Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Data Set Details

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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession:

MLT-GCET-1106a

Research Theme:

Multi-Disciplinary Study (Graduate Thesis Study)

Contributors:

Brittany DeLoach McCall, Steve Pennings, Huy Vu, Kazik Wieski, Hongyu Guo, Michael Richardson, Brittany DeLong, Claudia Grimm, Annika Stark

Title:

Comparative transect surveys of invertebrate abundance, plant cover, and sediment characteristics in Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico salt marshes from April 2009 to September 2010

Abstract:

Understanding the relative strengths of top-down and bottom-up forces is an important key to predicting the structure of biological communities. The strength of these effects can be regulated in part by predator abundance and nutrient availability. In 2009, we hypothesized that the importance of these factors varies geographically between the southeastern Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast due to differences in tidal regime, and began to study this variation using a biogeographic, manipulative field experiment. Although our original purpose was to understand the structure of salt marsh arthropod food webs, BP's Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf Coast presented an opportunity to understand how stress from an oil spill might affect the variables that we were measuring. The fact that we had plots and transect sampling in place at multiple sites along the Gulf and East Coasts put us in a position to evaluate any impacts that might occur if oil hit some of the sites. The study was conducted at 11 sites across the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida, and 11 sites along the Atlantic Coast, from Florida to Maine. At each site, experimental plots were sampled and a 100m transect was sampled near the plots within 5m of the high marsh boundary. Sampling was conducted in May 2009, August 2009, and August 2010. In 2010, four extra sites were added to the existing experimental sites because of known oil contamination, and another site was added as an extra control. Only the transect sampling was conducted at these sites. This dataset contains all the transect data; data from experimental plots will be reported in a companion dataset.

DOI:

10.6073/pasta/68e5ae5c5af11588034cb5ef90878437

Key Words:

abundance, Acridid, arthropods, Cecidomyiidae, Chaetopsis, Chloropidae, Delphacodes, disturbance, Dolichopodidae, ecosystems, fertilization, Foraminifera, Geukensia, insects, invertebrates, irradiance, Ischnodemus, latitude, Littoraria, longitude, marine, Megamealus, Melampus, nematodes, Oligochaetes, organic content, plants, pollution, Polychaetes, Prokelisia, salinity, sediments, Tettigoniid, Trigonotylus, Tytthus

LTER Core Area:

Population Studies

Research Themes:

Multi-Disciplinary Study, Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology, Organic Matter/Decomposition, Plant Ecology, Population Ecology, Terrestrial Insect Ecology

Study Period:

25-Apr-2009 to 15-Sep-2010

Study Sites:

SE_Coast -- Southeastern USA Coast, USA

» Download Geographic Coverage: Google Earth

Species References:

Delphacodes penedetecta, Geukensia demissa, Littoraria irrorata, Melampus bidentatus, Prokelisia marginata, Spartina alterniflora, Trigonotylus uhleri, Tytthus vagus

Data References:

MLT-GCET-1106b (Corresponding experimental plot study)

Publications:

McCall, B.D. 2011. Geographic Variation in the Structure of Salt Marsh Arthropod Communities. M.S. Thesis. University of Houston, Houston, Texas. 51 pages.

Downloads:

Data Table: MLT-GCET-1106a (Main data table for data set MLT-GCET-1106a, 74 records)

Access: Public (released 01-Jan-2012)

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

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [18.12kb], Text File [20.87kb], MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [310.09kb], MATLAB (Variables) [318.96kb], Text Report [137.87kb]

Column List:(hide)

Column	Name	Units	Type	Description
1	Location	none	string	Name of the sampling location
2	Latitude	degrees	floating-point	Geographic latitude of the sampling location
3	Longitude	degrees	floating-point	Geographic longitude of the sampling location
4	Day	D	integer	Calendar day site was sampled
5	Month	M	integer	Calendar month site was sampled
6	Year	YYYY	integer	Calendar year site was sampled
7	Oil_Presence	none	integer	Presence of obvious oil in water and on plants and soil
8	Soil_Organic_Content	percent	floating-point	Soil organic content as determined by loss of dry mass after ignition in a muffle furnace
9	Soil_Water_Content	percent	floating-point	Soil water content as determined by difference between wet weight and dry weight
10	Soil_Salinity	PSU	floating-point	Salinity of pore water
11	Soil_Bitumen	percent	floating-point	Oil content of soil by mass
12	Leaf_Nitrogen	percent	floating-point	Nitrogen content of Spartina alterniflora leaf
13	Spartina_Cover	percent	floating-point	Percent cover of Spartina in 0.5 x 0.5 m quadrat
14	Dead_Plant_Cover	percent	floating-point	Percent cover of dead plant material in 0.5 x 0.5 m quadrat
15	Spartina_Height	cm	floating-point	Height of tallest Spartina alterniflora plant
16	PAR_Above_Canopy	µE/m^2/s	floating-point	PAR reading above plant canopy
17	PAR_Below_Canopy	µE/m^2/s	floating-point	PAR reading at soil level
18	Light_Intercepted	ratio	floating-point	Fraction of light intercepted by the canopy
19	Littoraria_Density	count/m^2	floating-point	Average number of littoraria per square meter
20	Littoraria_Height	mm	floating-point	Average spire height of Littoraria from transect
21	Melampus_Density	count/m^2	floating-point	Average number of Melampus per square meter
22	Black_Snail_Density	count/m^2	floating-point	Average number of black snails per square meter
23	Geukensia_Density	count/m^2	floating-point	Average number of Geukensia per square meter
24	Crab_Burrow_Density	count/m^2	floating-point	Average number of crab burrows per square meter
25	Crab_Burrow_Diameter	cm	floating-point	Average diameter of crab burrows from transect
26	Tettigoniid_Abundance	none	integer	Estimate of tettigoniid abundance
27	Foraminifera_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of Foraminifera in pooled sediment sample
28	Nematode_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of nematodes in pooled sediment sample
29	Polychaete_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of polychaetes in pooled sediment sample
30	Oligochaete_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of oligochaetes in pooled sediment sample
31	Unident_Worm_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of unidents in pooled sediment sample Number of Worms in pooled sediment sample
32	Snail_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of snails in pooled sediment sample
33	Bivalve_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of bivalves in pooled sediment sample
34	Other_Mollusc_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of other molluscs in pooled sediment sample
35	Crab_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of crabs in pooled sediment sample
36	Amphipod_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of amphipods in pooled sediment sample
37	Insect_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of insects in pooled sediment sample
38	Spider_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of spiders in pooled sediment sample
39	Other_Arthropod_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of other arthropods in pooled sediment sample
40	Unidentified_Infauna_Count_Sediment	count	integer	Number of unidentified infauna in pooled sediment sample
41	Trigonotylus_uhleri_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Trigonotylus uhleri in pooled DVac sample
42	Leafhopper_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of leafhoppers in pooled DVac sample
43	Prokelisia_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Prokelisia in pooled DVac sample
44	Delphacodes_penedetecta_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Delphacodes penedetecta in pooled DVac sample
45	Megamealus_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Megamealus in pooled DVac sample
46	Immature_Delphacids_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of immature Delphacids in pooled DVac sample
47	Other_Planthopper_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of other Planthoppers in pooled DVac sample
48	Ischnodemus_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Ischnodemus in pooled DVac sample
49	Tettigonid_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Tettigonid in pooled DVac sample
50	Acridid_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Acridid in pooled DVac sample
51	Thrips_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Thrips in pooled DVac sample
52	Weevil_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of weevils in pooled DVac sample
53	Chaetopsis_Fly_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Chaetopsis fly in pooled DVac sample
54	Chloropidae_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Chloropidae in pooled DVac sample
55	Cecidomyiidae_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Cecidomyiidae in pooled DVac sample
56	Dolichopodidae_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Dolichopodidae in pooled DVac sample
57	Other_Herbivore_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of other herbivores in pooled DVac sample
58	Tythus_vagus_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Tythus vagus in pooled DVac sample
59	Naemia_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Naemia in pooled DVac sample
60	Hogna_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Hogna in pooled DVac sample
61	Pardosa_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Pardosa in pooled DVac sample
62	Marpissa_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Marpissa in pooled DVac sample
63	Other_Salticid_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of other Salticid in pooled DVac sample
64	Clubionid_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Clubionid in pooled DVac sample
65	Tetragnatha_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Tetragnatha in pooled DVac sample
66	Grammonota_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Grammonota in pooled DVac sample
67	Other_Spider_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of other spiders in pooled DVac sample
68	Other_Predator_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of other predators in pooled DVac sample
69	Wasp_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of wasps in pooled DVac sample
70	Collembola_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Collembola in pooled DVac sample
71	Brachycera_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Brachycera in pooled DVac sample
72	Nematocera_Count_DVac	count	integer	Number of Nematocera in pooled DVac sample

Statistics:

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

Citation:

McCall, Brittany DeLoach. 2011. Comparative transect surveys of invertebrate abundance, plant cover, and sediment characteristics in Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico salt marshes from April 2009 to September 2010. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/68e5ae5c5af11588034cb5ef90878437

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