Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Harlan, Nicole Porter

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    A Comparison of the Biochemistry and Physiology of the Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea virginica, and the Asian Oyster, Crassostrea ariakensis
    (2007-08-13) Harlan, Nicole Porter; Paynter, Kennedy T; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chesapeake Bay Commission, requested research on the introduction of the Asian oyster, Crassostrea ariakensis, to help restore the fishery and ecosystem function of the native Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica. In order to augment the role of C. virginica in Chesapeake Bay, C. ariakensis will likely require tolerances to low dissolved oxygen similar to that of the native oyster. This research showed that triploid and diploid C. virginica lived significantly longer than C. ariakensis under anoxic conditions, although the oxygen consumption rates of diploid oysters did not differ between species. Free amino acid pools in the gill tissue of oysters exposed to normoxia or hypoxia were analyzed. Alanine increased in both species during hypoxia, indicating the use of alternative metabolic pathways. Aspartate was consumed by C. virginica during hypoxia, confirming the use of a pathway coupling glucose and aspartate fermentation. Differences in the free amino acid pools of these two species suggest an explanation for the disparity in anaerobic metabolism between C. ariakensis and C. virginica.