Marine biodiversity conservation

The composition of marine bacterial communities from South Florida beaches
were characterized using 16S rRNA sequence analysis. To compare cultivable and noncultured
populations, community genomic DNA was extracted directly from sand and
seawater samples and from two cultured equivalents. Only two ofthe 86 (2.3%) direct
extracted sequences and 79 of 150 (52.6%) culture sequences belong to known isolates in
Ribosomal Database (version 9.0) at 95% confidence level. At low stringency (p=0.70),
the populations cluster into several unknown clads with early divergence, indicating the
presence of novel well established bacterial groups. Members of phylum Bacteroidetes,
Firmicuites and Proteobacteria were identified, with the latter being the most prevalent in
culture. Diversity indices rank Hollywood beach > Fort Lauderdale > Hobie beach.
Taxonomic representation indicates marine water as more diverse compared to dry sand
and wet sand. A combination of phylogenetic markers will be needed to define the
immense diversity of this niche.

Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonia mydas) turtles recruit to nearshore environments as juveniles. These often degraded habitats are associated with emerging diseases such as green turtle fibropapillomatosis (GTFP), however there are few studies on immune function in sea turtles. The objective of this research was to
quantify phagocytosis of the innate immune system by flow cytometry and compare
levels between animals from a degraded habitat (the Indian River Lagoon, FL) to a more pristine environment (the Trident Basin, Port Canaveral, FL), and across a range of temperatures. While in vitro temperatures did not alter rates of phagocytosis, it was
higher in samples obtained in the summer than winter. Rates of phagocytosis in sea
turtles with GTFP and from degraded environments with increased prevalence of GTFP
were low compared to animals from the more pristine environment, suggesting that the
environment can alter innate immunological function and thus contribute to the
development of disease.