Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Data Set Details

Jump to Files

GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession:

PLT-GCET-1608

Research Theme:

Plant Ecology (Graduate Thesis Study)

Contributors:

Shanze Li, Steve Pennings

Title:

Experimental wrack disturbance at four times during the growing season

Abstract:

Using a field experiment on the Georgia coast, we simulated the effects of wrack disturbance on the marsh grass Spartina alterniflora. We simulated wrack disturbance on four different dates by covering selected plot with 10 cm of wrack collected nearby on March 18, May 27, July 15 or September 7. Wrack was fixed to the marsh surface with string so that it could not wash away. We also simulated the mechanical disturbance created by wrack but without the input of organic matter by clipping selected plots at the soil surface on the same dates. We measured plant heights in a 50 cm×50 cm quadrat centered in each plot before the first treatments were conducted in March, again on May 9, and every two weeks thereafter until plots were harvested. We also recorded the status of flowering in the late of the growing season.The center 50 × 50 cm of each plot was harvested by clipping stems at the soil surface on October 5-6, 2015. We measured the height and flowering status of each stem, and counted the number of stem-boring insects present in each stem by splitting the stem open. Data include plant height, flowering status and stem bored status.

DOI:

10.6073/pasta/0efb520e3772f0b97b560325853ebf32

Key Words:

disturbance, disturbance patterns, flowering, insects, plants, primary production, production, resilience, seasonality, stem borer, wrack

LTER Core Area:

Disturbance Patterns

Research Themes:

Plant Ecology, Botany, Terrestrial Insect Ecology

Study Period:

18-Mar-2015 to 06-Oct-2015

Study Sites:

GCE6 -- Dean Creek, Sapelo Island, Georgia, USA

» Download Geographic Coverage: Google Earth

Species References:

Spartina alterniflora

Downloads:

Data Table: PLT-GCET-1608 (Main data table for data set PLT-GCET-1608, 8926 records)

Access: Public (released 08-Aug-2016)

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

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [568.99kb], Text File [574.42kb], MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [1731.15kb], MATLAB (Variables) [1705.34kb], Text Report [630.69kb]

Column List:(hide)

Column	Name	Units	Type	Description
1	Treatment	none	string	Treatment applied to this plot, treatments labeled by date (e.g. March18Wrack), indicating nothing had been done to that plot yet until March 18th.
2	Replicate	none	integer	There were 8 replicates of each treatment
3	Day	D	integer	Day of month plot was measured
4	Month	MMMM	string	Month of year plot was measured
5	Year	YYYY	integer	Year in which plot was measured
6	Easting	m	floating-point	Location of plot UTM Easting
7	Northing	m	floating-point	Location of plot UTM Northing
8	Elevation	m	floating-point	Elevation of each plot
9	Stem_height	cm	floating-point	Height of individual stem
10	Flowering	none	integer	Whether or not the stem is flowering (0=not flowering; 1=flowering)
11	Bored	none	integer	Whether or not the stem is bored (only recorded on Oct6) (0=not bored; 1=bored)

Statistics:

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

Citation:

Li, Shanze. 2016. Experimental wrack disturbance at four times during the growing season. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/0efb520e3772f0b97b560325853ebf32

» Help about file formats, technical specifications and file versioning