ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9327-1958
Current Organisations
Springer Nature (United Kingdom)
,
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
,
Griffith University
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2019.07.016
Abstract: Fishery targeted species living in estuaries face multiple anthropogenic pressures including habitat contamination. However, trace metal concentrations in aquatic organisms can be highly variable, making it difficult to interpret accumulation responses. Understanding sources for metal accumulation in these organisms and their biokinetics is important for management of local fisheries and ensuring safety and quality of consumed seafood, particularly in urbanised areas. In this study, we exposed Australian sand clams, school prawns and sand whiting to a combination of cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) radioisotopes 1) dissolved in seawater, 2) adsorbed to suspended sediment particles and 3) in radiolabelled food. Sand clams were sensitive to Cd, Mn and Zn uptake and accumulation from all sources because of their filter feeding physiology. Mean Cd and Zn assimilation efficiencies (AE) were higher in clams fed benthic diatoms (51, 43, 63% for Cd, Mn and Zn, respectively) than clams fed an algal flagellate species (22, 32, 33% for Cd, Mn and Zn, respectively). Metal uptake by prawns from seawater was low, whereas assimilation from diet was high (67, 59, 64% mean AEs from Cd, Mn and Zn, respectively). Sand whiting did not accumulate metals from seawater, even after concentrations were increased. Assimilation from diet (labelled prawns) was also low for sand whiting, particularly for Cd and Zn (11, 26, 14% mean AEs from Cd, Mn and Zn, respectively). These results may help explain the persistence of sand whiting in contaminated estuaries. Suspended sediment exposures showed that prawns and fish are less likely than clams to be negatively affected by disturbance events such as floods, which can bring metals into estuaries. The findings of this study have implications for fisheries management, both for protection and remediation of important habitats, and to ensure safe standards for seafood consumption by humans.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-10-2021
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1071/MF15409
Abstract: Estuaries are critical aquatic environments that are used by many fish during their life cycle. However, estuaries often suffer from poor water quality as a result of anthropogenic activities. Fish ersity studies in estuaries are common, although few have examined whether correlations exist between water quality, metal contamination and fish assemblages. In the present study we investigated the effect of abiotic conditions, heavy metals and estuary characteristics on the abundance, ersity and composition of fish in four intermittently open estuaries along the Illawarra coast of south-eastern Australia. The heterogeneity of environmental conditions was reflected in the fish assemblages in each estuary. Environmental variables predicted fish species composition, and estuaries in particularly poor condition contained few species (estuarine residents) in high abundance, indicating their ability to acclimatise and survive in conditions that are hostile to other species. Overall, these findings demonstrate that estuarine fish assemblages may be useful indicators of estuary condition and reveal the importance of managing anthropogenic activities in the surrounding catchment to improve water quality so that bio ersity of fish can be restored in these estuarine environments.
Publisher: Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
Date: 02-2022
DOI: 10.1049/HTL2.12022
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-07-2023
Abstract: Despite differences in their overall metabolism, eukaryotes share a common mitochondrial biochemistry. We investigated how this fundamental biochemistry supports overall metabolism using a high-resolution carbon isotope approach, position-specific isotope analysis. We measured carbon isotope 13 C/ 12 C cycling in animals, focusing on amino acids that are formed in mitochondrial reactions and are most metabolically active. Carboxyl isotope determinations for amino acids showed strong signals related to common biochemical pathways. Contrasting isotope patterns were measured for metabolism associated with major life history patterns, including growth and reproduction. Turnover of proteins and lipids as well as gluoconeogensis dynamics could be estimated for these metabolic life histories. The high-resolution isotomics measurements fingerprinted metabolism and metabolic strategies across the eukaryotic animal kingdom, yielding results for humans, ungulates, whales, and erse fish and invertebrates in a nearshore marine food web.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.13889
Abstract: Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are essential components of cell membranes and reproductive and sensory organs in vertebrates and are largely acquired through their diets. Accordingly, identification of the dietary sources of PUFA is an important consideration in food web studies. We collected fish, macroinvertebrates (aquatic and terrestrial), and plants (aquatic and terrestrial) from floodplain and river channel habitats in a tropical river catchment in northern Australia, to identify food sources and habitats that provided lipid and PUFA rich food that sustain fish populations. The composition of most FA in fish was similar to that reported from other freshwater tropical environments, with the exception of their higher arachidonic acid content. Fish were found to derive their fatty acids primarily from aquatic sources of food and had similar FA composition to aquatic macroinvertebrates. Aquatic macroinvertebrates fed on aquatic plants (algae) and had higher total lipids and FA contents than plants and fish, providing a more concentrated source of PUFA for fish. Fish obtained most of their FA from their diet except for docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which they must synthesize due to low DHA in algae and macroinvertebrates. There was no overall difference in basal dietary FA composition between floodplain and river channel habitats. However, macroinvertebrate taxa varied in their lipid and PUFA content. Food quality for fish may therefore vary between habitats as a consequence of differences in macroinvertebrate community composition. Given the high algal production on floodplains compared to the river channels, these habitats are likely to represent the major source of high quality food for fish and other aquatic consumers, and conserving habitats that are rich in lipids and PUFA is important for maintaining healthy fish communities.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2021
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 09-01-2023
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-2290238/V1
Abstract: Many species of tilapia (a collection of fish species from the cichlidae family) have biological traits that make them successful invaders. While widespread herbivory has been observed in many tilapia species, knowledge on habitat preferences and tilapia interactions with native fish food webs is limited. This study used stomach contents and stable isotope analysis of spotted tilapia ( Pelmatolapia mariae ) and Mozambique tilapia ( Oreochromis mossambicus ), and stable isotopes of common native fish species to explore relationships between habitat and diet for fish food webs in the Mitchell River, northern Australia, three years after tilapia were detected in the catchment. While plant material was the most abundant item in tilapia stomachs, some also contained other items in small quantities, such as fish eggs, small shrimp, and bivalves. Macrohabitat type (in-channel (no tilapia), off-channel (no tilapia), weir (tilapia present)) was related to native fish food web structure, with weir food webs showing similarities to off-channel food webs. In-channel food webs were more constrained than weir or off-channel food webs, reflecting a more limited range of available food sources. Off-channel habitats including creeks and wetlands were most similar to weir habitats and may therefore be most at risk of colonization as tilapia spread throughout the catchment. This study clearly demonstrated that the successful rapid invasion of these two tilapia species is linked to suitable habitat with abundant food that fuels growth and reproduction. These findings increase understanding of diet related habitat use during new tilapia invasions and trophic interactions with native species.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 25-06-2022
DOI: 10.3390/S22134805
Abstract: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is often diagnosed during the last trimester of pregnancy, leaving only a short timeframe for intervention. However, appropriate assessment, management, and treatment have been shown to reduce the complications of GDM. This study introduces a machine learning-based stratification system for identifying patients at risk of exhibiting high blood glucose levels, based on daily blood glucose measurements and electronic health record (EHR) data from GDM patients. We internally trained and validated our model on a cohort of 1148 pregnancies at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH), and performed external validation on 709 patients from Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RBH). We trained linear and non-linear tree-based regression models to predict the proportion of high-readings (readings above the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE] guideline) a patient may exhibit in upcoming days, and found that XGBoost achieved the highest performance during internal validation (0.021 [CI 0.019–0.023], 0.482 [0.442–0.516], and 0.112 [0.109–0.116], for MSE, R2, MAE, respectively). The model also performed similarly during external validation, suggesting that our method is generalizable across different cohorts of GDM patients.
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Date: 2023
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 03-2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.1016/J.MARENVRES.2021.105511
Abstract: Trace element accumulation pathways are important in many ecological and toxicological studies on aquatic organisms, yet these pathways are often poorly understood. To study the influence of diet and environment on the trace element composition of species within estuarine food webs, we performed a community level assessment of 28 trace elements (including major and minor elements) in common fish and prawn taxa across four estuaries, and in fish, prawn, and other invertebrate taxa within a single estuary. Despite sediment substrates from the four estuaries having distinctly different geochemical compositions, food web s les showed no separation by estuary, but clear separation by taxa. Grouping of taxa by trace elements was related to feeding ecology, with pelagic taxa separated from benthic taxa, and mixed feeding by generalist taxa. Arsenic and selenium were more concentrated in benthic fish, while aluminium, barium, copper, iron, manganese, vanadium, and zinc were more concentrated in pelagic fish. Trophic level did not appear to influence trace element composition. Previous laboratory studies have shown that food sources influence trace element concentrations in marine taxa and this study confirms that this also occurs in natural food webs. These results improve our understanding of the dominant importance of diet and physiology in controlling the trace element composition of species within estuarine food webs.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2023
Publisher: Griffith University
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.25904/1912/2805
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 20-09-2023
DOI: 10.3390/S23187990
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 08-03-2023
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-2653408/V1
Abstract: Gestational diabetes is a subtype of diabetes that develops during pregnancy.Managing blood glucose (BG) within the healthy physiological range can reduce clinical complications for women with gestational diabetes. In this paper, we developed a Stacked Long and Short-Term Memory (Stacked-LSTM) model to predict before- and after-meal BG levels for women with gestational diabetes. A total of 190396 BG readings from 1110 patients were used for model development, validation and testing under three different prediction schemes: 7 days of BG readings to predict the next 7 or 14 days, and 14 days to predict 14 days. Our results show that the optimized BG schedule uses a 7-day observational window to predict the BG of the next 14 days, achieved accuracies of RMSE = 0.958±0.007, 0.876±0.003, 0.898±0.003, 0.622±0.003, 0.814±0.009, and 0.845±0.005 for the after-breakfast, after-lunch, after-dinner, before-breakfast, before-lunch and before-dinner predictions, respectively. The performance of our models is on par withthe prediction accuracies (RMSE) in benchmark BG prediction models using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) readings. In conclusion, the Stacked-LSTM model is a promising approach for capturing the patterns in time series data, resulting in accurate predictions of BG levels. Using a deep learning model with routine fingerstick glucose collection is a promising, predictable and low-cost solution for BG monitoring for women with gestational diabetes.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-10-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-03-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S13157-023-01672-9
Abstract: Metabolomic and genomic markers in plants have helped diagnose evolutionary pressures and resulting modern-day floristic ersification. Here we use a different set of metrics, 17 biochemical measures made at the whole tissue or bulk tissue level, to study ersification in resource use and productivity among Pacific mangroves. Three mangrove species Bruguiera gynmorhiza (BRGY), Rhizphora apiculata (RHAP), and Sonneratia alba (SOAL) were studied across 5 sites on the island of Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia with measurements of the following chemical metrics: C, N, P, K, Na, Mg, Ca, B, S, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn elements and isotope values δ 2 H, δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and δ 34 S. Species were remarkably distinct in chemical profiles, showing significant differences across all metrics. This indicated long-term resource use partitioning and optimization, with metrics showing physiology and patch-related differences. The patch-related differences meant that metrics were not really fixed in species, but represented flexible traits (“flexitraits”) in fingerprinting mangrove ecology. Effects of tree harvesting could be fingerprinted with the metrics at one of the Kosrae sites. Modeling showed two results. (1) Conservation efforts to preserve low-nutrient specialists like BRGY probably should involve removal of competing SOAL and RHAP rather than nutrient reductions. (2) Although mangrove growth rates were most limited by P, water was a strongly co-limiting factor. This study introduces a new physiological parameter to plant ecology, a water-to-phosphorus ratio, “normalized δ 13 C/P” or “f 13C /P”, that should generally help diagnose how plant N and P nutrient use can be co-limited by water.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2018.11.077
Abstract: Erosion of soil from catchments during floods can deliver large quantities of sediment to the coastal zone. The transformations and processes of nutrient release from catchment soils during flooding are not well understood. To test the hypothesis that catchment soils supply nutrients to the coastal zone, we examined nutrient release and transformation following wetting of soils formed from three distinct rock types (basalt, granite and sandstone) with fresh and marine water. The soil s les were collected from eroding areas of a subtropical river catchment. We simulated runoff, transport and deposition by tumbling the fine fraction of the soils in freshwater for three days and settling in seawater for four weeks. We also collected and incubated cores from an adjacent coastal bay and added a layer of catchment soil to simulate deposition of new sediment following flood plume settling. Dissolved nutrients were measured in both simulations. Basalt soils were relatively nutrient rich and released substantial quantities of organic and inorganic dissolved nutrients, particularly phosphate. However when soils were added to estuarine sediment cores and incubated, there was a net influx of phosphate from the overlying water. All soils continually released ammonium in both experiments, indicating that catchment soils may be an important source of ammonium to fuel productivity within the coastal zone. This study provides new insights into increased nitrogen availability in a nitrogen-depauperate coastal zone and identifies catchment geology as an important influence in coastal productivity through delivery of soil nitrogen to downstream estuaries.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-09-2015
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: Australia
No related grants have been discovered for Kaitlyn O'Mara.