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Patricia A. Tester

Bio: Patricia A. Tester is an academic researcher from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The author has contributed to research in topics: Algal bloom & Acartia tonsa. The author has an hindex of 50, co-authored 115 publications receiving 7012 citations. Previous affiliations of Patricia A. Tester include National Marine Fisheries Service & National Ocean Service.


Papers
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TL;DR: In most interactions of toxic phytoplankters with grazers and other marine food-web components, outcomes are situation-specific, and extrapolation of results from one set of circumstances to another may be inappropriate.
Abstract: Interactions between toxic phytoplankton and their zooplankton grazers are complex. Some zooplankters ingest some toxic phytoplankters with no apparent harm, whereas others are deleteriously affected. Phycotoxins vary in their modes of action, levels of toxicity and solubility, and affect grazers in different ways. Beyond effects on direct grazers, toxins may accumulate in and be transferred through marine food webs, affecting consumers at higher trophic levels, including fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Grazers of toxic phytoplankton include protists as well as metazoans, and the impact of zooplankton grazing on development or termination of toxic blooms is poorly understood. In most interactions of toxic phytoplankters with grazers and other marine food-web components, outcomes are situation-specific, and extrapolation of results from one set of circumstances to another may be inappropriate.

455 citations

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TL;DR: In the Gulf of Mexico, the red tide dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium breve is moved throughout its oceanic range by major currents and eddy systems as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: From its source waters in the Gulf of Mexico the red tide dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium breve is moved throughout its oceanic range by major currents and eddy systems. The continental shelf off the west coast of Florida experiences frequent G. breve blooms (in 21 of the last 22 years) where the spatially explicit phases of G. breve blooms are closely coupled to physical processes. Bloom initiation occurs offshore and in association with shoreward movements of the Loop Current or spinoff eddies. A midshelf front maintained by seasonal wind reversals along the Florida west coast may serve as a growth and accumulation region for G. breve blooms and contribute to the reinoculation of nearshore waters. Local eddy circulation in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Dry Tortugas affects the retention and coastal distribution of blooms while the Florida Current and Gulf Stream transport cells out of the Gulf of Mexico and into the U.S. South Atlantic Bight. The causes of bloom dissipation are not well known but mixing or disruption of the water mass supporting G. breve cells, especially in combination with declining water temperatures, are important factors.

354 citations

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TL;DR: The Gulf of Mexico Harmful algal blooms (HABs) of Karenia brevis are a recurrent problem in the Gulf of the USA as discussed by the authors, with nearly annual occurrences on the Florida southwest coast and fewer occurrences on northwest Florida and Texas coasts.

313 citations

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TL;DR: Appropriately scaled and parameterized nutrient and hydrologic controls are the only realistic options for controlling phytoplankton blooms, algal toxicity, and other symptoms of eutrophication in estuarine ecosystems.
Abstract: Eutrophication is a process that can be defined as an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter (OM) to an ecosystem. We provide a general overview of the major features driving estuarine eu...

239 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, a change in the spectral shape at 681nm is used to distinguish blooms of cyanobacteria from bloom of other phytoplankton via MERIS satellite sensor imagery.
Abstract: A change in the spectral shape at 681 nm is used to distinguish blooms of cyanobacteria from blooms of other phytoplankton via MERIS satellite sensor imagery. During large cyanobacterial blooms, the spectral shape around 681 nm is not a positive quantity as scattering due to cyanobacteria overwhelms the fluorescence signal, thus creating a negative spectral shape. This relationship is consistent in both remotely sensed and in situ data.

234 citations


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3,734 citations

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23 Jun 2006-Science
TL;DR: Reconstructed time lines, causes, and consequences of change in 12 once diverse and productive estuaries and coastal seas worldwide show similar patterns: Human impacts have depleted >90% of formerly important species, destroyed >65% of seagrass and wetland habitat, degraded water quality, and accelerated species invasions.
Abstract: Estuarine and coastal transformation is as old as civilization yet has dramatically accelerated over the past 150 to 300 years. Reconstructed time lines, causes, and consequences of change in 12 once diverse and productive estuaries and coastal seas worldwide show similar patterns: Human impacts have depleted >90% of formerly important species, destroyed >65% of seagrass and wetland habitat, degraded water quality, and accelerated species invasions. Twentieth-century conservation efforts achieved partial recovery of upper trophic levels but have so far failed to restore former ecosystem structure and function. Our results provide detailed historical baselines and quantitative targets for ecosystem-based management and marine conservation.

2,795 citations

30 Apr 1984
TL;DR: A review of the literature on optimal foraging can be found in this article, with a focus on the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions, and the authors conclude that the simple models so far formulated are supported by available data and that they are optimistic about the value both now and in the future.
Abstract: Beginning with Emlen (1966) and MacArthur and Pianka (1966) and extending through the last ten years, several authors have sought to predict the foraging behavior of animals by means of mathematical models. These models are very similar,in that they all assume that the fitness of a foraging animal is a function of the efficiency of foraging measured in terms of some "currency" (Schoener, 1971) -usually energy- and that natural selection has resulted in animals that forage so as to maximize this fitness. As a result of these similarities, the models have become known as "optimal foraging models"; and the theory that embodies them, "optimal foraging theory." The situations to which optimal foraging theory has been applied, with the exception of a few recent studies, can be divided into the following four categories: (1) choice by an animal of which food types to eat (i.e., optimal diet); (2) choice of which patch type to feed in (i.e., optimal patch choice); (3) optimal allocation of time to different patches; and (4) optimal patterns and speed of movements. In this review we discuss each of these categories separately, dealing with both the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions. The review is selective in the sense that we emphasize studies that either develop testable predictions or that attempt to test predictions in a precise quantitative manner. We also discuss what we see to be some of the future developments in the area of optimal foraging theory and how this theory can be related to other areas of biology. Our general conclusion is that the simple models so far formulated are supported are supported reasonably well by available data and that we are optimistic about the value both now and in the future of optimal foraging theory. We argue, however, that these simple models will requre much modification, espicially to deal with situations that either cannot easily be put into one or another of the above four categories or entail currencies more complicated that just energy.

2,709 citations

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TL;DR: In this article, a global assessment of the effects of inorganic nitrogen pollution in aquatic ecosystems is presented, with detailed multi-scale data, and three major environmental problems: (1) increasing the concentration of hydrogen ions in freshwater ecosystems without much acid-neutralizing capacity, resulting in acidification of those systems; (2) stimulating or enhancing the development, maintenance and proliferation of primary producers, leading to eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems; (3) reaching toxic levels that impair the ability of aquatic animals to survive, grow and reproduce.

1,753 citations

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TL;DR: A review of the relationship between eutrophication, climate change and cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems can be found in this paper.

1,675 citations