种其他方式受到影响。墨西哥湾沿岸研究实验室的奥弗斯特里特博士多年来一直在研究沿海鱼类和软体动物的物种组成和丰度，并将在未来两年内与同事和学生合作，评估飓风对墨西哥湾北部沿海地区鱼类和软体动物多样性的影响，以及这些种群的恢复（如果有的话）。调查的一个具体目标将是感染鱼类的血源性寄生虫（地沟吸虫和扁虫）的组成和传播，特别是那些在其生命周期生长和成熟期间将软体动物作为次要或中间宿主的寄生虫。特定寄生虫在幼鱼体内的存在表明作为中间寄主的软体动物的持续存在。在2005年秋季飓风之后的第一年，将开始对鱼类和软体动物进行调查，并进行相关的博物馆保存和标本担保，以及对实验室培养的寄生虫进行生活史研究，第二年的后续调查将允许评估种群恢复或下降。目前与奥弗斯特里特博士实验室有联系的学生将参与这项研究，以及从少数民族服务的密西西比大学招募的本科生和从密西西比数学与科学学院招募的高中生。

0608603Overstreet Hurricane Katrina caused devastation not just on land in the northern Gulf of Mexico region but also on sea and at the land-sea margin. Coastal barrier islands were inundated and many were re-shaped in size, lagoons and marshes were flooded, and populations of fishes, shellfish and other marine and coastal organisms presumably were destroyed or affected in various other ways. Dr Overstreet at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory has been studying the species composition and abundances of coastal fishes and mollusks for many years, and will be working with colleagues and students over the next two years to assess hurricane-related impacts on fish and mollusk diversity in the northern Gulf coastal region and recovery, if any, in these populations. A specific target of inquiry will be the composition and spread of blood-borne parasites (digenean flukes and flatworms) infecting fishes, in particular those which use mollusks as secondary or intermediate hosts during their life-cycle growth and maturation. Presence in juvenile fishes of particular parasites would indicate the continuing presence of the mollusks that serve as intermediate hosts. Surveys for fishes and mollusks, with associated museum-preservation and vouchering of specimens and life-history studies of the parasites in laboratory cultures, will commence this first year, following the Fall 2005 hurricanes, and follow-up surveys in year 2 will permit assessments of population recovery or decline. Students currently associated with Dr Overstreets laboratory will participate in the research, along with undergraduate students recruited from minority-serving Mississippi colleges and high school students recruited from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.