Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Data Set Details

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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession:

INV-GCES-1609

Research Theme:

Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology (Synthesis)

Contributors:

Merryl Alber, Steve Pennings, Dale Bishop, Wade Sheldon

Title:

Long-term Burrowing Crab Population Abundance Data from the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Fall Marsh Monitoring Program

Abstract:

This data set includes long-term observational data on burrowing crab abundance at 10 Georgia Coastal Ecosystems marsh sites used for annual plant and invertebrate population monitoring. Crab abundance was determined by performing surveys of crab hole occurance within replicate 625 square centimeter quadrats and converting the counts to number per square meter. Surveys were performed annually during October within the mid-marsh and creek bank zones at GCE marsh study sites 1 through 10 (i.e. n = 4 per zone at each site). Surveys were also performed in an additional high marsh Juncus zone at several sites beginning in 2009 (i.e. n = 4 quadrats per site). Note that this census method does not differentiate which species made a particular hole and therefore only estimates total burrowing crab abundance, potentially including species Uca pugnax, Uca minax, Uca pugilator, Armases cinereum, Eurytium limosum, Sesarma reticulatum and Panopeus spp. Crab holes that are not actively maintained are quickly covered by tidal activity and other sediment disturbances, therefore plugged holes were assumed to be unoccupied and excluded from the counts. This data set includes cumulative observations from 2000 to 2022, and will be updated annually to include the prior year observations.

DOI:

10.6073/pasta/70f49ac9a55897d6891c879e5eb3e75b

Key Words:

Aquatic Invertebrate Monitoring, Armases, crabs, creek bank, density, Eurytium, fall, intertidal, marshes, mid-marsh, monitoring, mud, permanent plots, population dynamics, Sesarma, Uca

LTER Core Area:

Population Studies

Research Themes:

GCE2 Q2 - Domain Patterns, GCE3 Area2 - Patterns within the Domain, Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology

Study Period:

06-Oct-2001 to 26-Oct-2022

Study Sites:

GCE1 -- Eulonia, Georgia, USA
GCE2 -- Four Mile Island, Georgia, USA
GCE3 -- North Sapelo, Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA
GCE4 -- Meridian, Georgia, USA
GCE5 -- Folly River, Georgia, USA
GCE6 -- Dean Creek, Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA
GCE7 -- Carrs Island, Georgia, USA
GCE8 -- Alligator Creek, Georgia, USA
GCE9 -- Rockdedundy Island, Georgia, USA
GCE10 -- Hunt Camp, Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA

» Download Geographic Coverage: Google Earth

Species References:

Armases cinereum, Eurytium limosum, Sesarma reticulatum, Uca minax, Uca pugilator, Uca pugnax

Data References:

INV-GCEM-0210a (Fall 2001 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0210c (Fall 2002 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0401 (Fall 2003 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0411b (Fall 2004 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0511 (Fall 2005 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0705b (Fall 2006 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0804b (Fall 2007 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-0811 (Fall 2008 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1006 (Fall 2009 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1011 (Fall 2010 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1207 (Fall 2011 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1212 (Fall 2012 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1312 (Fall 2013 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1501 (Fall 2014 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1609 (Fall 2015 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1709 (Fall 2016 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1809 (Fall 2017 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-1909 (Fall 2018 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-2009 (Fall 2019 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-2109 (Fall 2020 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-2209 (Fall 2021 crab dataset), INV-GCEM-2309 (Fall 2022 crab dataset)

Project References:

Marine invertebrate monitoring

Publications:

Smith, R.S., Pennings, S.C., Alber, M., Craft, C.B. and Byers, J. 2024. The resistance of Georgia coastal marshes to hurricanes. Ecosphere. 15(4). (DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4821)

Downloads:

Data Table: INV-GCES-1609 (Main data table for data set INV-GCES-1609, 1852 records)

Access: Public (released 12-Oct-2016)

Metadata: Text (ESA FLED), XML (Ecological Metadata Language)

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [166.01kb], Text File [147.41kb], MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [110.00kb], MATLAB (Variables) [114.77kb], Text Report [276.14kb]

Column List:(hide)

Column	Name	Units	Type	Description
1	Date	YYYY-MM-DD	string	Calendar date
2	Year	YYYY	integer	Calendar year of observation
3	Site	None	integer	GCE-LTER sampling site number
4	Zone	None	integer	Marsh zone code (1=Creekbank, 2=Mid-marsh)
5	Plot	None	integer	GCE-LTER permanent plot number
6	Location	none	string	Geographic location code in the GCE Metadata Database for the sampling plot
7	Flag_Location	none	string	QA/QC flags for Geographic location code in the GCE Metadata Database for the sampling plot (flagging criteria, where "x" is Location: manual)
8	Location_Notes	none	string	Notes on location assignments and geographic accuracy
9	Longitude	degrees	floating-point	Geographic longitude in decimal degrees
10	Flag_Longitude	none	string	QA/QC flags for Geographic longitude in decimal degrees (flagging criteria, where "x" is Longitude: x<-180="I", x>180="I", manual)
11	Latitude	degrees	floating-point	Geographic latitude in decimal degrees
12	Flag_Latitude	none	string	QA/QC flags for Geographic latitude in decimal degrees (flagging criteria, where "x" is Latitude: x<-90="I", x>90="I", manual)
13	Quadrat_Area	cm^2	floating-point	Areal measurement of the quadrat frame
14	Hole_Count	Count	integer	Number of crab holes recorded in 625 cm^2 quadrat
15	Hole_Density	Count/m^2	floating-point	Calculated number of crab holes per meter squared

Statistics:

Generate script code to retrieve data tables for analysis in: MATLAB, R, SAS, SPSS

Citation:

Alber, Merryl. 2016. Long-term Burrowing Crab Population Abundance Data from the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Fall Marsh Monitoring Program. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/70f49ac9a55897d6891c879e5eb3e75b

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