Sapelo Research Application Form
Research Application ID: GCE-78-2016 (submitted: 06/09/2016, status: approved)
Provide a brief title for web display
Community wide effects of Sesarma grazing on salt marsh creek heads
Investigator Information
On Island Sponsor: GCE SINERR UGAMI GADNR
| Principal Investigator: | Sinead M. Crotty | ||
| Home Institution: | University of Florida | ||
| Award Information: | Voss Environmental Fellowship Award $4K (Brown University to Thomas Pettengill, undergraduate student on project) | ||
| Mailing Address: | Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences | Phone Number: | |
| University of Florida | E-mail Address: | scrotty@ufl.edu | |
| Gainesville, Florida 32611 | |||
| Co-investigators: | Christine Angelini (University of Florida) | ||
Briefly describe the project goals and methodology
The goal of this project is to determine the community effects of Sesarma grazing fronts in salt marshes and to determine its effects on spatial patterns of Geukensia and Littoraria.
To do this, we will quantify predation on Littoraria and Geukensia in healthy creek heads and in creek heads where there is a grazing front. Our specific methodology includes three mussel treatments and three snail treatments (predator exclusion cage, procedural control, and control). Additionally, we will build artificial mussel mounds behind the grazing fronts to quantify their survival rate, growth, biodiversity, and community impacts. Finally, we will quantify recruitment patterns for both Geukensia and Littoraria. This will involve a series of recruitment surveys across several sites and the deployment of recruitment samplers.
Where will the project be located?
Little Sapelo Creek Heads 31.417782, -81.300812 31.420534, -81.303797 Airport Creek Heads 31.420437, -81.292591 31.424557, -81.291507 Beach Road Creek Heads 31.391841, -81.278382 31.392638, -81.279631
How will you provide GPS coordinates for study sites?
GPS coordinates are listed in the project location field
What are the expected start and end dates of the project?
Start Date: 06/12/2016 End Date: 08/22/2016
How many people will access the site and at what frequency?
2 people once per month after initial setup
Keywords that describe your project
What equipment will be deployed in the field?
At each of our 6 creeks, we will deploy three treatments of mussels and snails. For the ribbed mussels, we will deploy 8 plastic cages (4in x 3in) to exclude predators, 8 procedural cage controls (4in x 3in with sides open), and 8 open control mussels at each of two distances (0m and 20m). For snails, we will deploy 8 cages made of hardware cloth (7cm diameter cylinder of hardware cloth attached to bamboo to insert into the ground), 8 procedural cage controls elevated from the marsh surface, and open controls at both distances. This will be a total of 96 cages and 96 cage controls for each organism spread across all 6 sites.
We will additionally construct mussel mounds of 15 individuals on our grazed creeks (N=3), replicated 8 times at each of two distances. No major equipment will be deployed, but marking flags will be used to identify mounds.
Will plants or animals be collected as part of this study?
Yes; we will collect 300 of each species for the tethering portion of the experiment. For the artificial mounds, we will need to collect 750 mussels in total.
What are the likely impacts of the project on the site?
There will be minimal impacts of the project on the site. Since they will only be accessed 1x/month by myself and one undergrad student, and since the caging is both small and easily removable, I do not expect any real negative impacts on the site.
Will the project design include boardwalks? If not, explain why not.
The project will not include boardwalks. Creeks were chosen to minimize distance needed to walk over the marsh platform. Boardwalks may additionally alter small scale flow regimes and larval delivery patterns which we hope to characterize in this project. Finally, since the project is not expected to cause lasting impacts on the marsh, we feel that boardwalks are not necessary in this case.
How long will impacts persist after the research is concluded?
There will be no long term impacts on the site.
