Knauss legislative fellowships in Congress help build careers — and they're fun and educational. See our video and fact sheet for details.
R/IS-05
The relative importance of ballast water from domestic ship traffic in translocation of nonindigenous species among U.S. ports
Principal Investigator:
Gregory M. RuizStart/End Year:
1997 - 2000Institution:
Smithsonian Environmental Research CenterCo-Principal Investigator:
Anson H. Hines, Smithsonian Environmental Research CenterTopic(s):
- Aquatic Invasive Species
Description:
The overall goal of this research is to measure the patterns of delivery and viability of species transferred among U.S. ports in the ballast water of domestic ship traffic. We propose to measure directly the volume of ballast water delivered to selected Atlantic ports from other domestic ports, the abundance and diversity of organisms associated with that ballast water, and the survival of these organisms during transit and upon arrival.
Funding Start Year
1997
Funding End Year
2000
Related Publications:
Fofonoff, PW, Ruiz, GM; Steves, B; Carlton, JT. 2003. In ships or on ships? Mechanisms of transfer and invasion for nonnative species to the coasts of North America. Ruiz, GM; Carlton, JT, eds. Invasive Species: Vectors and Management Strategies. Island Press.Chapter 7:152 -182. UM-SG-RS-2003-33.
Program Announcements
News and Blogs
Featured Fellow
Nina Santos
Nina Santos is a Ph.D. student at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. For her dissertation, she is focused on small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids – an understudied yet important part of many estuarine and coastal food webs.
Featured Research Project
Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food webs
Mysids are important mesozooplankton prey for many species of fish in Chesapeake Bay and are an important link in transferring energy from lower to upper trophic levels. Mysids also serve as biological vectors for benthic-pelagic coupling due to their diel vertical migration and omnivorous prey-switching behavior, which makes mysids important regulators of food web architecture. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about mysid ecology and dynamics in Chesapeake Bay.
