Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Data Set Details

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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession:

PLT-GCEM-1511a

Research Theme:

Plant Ecology (Monitoring)

Contributors:

Steven C. Pennings, John O'Donnell, Hongyu Guo, Joel Craig, Andrew Howard, Fan Li, Shanze Li, Jacob Shalack, Ellen Herbert, Dontrece Smith

Title:

Fall 2015 plant monitoring survey -- shoot height and flowering status of plants in permanent plots at GCE sampling sites 1-10

Abstract:

A quadrat survey was conducted in October 2015 to measure the species and size distribution of plants at 10 GCE LTER sampling sites. The quadrats were established as permanent plots at GCE sampling sites in October 2000 by placing wooden stakes at random locations across two nominal zones at each site, designated based on marsh structure (creekbank and high marsh). New plots were added each year as necessary to replace those lost due to catastrophic wrack disturbance or creek bank erosion, and the creek bank plots at site 3 were relocated in 2013 due to a shift in the creek location. The plots were visually surveyed and the species, shoot height, and flowering status was recorded individually for each shoot over 10 cm in height present in each plot. Observations from plots exhibiting signs of disturbance were noted in the data set, and an additional set of observations were recorded for the creek bank zone at site 3 prior to relocation (identified as Zone -1) for comparison with the relocated plots. Detailed disturbance data can be found in GCE data set PLT-GCEM-1801. This survey will be repeated annually to assess changes in plant distribution and biomass in relation to environmental changes documented by other GCE LTER monitoring efforts.

DOI:

10.6073/pasta/a6269f79b2ca601f77c865ac2ef5d86c

Key Words:

flowering, marshes, monitoring, Panicum, permanent plots, plant communities, plant cover, plant ecology, plant growth, Plant Monitoring, plants, primary productivity, Scirpus, shoot height, Typha

LTER Core Area:

Primary Production

Research Themes:

GCE2 Q2 - Domain Patterns, GCE3 Area2 - Patterns within the Domain, Plant Ecology, Botany

Study Period:

20-Oct-2015 to 24-Oct-2015

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:

Cladium jamaicense, Juncus effusus, Juncus roemerianus, Panicum spp, Scirpus americanus, Scirpus olneyi, Scirpus robustus, Scirpus validus, Spartina alterniflora, Spartina cynosuroides, Typha angustifolia, Zizaniopsis miliacea

Data References:

PLT-GCEM-1511b (Biomass calculations based on this survey), PLT-GCEM-1801 (Disturbance to permanent monitoring plots data set)

Project References:

End of year biomass

Publications:

Liu, W. and Pennings, S.C. Presentation: Allometric variation of the salt marsh grass Spartina alterniflora across space and time. 103rd Annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, August 5-10, 2018, New Orleans.

Pennings, S.C. Presentation: Effects of Hurricanes Matthew and Irma on coastal wetlands in Georgia. 103rd Annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, August 5-10, 2018, New Orleans.

Liu, W. and Pennings, S.C. 2019. Self-thinning and size-dependent flowering of the grass Spartina alterniflora across space and time. Functional Ecology. 33:1830-1841. (DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13384)

Liu, W. and Pennings, S.C. 2021. Variation in synchrony of production among species, sites and intertidal zones in coastal marshes. Ecology. (DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3278)

Downloads:

Data Table: PLT-GCEM-1511a (Main data table for data set PLT-GCEM-1511a, 3006 records)

Access: Public (released 20-Nov-2016)

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

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [283.60kb], Text File [250.59kb], MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [102.29kb], MATLAB (Variables) [101.96kb], Text Report [382.82kb]

Column List:(hide)

Column	Name	Units	Type	Description
1	Year	YYYY	integer	Year of observation
2	Month	M	integer	Month of observation
3	Day	D	integer	Day of observation
4	Site	none	integer	GCE LTER sampling site
5	Zone	none	integer	Nominal marsh zone
6	Plot	none	integer	Permanent plot number
7	Location	none	string	Geographic location code in the GCE Metadata Database for the sampling plot
8	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)
9	Location_Notes	none	string	Notes on location assignments and geographic accuracy
10	Longitude	degrees	floating-point	Geographic longitude in decimal degrees
11	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)
12	Latitude	degrees	floating-point	Geographic latitude in decimal degrees
13	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)
14	Quadrat_Area	m^2	floating-point	Areal measurement of the quadrat frame
15	Species_Code	none	string	Plant species code
16	Shoot_Height	cm	floating-point	Height of the plant shoot above the substrate
17	Flowering_Status	none	integer	Presence or absence of inflorescence
18	Plot_Disturbance	none	integer	Presence or absence of visible plot disturbance

Statistics:

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

Citation:

Pennings, Steven C. 2015. Fall 2015 plant monitoring survey -- shoot height and flowering status of plants in permanent plots at GCE sampling sites 1-10. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/a6269f79b2ca601f77c865ac2ef5d86c

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