Laura McDonnell

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | WHOI · Biology and Physical Oceanography

Given climate change threats to ecosystems, it is critical to understand the responses of species to warming. This is especially important in the case of apex predators since they exhibit relatively high extinction risk, and changes to their distribution could impact predator–prey interactions that can initiate trophic cascades. Here we used a comb...

Understanding the movement ecology of marine species is important for conservation management and monitoring their responses to environmental change. In this study, adult and subadult bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas; n = 16) were acoustically tagged in Biscayne Bay, Florida (USA), where they were tracked locally via an array of 40 passive acoustic...

For freshwater fishes, elevated water temperatures associated with climate warming and hypoxia can co-occur and are likely to interact as both affect oxidative metabolism. We quantified the effects of acclimation to elevated temperature and hypoxia on the thermal tolerance of Pugnose Shiner (Notropis anogenus), a cyprinid fish threatened in its Can...

Bio‐logging data obtained by tagging animals are key to addressing global conservation challenges. However, the many thousands of existing bio‐logging datasets are not easily discoverable, universally comparable, nor readily accessible through existing repositories and across platforms, slowing down ecological research and effective management. A s...

As coastal urbanization increases globally, the subsequent effects on marine animals, especially endangered species, inhabiting nearshore waters have become a research priority. The smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata , once abundant in US waters, now only persists in a few parts of its former range, including South Florida. Many areas utilized by...

Hypoxia and climate warming are pervasive stressors in aquatic systems that may have interactive effects on fishes because both affect aerobic metabolism. We explored independent and interactive effects of dissolved oxygen (DO) and temperature on thermal tolerance, behavior, and fitness-related traits of juvenile F1 offspring of the African cichlid...

Hypoxia is currently an increasingly pervasive occurrence in aquatic ecosystems. As oxygen is required on a biochemical level for the survival of most animals, hypoxia can have negative effects on an animal’s performance by limiting its capacity for aerobic metabolic activity. This stressor is compounded by increasing water temperatures, which decr...

Increased sedimentary turbidity associated with human activities is often cited as a key stressor contributing to the decline of fishes globally. The mechanisms underlying negative effects of turbidity on fish populations have been well documented, including effects on behavior (e.g. visual impairment) and/or respiratory function (e.g. clogging of...

As climate warming threatens the persistence of many species and populations, it is important to forecast their responses to warming thermal regimes. Climate warming often traps populations in smaller habitat fragments, not only changing biotic parameters, but potentially decreasing adaptive potential by decreasing genetic variability. We examined...

Rising water temperature associated with climate change is increasingly recognized as a potential stressor for aquatic organisms, particularly for tropical ectotherms that are predicted to have narrow thermal windows relative to temperate ectotherms. We used intermittent flow resting and swimming respirometry to test for effects of temperature incr...

Tropical inland fishes are predicted to be especially vulnerable to thermal stress because they experience small temperature fluctuations that may select for narrow thermal windows. In this study, we measured resting metabolic rate (RMR), critical oxygen tension (Pcrit) and critical thermal maximum (CTMax) of the widespread African cichlid (Pseudoc...

The use of non‐lethal experiments to elucidate behavioural and physiological thresholds to environmental stressors can provide valuable data for identifying threats to, and critical habitat of, imperilled species. Increased turbidity contributes to population declines and loss of fish diversity globally, but the complex direct and indirect effects...

Aquatic biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate. One factor driving this loss is increased turbidity, an en-vironmental stressor that can impose behavioral, morphological, and/or physiological costs on fishes. Here we describe the be-havioral response of a widespread African cichlid, Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor victoriae, to turbidity....

There has been surprisingly little attention to adaptive variation in the locomotor speed and gaits used in antipredator behaviour. We investigated the relationship between body size and the use of two alternative gaits by three species of parrotfishes (princess, Scarus taeniopterus; queen, Scarus vetula; stoplight, Sparisoma viride) escaping an ap...