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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession: PLT-GCET-0711 GCE Research Theme: Plant Ecology (Graduate Thesis Study)
Contributors: Amy E. Kunza Vargas, Steve Pennings
Title: Plant richness survey of mainland and barrier island locations along the Texas Gulf Coast in April and May 2005
Abstract: I conducted a plant richness survey of 49 sites on the Texas Gulf Coast in the Spring (April-May) of 2005. Sites were chosen to include a range of mainland and barrier island locations. All sites were dominated by salt marsh plant species, primarily Spartina alterniflora. To provide a general indication of the salinity conditions prevailing at each site, I measured salinity of the nearest body of water with a refractometer on the date that the site was sampled. Plant richness was documented along a single 5.0m wide transect at each site. Each transect began at the lower elevational limit of vegetation and continued perpendicular to the water's edge to the shrub community at the upper marsh border. Plant presence was noted in a series of nested subplots within a 1.0m x 5.0m plot at each meter along the transect. The results posted here are sites, position, salinity, and the site pool, or species encountered at the site. This data set is a companion to PLT-GCET-0608, which provides similar data for sites around Sapelo Island, Georgia.
Key Words: barrier island, community composition, Gulf of Mexico, hammock, marshes, plant communities, plant cover, plants, shoot height, species richness, terrestrial, Texas
LTER Core Area: Populations
GCE Themes: Q2 - Domain Patterns, Plant Ecology, Population Ecology
Study Period: 20-Apr-2005 to 25-May-2005
Study Sites:
TexasGulf -- Texas Gulf Coast, Texas, USA
» Download Geographic Coverage: Google Earth, ESRI Shapefile (polygons, points)
Species References: Agalinis maritima, Aster tenuifolius, Avicennia germinans, Baccharis halimifolia, Batis maritima, Borrichia frutescens, Cuscuta indecora, Cynanchum angustifolium, Distichlis spicata, Eustoma exaltatum, Helianthus annuus, Iva frutescens, Juncus roemerianus, Limonium carolinianum, Lycium carolinianum, Monanthochloe littoralis, Opuntia humifusa, Rayjacksonia phyllocephala, Sabatia arenicola, Salicornia bigelovii, Salicornia virginica, Scirpus americanus, Scirpus robustus, Sesuvium portulacastrum, Solidago sempervirens, Spartina alterniflora, Spartina bakeri, Spartina cynosuroides, Spartina patens, Spartina spartinae, Sporobolus virginicus, Suaeda linearis
Data References: PLT-GCET-0608
Project References: Marsh plant diversity
Publications:

Kunza, A.E. and Pennings, S.C. 2005. Poster: Plant diversity of Texas and Georgia salt marshes. Ecological Society of America 2005 Meeting - Ecology at multiple scales, August 7-12, 2005, Montreal, Canada.

Kunza, A.E. 2006. Patterns of plant diversity in two salt marsh regions. M.S. Thesis. University of Houston, Houston, Texas. 70 pages.

Kunza, A.E. and Pennings, S.C. 2006. Poster: Patterns of plant diversity in two salt marsh regions. Long Term Ecological Research Network All-Scientists Meeting, September 20-24, 2006, Estes Park, Colorado.
Downloads: Information

Data Table: PLT-GCET-0711 (Main data table for data set PLT-GCET-0711, 1568 records)

Access: Public (released 29-Nov-2007)

Metadata: Text (ESA FLED), Basic EML, Complete EML

Data Files: Spreadsheet (CSV) [106.12kb],  Text File [96.46kb],  Text Report [146.03kb],  MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [653.03kb],  MATLAB (Variables) [645.03kb], Custom MATLAB, Custom Text

Column List:

Column Name Units Type Description (show)
1 Location none string Researcher-defined name of location surveyed
2 Date DD-MMM-YYYY string Date of survey
3 Longitude degrees floating-point Geographic longitude of the survey location
4 Latitude degrees floating-point Geographic latitude of survey location
5 Envir_Type none string Environment type surveyed
6 Salinity PSU floating-point Salinity of nearest body of water to survey location
7 Species_Code none string Plant species code
8 Plant_Presence none integer Observations of plant species presence in study plots during the survey (0 = species not present, 1 = species present)

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants OCE-9982133, OCE-0620959 and OCE-1237140. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.