Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Data Set Details

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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession:

PLT-GCEM-2311c

Research Theme:

Population Ecology (Monitoring)

Contributor:

Steven C. Pennings

Title:

GCE-LTER Altamaha River Plant Community Monitoring Survey in October 2023

Abstract:

A quadrat survey was conducted in October 2023 to measure the species and size distribution of plants at 3 sampling sites on the creekbank of the Altamaha River. The sites were chosen to capture the transition from Spartina alterniflora to Spartina cynosuroides (site SCSA) and the transition from Spartina cynosuroides to Zizaniopsis miliacea (sites ZSC1 and ZSC2). The quadrats were established as permanent plots in October 2012 by placing PVC stakes along the creekbank at each site. Plots were evenly spaced, but were not randomly located because the goal was to start with mixtures of vegetation in most of the plots, and vegetation was distributed in patches along the creekbanks. Therefore, these plots provide useful measures of vegetation change, but are not a random sample of the vegetation at the site. Plots will be replaced each year as necessary to replace any lost to disturbance. 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 a separate data set. 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:

(not assigned)

Key Words:

aboveground biomass, biomass, flowering, marshes, monitoring, permanent plots, plant biomass, plant communities, plant cover, plant ecology, plant growth, Plant Monitoring, shoot height

LTER Core Area:

Population Studies

Research Themes:

GCE2 Q2 - Domain Patterns, GCE3 Area2 - Patterns within the Domain, Population Ecology

Study Period:

11-Oct-2023 to 19-Oct-2023

Study Sites:

SCSA -- SCSA Altamaha Plant Transition Site, Georgia, USA
ZSC1 -- ZSC1 Altamaha Plant Transition Site, Georgia, USA
ZSC2 -- ZSC2 Altamaha Plant Transition Site, Georgia, USA

» Download Geographic Coverage: Google Earth

Species References:

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

Project References:

End of year biomass, GCE-LTER Altamaha River plant community monitoring

Downloads:

Data Table: PLT-GCEM-2311c (Main data table for data set PLT-GCEM-2311c, 251 records)

Access: GCE Members only (public release on 21-Feb-2025)

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

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [11.60kb], Text File [10.53kb], MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [23.86kb], MATLAB (Variables) [29.76kb], Text Report [40.11kb]

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	string	GCE LTER sampling site
5	Zone	none	integer	Nominal marsh zone
6	Plot	none	integer	Permanent plot number
7	Quadrat_Area	m^2	floating-point	Areal measurement of the quadrat frame
8	Species_Code	none	string	Plant species code
9	Shoot_Height	cm	floating-point	Height of the plant shoot above the substrate
10	Flowering_Status	none	integer	Presence or absence of inflorescence
11	Plant_Biomass	g	floating-point	Plant biomass calculated from shoot height and flowering status, based on curve fits of allometric data collected for each site, marsh zone and species

Citation:

Pennings, Steven C. 2024. GCE-LTER Altamaha River Plant Community Monitoring Survey in October 2023. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. https://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/data/PLT-GCEM-2311c

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