JOINT MEETING OF ICHTHYOLOGISTS AND HERPETOLOGISTS JULY 24-28, 2019 SNOWBIRD, UT - SNOWBIRD SKI AND SUMMER RESORT ABSTRACTS Imhoff - Myers fgf 694 AES Trophic Ecology II, Alpine A,B,C – The Snowbird Center, Sunday 28 July 2019 Johanna Imhoff1, Dean Grubbs2 1Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA, 2FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory, St. Teresa, FL, USA Trophic Relationships and Mercury Contamination of Deep Sea Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico Deep sea sharks have received relatively little research attention despite being potentially important predators in their communities, representing nearly half of all global chondrichthyan fauna, and their vulnerability to fishery exploitation. Six relatively common shark species that partially overlap in depth habitat and demonstrate a range of feeding habits and movement patterns provide an interesting system for detailed investigation of trophic ecology and potential for competition or niche partitioning of these coexisting mesopredators. Trophic ecology will be investigated using stomach contents and light stable isotopes. Potential for competition between coexisting species will be determined by comparing spatial niche metrics in depth habitat sympatry to depth habitat allopatry, with the expectation that competition would cause a shift in niche size and overlap. Long-lived mid to upper trophic level predators are also susceptible to carrying high loads of bioaccumulating toxicants and may facilitate their long-term persistence in marine food webs. There is special interest in mercury in northern Gulf of Mexico food webs because of the potential for increased ambient mercury methylation after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Preliminary data show relatively high concentrations of MeHg and the typical bioaccumulation pattern of increasing MeHg contamination with fish length, but high individual variation and differences in slope between species. MeHg bioaccumulation patterns can be influenced by multiple factors, such as size, sex, taxon, trophic ecology, ontogeny and depth habitat. MeHg bioaccumulation patterns for sharks feeding in different food webs (benthic, mesopelagic) and on different dominant prey categories will be investigated. ____________________________________________________________________________ 389 ASIH STORER ICHTHYOLOGY AWARD, Poster Session I, Event Center – The Snowbird Center, Friday 26 July 2019 Callie Ingram University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA Estimating Elasmobranch Presence of Calabash Caye, Belize, Using Underwater Video Census There are many methods for determining abundance and distribution of a species; however, not all of these practices are ecologically considerate. Current methods include mark and recapture surveys, which are disruptive to the targeted species and bycatch. Underwater visual census (UVC) is a relatively new way to estimate species abundance and distribution in a manner that is not significantly disruptive to the ecosystem or the target species. This study’s UVC was conducted at the Calabash Caye Field Station (CCFS). Calabash Caye, Belize, is an island located approximately 33 miles east of Belize City, Belize, on the southeastern side of the Turneffe Atoll. This atoll is the largest of the three offshore atolls that comprise the Belize Barrier Reef System. The goal of this study was to conduct a UVC to determine which species of sharks and rays were viewed in the sample locations of Calabash Caye, along with a select few other sampling locations. This survey was implemented solely by a group of undergraduate researchers performing a coastal studies course at CCFS. This project will display the findings of this UVC, as well as compare UVC methodology to other more established methods for determining abundance and distribution. ____________________________________________________________________________ 332 Herpetology Biogeography II, Ballroom 3 – Cliff Lodge, Friday 26 July 2019 Krone Isaac UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA Ecological and Phylogenetic Patterns in Lizard Range Size A central question in biogeography is why some species are widespread while others have very limited distributions. While the reconstruction of evolutionary and biogeographical histories of individual species is essential to our understanding of this question, the topic can also be approached from an aggregate perspective, by investigating large-scale trends in range size over many species. Using large published datasets containing ecological, anatomical, and biogeographic data on over 6,500 lizard species, I examine phylogenetic patterns of range size as well as the relationship between range size and various aspects of lizard ecology and anatomy. My results reveal a strong phylogenetic signal in range size and a strong relationship between body size and range size, as well as unintuitive relationships between range size and substrate use, reproductive mode, and limb morphology. These results bolster our understanding of how range size is related to lizard anatomy and ecology and help contextualize how anatomy and ecology might affect the evolutionary success of lizard taxa. ____________________________________________________________________________ 523 ASIH STOYE PHYSIOLOGY & PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY AWARD, Primrose A&B – Cliff Lodge, Friday 26 July 2019 Kathleen Ivey1, Hayley Crowell1, Heather Neldner1, Michael Westphal2, Emily Taylor1 1California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, USA, 2Bureau of Land Management, Marina, California, USA Thermal ecology of the federally endangered Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambelia sila) Recognizing how climate change will impact populations can aid researchers and managers in making decisions about the conservation of endangered species. The Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambelia sila) is a federally endangered lizard found in the arid deserts of the San Joaquin Valley and the Carrizo Plain. It has been extirpated from most of its range due to habitat destruction and alteration. We collected field-active body temperatures of G. sila, combined with operative temperature model data, preferred body temperatures (34.7 ˚C), and thermal tolerance (panting threshold, 40.8 ˚C) data for the population, which allowed us to (1) calculate the thermal quality of the microhabitats and the thermoregulatory accuracy and thermoregulatory effectiveness of the lizards, (2) calculate the number of hours lizards are thermally constrained, (2) project how this number and thermal indices will change in the future as ambient temperatures rise, and (3) assess the importance of shade-providing shrubs and burrows in the current/future thermal ecology of G. sila. Lizards maintained body temperatures just below the panting threshold but exceeded their preferred body temperature throughout most of the day. While shrubs have a lower thermal quality, they serve as a buffer that allows G. sila to stay active above ground during the hottest times of day. Burrows provide the best thermal quality, but their thermoregulatory effectiveness indicates that G. sila is avoiding burrows and this could be indicative of them utilizing shrubs in order to stay above ground to forage and defend territory. ____________________________________________________________________________ 50 ASIH STOYE ECOLOGY & ETHOLOGY AWARD II, Primrose A&B – Cliff Lodge, Friday 26 July 2019 Michael Izumiyama1, Satoshi Awata2, Karen Crow1 1San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan Is the number of fathers a good approximation for the number of mates? Examining the reproductive strategy of Ditrema temminckii Sexual selection is a driving force of evolution and is a subject of intense interest to evolutionary biologists. One measurement often used to quantify sexual selection is the statistical relationship between mating success and reproductive success, which is referred to as a Bateman gradient. In studies of female Bateman gradient, the number of fathers is often used as an approximation for the number of mates, due to the intractability of observing all mating encounters in a natural population. However, it is possible that some mates do not receive paternity and would not be detected in the offspring. Therefore, if mating success is underestimated, the correlation between mating success and reproductive success may be incorrectly inferred. One unique system that provides the opportunity to address this problem is the Japanese surfperch Ditrema temminckii. Surfperches have a unique reproductive strategy of internal fertilization, sperm storage, prolonged gestation, and live birth. This system allows us to test if the number of fathers is a good approximation for the number of mates by utilizing hypervariable microsatellites to compare the number of unique alleles present in the uterine sac at the end of the mating season and the number of unique alleles from all offspring within the brood. We collected D. temminckii from the end of the mating season and gravid females to determine the number of mates as well as the number of fathers within a brood. ____________________________________________________________________________ 136 General Ichthyology I, Cottonwood A-D – The Snowbird Center, Saturday 27 July 2019 SeoHa Jang, JinKoo Kim Pukyong National University, Busan, Korea, Republic of Molecular and Morphometric Variations in the sea raven, Hemitripterus villosus from Korea: Implication on Biogeographic Barrier The sea raven, Hemitripterus villosus is a cold-water demersal