Dataset: Wasting Disease and Seagrass Field Experiment

Name: Wasting disease prevalence and severity and seagrass length and density based on subpopulations of Zostera marina on the North Shore of Massachusetts surveyed in July and September 2016
Published: 2021-05-04
Keywords: Labyrinthula zosterae, parasite, seagrass, wasting disease, Zostera marina, oceans

Cite This Dataset

DOI:10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.851122.1

Spatial Extent: N:42.5971 E:-70.6559 S:42.4206 W:-70.9158

Temporal Extent: 2016-07 - 2016-09

Project:

CAREER: Linking genetic diversity, population density, and disease prevalence in seagrass and oyster ecosystems (Seagrass and Oyster Ecosystems)

Principal Investigator:

A. Randall Hughes (Northeastern University)

Co-Principal Investigator:

Forest Schenck (Northeastern University)

Contact:

A. Randall Hughes (Northeastern University)

BCO-DMO Data Manager:

Taylor Heyl (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Shannon Rauch (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Version:

Version Date:

2021-05-04

Restricted:

Validated:

Yes

Current State:

Final no updates expected

Wasting disease prevalence and severity and seagrass length and density based on subpopulations of Zostera marina on the North Shore of Massachusetts surveyed in July and September 2016

Abstract:

This dataset includes wasting disease infection prevalence and severity in four Zostera marina subpopulations located along a 30 kilometer stretch of coastline on the North shore of Massachusetts. Surveys of subpopulations were conducted in July and September 2016.

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Archival Copy

Version Date	Archive	Persistent Identifier	Date Assigned
2021-05-04	Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library (MBLWHOI DLA)	10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.851122.1	2022-02-03

Methods & Sampling

Wasting disease and Zostera morphology: We assessed wasting disease infection prevalence and severity in four Zostera subpopulations located at least 4 kilometers (km) apart along a 30 kilometer (km) stretch of coastline on the north shore of Massachusetts: Niles Beach, Gloucester (NB, 42° 35.8268’ N, 70° 39.3553’ W); West Beach, Beverly (WB, 42° 33.9155’ N, 70° 47.1102’ W); Lynch Park, Beverly (LP, 42° 32.6925’ N, 70° 51.5057’ W); and Curlew Beach, Nahant (CB, 42° 25.2378’ N, 70° 54.9474’ W). These subpopulations share similar depth profiles (ranging from 1-2 meter MLLW) and occur seaward of sandy beaches. We surveyed the CB subpopulation in July 2016 and the NB, WB, and LP subpopulations in September 2016. These dates fall within the time of year of peak disease prevalence reported for temperate Zostera meadows (Burdick et al., 1993; Bockelmann et al., 2013). Within 12 quadrats (0.0625 m2) at each subpopulation, we counted Zostera shoot density and haphazardly collected ten Zostera shoots. Quadrats were spaced 2 meters apart along a 25 meter transect running parallel to shore.

We stored shoots in coolers of seawater and scored the third youngest leaf of each shoot for the presence and percent cover of lesions characteristic of wasting disease within 6 hours of collection. We focused on this leaf because it has been shown to harbor the highest intensity of wasting disease (Bockelmann et al., 2013). We used published descriptions and photographs of lesions associated with wasting disease to guide our scoring (Burdick et al., 1993; Groner et al., 2014; Groner, Burge, et al., 2016). In addition, we measured the length of each shoot from the base of the stem (1st node) to the tip of the longest leaf.

Data Processing Description

Statistical Analyses: To examine differences in wasting disease prevalence among subpopulations, we summed the number of Zostera shoots collected per quadrat with and without wasting disease present on the third youngest leaf and used a binomial generalized linear model (GLM) with a logit link followed by Tukey HSD post hoc tests. We calculated quadrat-level wasting disease lesion severity as the mean lesion percent cover on the third leaf. We excluded leaves without lesions from the lesion severity calculation to avoid confounding these results with lesion prevalence. We used non-parametric Kruskal-Wallace tests to examine the effect of subpopulation on lesion severity and shoot density due to non-normality and Wilcoxon rank sum tests to differentiate among subpopulations. We calculated quadrat-level canopy height as the mean length of the ten shoots collected from each quadrat. We used one-way ANOVAs to examine differences in canopy height among subpopulations, followed by Tukey HSD post hoc tests to differentiate among subpopulations when relevant.

BCO-DMO processing description:
- Adjusted field/parameter names to comply with BCO-DMO naming conventions
- Missing data identifier ‘NA’ replaced with 'nd' (BCO-DMO's default missing data identifier)
- Added a conventional header with dataset name, PI names, version date

Data Files

File
wasting_disease_exp.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 20.08 KB) MD5:24cde9972b2dd318e69f5f50edd830bd Primary data file for dataset ID 851122

More Information about this dataset

Funding Sources

Funding Source	Award Number
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences	OCE-1652320

Deployments

None available yet

Instruments

None available yet

Parameters

Date and time formats are described in python strftime() syntax.

Supplied Name	Supplied description	Supplied Units	Standard Name
density	The number of Zostera marina shoots per meters squared	Shoot per meter squared	density
focal_leaf_no	Descriptor of the relative age of the focal Zostera marina leaf: 1 (the youngest leaf); relative leaf age increases as the value of the integer increases	Unitless	age
latitude	Latitude of Zostera subpopulation	Decimal degrees	lat
leaf_broken	Descriptor of the wholeness of the focal leaf: N (focal leaf completely intact); Y (section of focal leaf broken off)	Unitless	no_bcodmo_term
length	Length of Zostera marina shoot: measured from the first node to the tip of the longest leaf	Centimeters	length
lesion_cover	Estimated percent of Zostera marina leaf area covered by lesions characteristic of wasting disease on each Zostera marina focal leaf from sheath top to leaf tip	Unitless	surface_area
longitude	Longitude of Zostera subpopulation	Decimal degrees	lon
no_leaves	The number of leaves of Zostera marina shoot	Unitless	number
quad	Unique numeric identifier assigned sampling locations within each Zostera marina subpopulation	Unitless	station
shoot_id	Unique alphabetic identifier assigned to shoots sampled within each sampling location	Unitless	sample
subpopulation	Descriptor of the subpopulation of Zostera marina plants	Unitless	site

Database

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Dataset: Wasting Disease and Seagrass Field Experiment