Counts of live and dead adults, and number of spat in additional oyster focal clusters from the oyster reefs along Southeastern Atlantic Bight (SAB) from North Carolina to Florida in 2011 (Oyster Trophic Cascades project)

Website: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/555163
Version: 2015-04-01

Project
» The influence of predators on community structure and resultant ecosystem functioning at a biogeographic scale (Oyster_Trophic_Cascades)
ContributorsAffiliationRole
Kimbro, David L.Northeastern UniversityPrincipal Investigator
Byers, James E.University of Georgia (UGA)Co-Principal Investigator
Grabowski, JonathanNortheastern UniversityCo-Principal Investigator, Contact
Hughes, A. RandallNortheastern UniversityCo-Principal Investigator
Piehler, Michael F.University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill-IMS)Co-Principal Investigator
Copley, NancyWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO)BCO-DMO Data Manager


Dataset Description

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 counts of live and dead adults, and the number of spat in additional oyster 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


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Data Files

File
extra_clusters.csv
(Comma Separated Values (.csv), 3.59 KB)
MD5:46c31d5ae45ed2f31c242bf60d459cf9
Primary data file for dataset ID 555163

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Parameters

ParameterDescriptionUnits
siteExperimental study site/estuary within each region; Two sites per region unitless
latlatitude; north is positive decimal degrees
lonlongitude; east is positive decimal degrees
cageID number of caging enclosure unitless
treatmentExperimental treatment unitless
edge_interiorWhether clusters were collected from the edge of the reef or near the center unitless
wgt_totalAggregate mass of all 4 edge or interior clusters collected from that cage kilogram
num_spat_totalTotal number of spat found on all clusters (unit
num_liveTotal number of live adult oysters on all clusters (>25mm) unit
num_deadTotal number of dead adult oysters on all clusters (>25mm). Includes gapers and whole bottom valves. unit
commentAdditional notes unitless

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Deployments

Kimbro_2011

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.


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Project Information

The influence of predators on community structure and resultant ecosystem functioning at a biogeographic scale (Oyster_Trophic_Cascades)

Coverage: St. Augustine, FL to Cape Hatteras, NC


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.

 



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Funding

Funding SourceAward
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)

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