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GCE-LTER Data Set Summary

Accession: PLT-GCEM-1312 Research Theme: Plant Ecology (Monitoring)
Contributors: Steven C. Pennings, George Huy, Wade Sheldon
Title: GCE-LTER Altamaha River Plant Community Monitoring Survey in October 2013
Abstract: A quadrat survey was conducted in October 2013 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 the 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: 10.6073/pasta/f0e7abef8b32d78fc253866d55408036
Key Words: aboveground biomass, biomass, flowering, marshes, monitoring, permanent plots, plant biomass, plant communities, plant cover, plant ecology, plant growth, primary production, shoot height
LTER Core Area: Population Studies
Research Themes: GCE2 Q2 - Domain Patterns, GCE3 Area2 - Patterns within the Domain, Plant Ecology, Botany
Study Period: 14-Oct-2013 to 14-Oct-2013
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
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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: Information

Data Table: PLT-GCEM-1312 (Main data table for data set PLT-GCEM-1312, 223 records)

Access: Public (released 12-Dec-2014)

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

Data Formats: Spreadsheet (CSV) [11.33kb],  Text File [10.21kb],  MATLAB (GCE Toolbox) [25.32kb],  MATLAB (Variables) [30.57kb],  Text Report [46.57kb]

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 Plot_Disturbance none integer Presence or absence of visible plot disturbance
12 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
Statistics: Generate script code to retrieve data tables for analysis in: MATLAB, R, SAS, SPSS
Citation: Pennings, Steven C. 2013. GCE-LTER Altamaha River Plant Community Monitoring Survey in October 2013. Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Project, University of Georgia, Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/f0e7abef8b32d78fc253866d55408036

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants OCE-9982133, OCE-0620959, OCE-1237140 and OCE-1832178. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.