Paul Andrew Xavier Bologna

Montclair State University · Department of Biology

Next generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies have proven useful in deciphering the food items of generalist predators, but have yet to be applied to gelatinous animal gut and tentacle content. NGS can potentially supplement traditional methods of visual identification. Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Atlantic sea nettle) has progressively become more ab...

Gonionemus vertens A. Agassiz, 1862 is a small hydrozoan native to the Pacific Ocean. It has become established in the northern and southern Atlantic Ocean as well as the Mediterranean Sea. We report on the first occurrence of this species in estuaries in New Jersey, USA, and confirm species identification through molecular sequence analysis. Given...

We assessed Thalassia testudinum population genetics among four bays in St. John (United States Virgin Islands), a protected UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Our results suggest that the St. John T. testudinum populations have: (1) high sexual reproduction rates, (2) high levels of genetic diversity and low levels of inbreeding relative to other seagrass...

Seagrass restoration has often not been successful due to poor site planning, physical disturbance, transplant timing incompatibility, and physical and biological disturbances. As such, these factors are important for successfully restoring seagrasses, and global success has greatly increased. We conducted restorations in the mid-Atlantic region of...

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHAB), caused by eutrophication, are known to threaten both wildlife and human health. Due to urbanization and land use changes, an increase of CHAB’s at a more frequent rate within Barnegat Bay has been observed. In order to detect possible CHAB causing cyanobacteria, water samples were collected from 12 differ...

Colonization of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) by tunicates can lead to reduced plant growth and survival. Several of the tunicate species that are found on eelgrass in the northwest Atlantic are highly aggressive colonizers, and range expansions are predicted in association with climate-change induced increases in seawater temperature. In 2017, we s...

Stochastic events can have catastrophic effects on island populations through a series of genetic stressors from reduced population size. We investigated five populations of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) from St. John, USVI, an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, which were impacted by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Our goal was to determine diversity and to asc...

We have examined the green fluorescence of the Clinging Jellyfish, Gonionemus vertens (GV), a species that first appeared in New Jersey coastal estuaries in June, 2016. Intact specimens (0.30–0.35 g wet weight) were homogenized in 3 mL of pure water using a Kontes Glass homogenizer (Co 23; Vineland, NJ) with 10 rotational strokes and centrifuged at...

Coastal estuaries represent areas of high biological invasions by virtue of their economic importance as ports. We report on the first occurrence of the non-native hydrozoan Moerisia sp. in coastal New Jersey, USA. Through the use of artificial settling plates, several diminutive, unknown cnidarian polyps were isolated. Initial morphological assess...

Coastal estuaries represent areas of high biological invasions by virtue of their economic importance as ports. We report on the first occurrence of the non-native hydrozoan Moerisia sp. in coastal New Jersey, USA. Through the use of artificial settling plates, several diminutive, unknown cnidarian polyps were isolated. Initial morphological assess...

Climate change has increased hurricane activity and intensity, leading to greater destructive forces impacting coastal communities. Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, USA, is a shallow Mid-Atlantic estuary with considerable anthropogenic development which shows vulnerability to elevated storm surges and coastal flooding. Gelatinous zooplankton were sampled...

The sea nettle Chrysaora quinquecirrha has become abundant in the Barnegat Bay estuary and frequently blooms in warm summer months. Various factors have been attributed to the increasing localized appearance of sea nettles and other jellyfish including eutrophication, overfishing, global warming, construction, and species introduction. Despite its...

Coastal communities are substantially affected by human activities and create environments conducive to opportunistic species and structural changes in food webs. The Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States is highly urbanized with significant landscape modification and elevated pollutant loads. The appearance and development of resident population...

Poster for 2016 Montclair State University Student Symposium and 2016 New Jersey Academy of Sciences

Taxonomic shifts can alter predator feeding preference and modify ecosystem dynamics through top-down control. In Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary (New Jersey, USA), sea nettle Chrysaora quinquecirrha abundances have increased in the northern portions of the estuary. We evaluated the geographical variation in top-down influence of C. quinquec...

Poster for the fall 2014 Atlantic Estuarine Research Society Meeting

Urbanization of estuaries has dramatically altered shorelines through habitat removal and destruction, as well as construction of permanent structures like docks, bulkheads, and piers. Concomitantly, water quality degradation has occurred from various pollutants and excess nutrients derived from anthropogenic sources. Excessive nutrients result in...

Hurricanes severely damaged a mangrove forest in a UNESCO biosphere reserve in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The system has yet to recover and when alternative habitats have been destroyed, it is shown that juvenile fishes will hyperutilize seagrass beds at densities significantly greater than in areas that maintain functioning mangroves. Despite over a...

During the 2012 field season, we collected samples from 16 sites in Barnegat Bay to assess the distribution of gelatinous zooplankton, with emphasis on all life history stages of sea nettles (Chrysaora quinquecirrha) and potential impacts on the pelagic zooplankton communities. During the research, 384 plankton tow samples were collected, 1152 filt...

AbstrAct: Seagrass communities represent spatially complex and biomass producing systems comprised of intermixed seagrass and algal species. We investigated shallow water communities from two Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Caribbean: St. John, United States Virgin Islands and Cayos Cochinos, Honduras. St. John sites (4) lie within the Virgin...

Within Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, eelgrass (Zostera marina) populations have declined by 62 % over the last 20 years. To better understand the consequences of this devastation, we have previously employed microsatellite DNA polymorphisms to analyze the population structure of Z. marina within Barnegat Bay, as well as along the eastern United States...

Poster for Atlantic Estuarine Research Society meeting

We investigated the effects of differing spatial scales of seagrass habitat architecture on the composition and abundance of settling bivalves in a sub-tropical seagrass community. The density of newly settled bivalves was generally greater atThalassia testudinum grass bed edge (<1 m) compared to interior portions of the bed (>10 m). Deviation from...

Poster for the 41st annual Benthic Ecology Meeting

To ascertain the structure and movement of an eastern brook trout population(s) we conducted surveys and marked fish in the South Branch of the Raritan River headwaters in New Jersey. In 2010, 425 trout were tagged and recapture efforts occurred in early 2011. Based upon the recapture success, we approximate that the surveyed subwatershed sections...

AbstrAct: We investigated the density of 4 urchin species from 5 shallow reefs in the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area in Honduras. Individual species density varied among reefs with total urchin density ranging from 3.2–7.9 individuals/m 2 . Echinometra viridis (Agassiz, 1863) was the numerically dominant species (2.29/m 2) followed by E. lucu...

Seagrass restoration has often not been successful due to poor site planning, physical disturbance, transplant timing incompatibility, and physical and biological disturbances. As such, these factors are important for successfully restoring seagrasses, and global success has greatly increased. We conducted restorations in the mid-Atlantic region of...

Within Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, Zostera marina populations have declined by 62% over the last 20 years, and restoration efforts have met with mixed success. We have completed a microsatellite-based genetic investigation of eight populations of Z. marina within Barnegat Bay to determine whether the genetic stock origins of the plants used in manage...

Zostera marina (eelgrass) can be found in the North Atlantic on the coast of Europe and on the east and west coasts of North America. Over the last 30 years, this once robust species has been reduced to sparse patchy populations due to disease and anthropogenic effects. In order to better understand the consequences of this devastation on the popul...

Tropical turtle grass beds (Thalassia testudinum) were investigated in an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in St. Johns Island, United States Virgin Islands. Four coastal bays were studied to assess floral characteristics, benthic invertebrate density and secondary production. These bays varied with respect to oceanic exposure and anthropogenic stresses. R...

The presence of a wild fisher (Martes pennanti) was verified in Sussex County, New Jersey on October 5, 2006 via remote camera for the first time in over 100 years, aside from one reintroduced fisher occurrence in 1978. Prior to European settlement, the northwestern forests of New Jersey contained extensive tracts of suitable fisher habitat along w...

Fish and decapod community structure and catch per unit effort (CPUE) were assessed within a mangrove previously impacted by a hurricane and an adjacent seagrass bed in St. John, United States Virgin Islands. Diel sampling utilizing minnow traps showed significantly greater total fish CPUE in the seagrass habitat with few individuals using the mang...

We have used molecular genetic methods to examine the question of the geographic origins of the newly returned Argopecten irradians populations in Barnegat Bay (BB), New Jersey. Using PCR to amplify specific polymorphic microsatellite regions for bay scallop, we have genetically compared the 2004 and 2005 BB populations to those from Long Island (L...

The trophic structure of fauna within eelgrass beds (Zostera marina) was assessed at two sites in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, USA during the summer of 1999. Although the sites were similar with respect to both Z. marina shoot density and plant biomass, they differed significantly in the relative distribution of large predatory fish (e.g., Cynosc...

In previous research, microsatellite markers have been used to geographically and phylogenetically characterize and identify populations of sea scallops (Placopecten magel-lanicus Gmelin). Given that sea scallops are a closely related species to bay scallops (Ar-gopecten irradians Lamarck), we have investigated whether the flanking DNA sequences of...

This investigation addressed faunal relationships with habitat structure within a Zostera marina community targeting differences between seagrass bed edge and interior. Z. marina biomass was significantly higher from the interior portions of the bed compared to the edge, but shoot density did not vary. Additionally, leaf width and length were signi...

Dual power cables were installed across a shallow bay in New Jersey in 1999. During construction activities a portion of one of the cables was misaligned and needed to be removed and replaced within the construction corridor. During these activities a significant eelgrass (Zostera marina) loss was recorded. In an attempt to restore the site to pre-...

Coastal marine seagrass ecosystems are important nursery grounds for commercially and recreationally important species, and they serve as key settlement and recruitment sites for other species. We investigated several years (2001–2003) where episodic settlement events of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) occurred in Barnegat Bay, NJ, USA. Population as...

Variability in the demographic patterns of seagrasses may affect a variety of physical and biological processes in aquatic communities. We investigated seasonal seagrass demography, sediment size structure, and sediment organic carbon from two sites (north and south) in St. Joseph Bay, Florida, for Thalassia testudinum, Syringodium filiforme, and H...

Species richness and abundance of seagrass-associated fauna are often positively correlated with seagrass biomass and structure complexity of the habitat. We found that while shoot density and plant biomass were greater in interior portions of turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum) beds than at edges, mean faunal density was significantly greater at e...

A bay scallop, Argopecten irradians irradians (Lamarck 1819), population was studied in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, USA to investigate the distribution, reproduction and genetic structure of the population because virtually nothing is known about this species in this region. Argopecten irradians irradians densities varied among eelgrass (Zostera...

We investigated the prevalence of pea crabs (Pinnotheres maculatus) in bay scallops (Argopecten irradians) from 1994 through 1996 in a scallop population from St. Joseph Bay, Florida. We also assessed their impacts on scallop reproductive potential. Our results showed that prevalence in bay scallops varied between 0 and 20% and were extremely low d...

Attached epiphytes often make important contributions to total primary production in seagrass meadows. Additionally, they may increase the spatial complexity of seagrass habitats. Experiments conducted using artificial seagrass units (ASU) manipulated both epiphytic structure and epiphytic food resources. Previous work suggested that the increase i...

Attached epiphytes often make important contributions to total primary production in seagrass meadows. Additionally, they may increase the spatial complexity of seagrass habitats. Experiments conducted using artificial seagrass units (ASU) manipulated both epiphytic structure and epiphytic food resources. Previous work suggested that the increase i...

The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, is a common and commercially important bivalve species residing in shallow marine ecosystems dominated by seagrasses. However, unlike most bivalves, scallops have the ability to move considerable distances within and among habitats. Consequently, their adult distribution may not be set by larval settlement pat...

The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians, is a commercially and recreationally important fisheries species on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. Surprisingly, little information exists on northern Gulf of Mexico populations. This research assessed growth, production, and reproduction in a population from St. Joseph Bay, Florida. Specif...

Examined how American lobster uses Laminaria longicruris and L. saccharina beds and habitat along the Gulf of Maine. Lobster population density and biomass were significantly higher in both real and artificial kelp treatments than in non-kelp control plots. The change in lobster density was apparent the day following placement of the experiment, so...