Ian Lipton

University Honors with Honors in Marine Biology

Major: Marine Biology Minor: Chemistry

Supervisor: Tom Lankford, Biology and Marine Biology

The Effects of Beach Nourishment and Shoreline Development on the Nutritional Condition of Juvenile Fishes

The ocean surf zone provides essential habitat for a variety of coastal marine fishes. Surf zones are particularly important as nurseries for juvenile stages and as migratory corridors for adults. The nursery function of surf zone habitat may be compromised by human disturbances to adjacent beaches. Although shoreline development and protection are common practices on barrier island beaches of the southeastern U.S., their impacts on surf zone fishes are poorly described. We are investigating the response of fish nursery function to beach disturbance by comparing the density and nutritional condition of juvenile fishes collected among beaches selected to represent a disturbance gradient. Sampling sites include undisturbed (unnourished and undeveloped, n=3), moderately disturbed (developed but unnourished, n=2) and highly disturbed (nourished and developed, n=3) beaches in southeastern North Carolina. Nursery function of various beaches is being estimated based upon compositional analysis (tissue lipid content, organic content, somatic condition) of two surf-dependent species: Florida Pompano (Trachinotus carolinus) and Gulf kingfish (Menticirrhus littoralis). Our results show that nursery function is compromised by human disturbance but the extent to which nourishment has an effect is still unknown.