| Contributors | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Kimbro, David L. | Northeastern University | Principal Investigator |
| Grabowski, Jonathan | Northeastern University | Co-Principal Investigator, Contact |
| Copley, Nancy | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO) | BCO-DMO Data Manager |
Oyster reef cages containing either bivalves, consumers or predators were set up along the southeastern US coast from N. Carolina to Florida. This dataset includes shell counts and weights of live, gaping and spat of oysters focal clusters
Related Reference:
DL. Kimbro,JE. Byers,JH. Grabowski, AR. Hughes and MF. Piehler. The biogeography of trophic cascades on US oyster reefs (2014) Ecology Letters 17:845-854. doi: 10.1111/ele.12293.
Data is also available from the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB):
1. Cage Experiment Bivalve Data http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/knb/metacat?action=read&qformat=knb&sessionid=0&docid=evanlpettis.101.15
| File |
|---|
focal_clusters.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 16.37 KB) MD5:261c2b9f80fb295b76bc13b47bd2c1b0 Primary data file for dataset ID 555104 |
| Parameter | Description | Units |
| site | Experimental study site/estuary within each region; Two sites per region | unitless |
| lat | latitude; north is positive | decimal degrees |
| lon | longitude; east is positive | decimal degrees |
| cage | ID number of caging enclosure | unitless |
| treatment | Experimental treatment | unitless |
| subcage_phantom | Indicates whether clam was planted in a subcaged or phantom caged location | unitless |
| position | Position at which individual clam was assigned within the cage | unitless |
| tag | Tag on clam | unitless |
| wgt_init | Initial mass of cluster | gram |
| num_live_init | Initial number of live adult oysters in cluster (>25mm) | unit |
| num_gapers_init | Initial number of gaping adult oysters in cluster (>25mm) | unit |
| num_spat_init | Initial number spat on cluster ( | unit |
| wgt_final | Final mass of recovered cluster (NR indicates the cluster was not recovered). Note that FL had only a very coarse spring scale for measuring final mass so there may be rounding error. | gram |
| num_live_final | Final number of live adult oysters in cluster (>25mm) | unit |
| num_gapers_final | Final number of gaping adult oysters in cluster (>25mm) | unit |
| num_spat_final | Final number spat on cluster ( | unit |
| comment | Additional notes | unitless |
| Website | |
| Platform | Oyster_Reefs_SE-US |
| Start Date | 2011-06-02 |
| End Date | 2011-09-02 |
| Description | Oyster reef communities were manipulated to test the generality of potential causal factors of trophic cascades across a 1000-km region from N. Carolina to Florida using monitoring and cage experiments. |
Predators structure ecological communities by consuming and altering the traits of prey, yet these effects have only recently been linked to local variation in ecosystem functions such as primary production and nutrient cycling. Such linkages may operate differently across biogeographic scales because factors known to affect local predator mechanisms also vary with latitude. The mismatch between knowledge of how predators locally affect ecosystem functions and the biogeographic range at which predator-prey interactions occur inhibits understanding of linkages between ecological communities and ecosystems, and thus our ability to manage valuable ecosystem services. Intertidal oyster reefs provide a model system to address this knowledge gap: they occur throughout the mid-Atlantic and Gulf coasts; they contain a similar food-web assemblage across latitudinal gradients in predation, resource supplies, and environmental conditions; they are strongly influenced by predator effects; and they influence sediment and nutrient cycles by enhancing benthic-pelagic coupling. This research involves a series of standardized sampling and experimental studies to: (1) investigate biogeographic patterns in oyster food web structure, resource supplies, environmental conditions, and sediment properties associated with reef function (2) determine how the vital rates of oysters, which can influence benthic-pelagic coupling, vary geographically; and (3) examine experimentally the relative importance of consumptive and non-consumptive predator effects on oyster reef communities and the ecosystem processes they provide and how these effects vary latitudinally. It will provide a mechanistic understanding of the basis for biogeographical shifts in valuable ecosystem services performed by an important marine foundation species, and it will also advance understanding of the interactions between predator effects in food webs and the ecosystem processes that depend on them. (from the Lead Principal Investigator proposal Abstract)
This is a Collaborative Project with Investigators from four major research universities.
[Funding for this project has transferred from award OCE-0961633 to OCE-1338372, and from award OCE-0961741 to OCE-1203859, coincident with Principal Investigators Dr. Kimbro's and Dr. Grabowski's affiliation changes.]
BCO-DMO is in the process of serving data from this project directly. These data are also available online from the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.