Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

This dataset contains deployment information for cement mooring and drifters in Palimco Sound, North Carolina between June of 2013 and August of 2014.

Cement moorings were created by filling 5 gal buckets with cement and affixing rope with surface floats. Larval homes were attached ~1m above cement bucket. Pacific Gyre Microstar Lagrangian Surface Drifters and Brightwater Instruments Model 104 GPS/Argos Drifting Buoys were used interchangeably, with larval homes attached onto the wings via zippy. 

Location: Pamlico Sound, North Carolina is the largest lagoonal estuary along the U.S. East Coast, approximately 129 km long and 24-48 km wide. Average depth is ~2 m but can reach ~ 10 m, with wind-driven currents dominating circulation patterns. 

Deployment 1: 6/15/13 
Collection 1: 6/17/14-6/23/13

Deployment 2: 6/28/14
Collection 2: 6/29/14-7/2/14

Deployment 3: 8/8/14
Collection 3: 8/9/14-8/15/1

BCO-DMO Data Manager Processing Notes:
* added a conventional header with dataset name, PI name, version date
* modified parameter names to conform with BCO-DMO naming conventions
* Changed name of latitude and longitude columns, they were reversed.
* Date 2024-06-28 changed to 2014-06-28 in deployment column

Description from NSF award abstract:
The PIs will use the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, as a model system and will attempt to optimize the design of networks of no-take reserves as a strategy for maintaining metapopulations of this commercially harvested species. The project specifically recognizes that network persistence depends on (1) the potential for growth, survival, and reproduction within reserves, and (2) the potential to distribute offspring among reserves. Thus, demographic processes within reserves and settling areas play important roles, along with variability of physical transport. The PIs plan to:
(1) test and refine 3D bio-physical models of connectivity due to oyster larval transport in a shallow, wind-dominated system;
(2) test, refine, and apply technology to detect natal origins of larvae using geochemical tags in larval shell; and
(3) integrate regional connectivity and demographic rates to model metapopulation dynamics.

This study will produce new tools and test and refine others used for studying larval connectivity, a fundamentally important process in the maintenance of natural populations, and thus in biological conservation and resource management. The tools include a hydrodynamic modeling tool coupled with an open-source particle tracking model that will be available on-line with computer code and user guide. The project will use integrated modeling approaches to evaluate the design of reserve networks: results will be directly useful to improving oyster and ecosystem-based management in Pamlico Sound, and the methods will inform approaches to network design in other locations.