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Ichthyoplankton studies can be used to assess the abundance, distribution, and reproductive activity of marine fishes, but few studies have monitored spawning activity at inshore sites. This study utilized weekly plankton sampling to construct a year-long time series of fish spawning at 6 pier sites along the California coast—Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Newport Beach, and La Jolla; sampling at the La Jolla site continues ongoing monitoring initiated in 2012. Fish eggs were sorted from the collected plankton and identified to species level using DNA barcoding of the COI and 16S genes. While only one year of data has been collected from 5 of the sites, the 2 sites north of Point Conception show markedly reduced diversity compared to the southern sites. Although the species observed reflect the local environment of each site, this pattern of reduced diversity at the northern sites is consistent with the well-documented decline in species richness with latitude along the California coast. The 7-year time series from La Jolla has revealed that spawning activity varies greatly among years, both in terms of egg production and species diversity, with a continuing trend of highest egg numbers in years with colder average winter sea surface temperature.
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Archaeological Research in Southern Belize at Uxbenka and Ix Kuku'il
A decade of archaeology research at Uxbenká and five years of archaeological investigations at Ix Kuku’il have resulted in an understanding of the prehistory of these ancient political centers and established a tradition of engaged archaeology in Santa Cruz (Uxbenká) and San Jose (Ix Kuku’il). Over the course of 1000 years Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il were initially settled during the end of the Late Preclassic and beginning of the Early Classic, developed into regional centers as foci of ritual and political events throughout the Early and Late Classic periods, and gradually declined through the Terminal Classic. The chronological sequences of Uxbenká and Ix Kuku’il were developed from multiproxy datasets including radiocarbon dates and ceramic analyses, as well as hieroglyphic texts at Uxbenká. Community-based and collaborative archaeology has been a goal of the Uxbenká Archaeological Project (UAP) and resulted in rotational labor programs and Archaeology Days in Santa Cruz and San Jose.
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- PAR ID:
- 10199305
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research reports in Belizean archaeology
- Volume:
- 16
- ISSN:
- 2079-1038
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 311-322
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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