Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Supplemental Files
• Related Publications
• Related Datasets
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Project Information
• Funding

A reciprocal transplant experiment was conducted at two sites in an estuary in NE Florida, USA that encompassed different environmental (salinity, aerial exposure) and biotic (predators) stressors. Juvenile oysters were reciprocally transplanted within and between the two locations within the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR)--the Butler site at 29.77002 N, -81.2641 W, and the Pellicer site at 29.62923 N, -81.2144 W. At each location, the home and away oyster ‘demes’ were randomly assigned between a predator exclosure and a control treatment. 

To obtain site-specific information of water flow, a Nortek current profiler (Aquadopp Profiler 2MHz) was placed in a PVC stand and deployed in the water in front of the oyster reefs during the monthly oyster checks. The instrument was set with a blanking distance of 0.2m. The bin sizes were set 0.1m and 15 cells. The instrument recorded every minute except for two days (9/2/2018 and 9/4/2018) when the sampling interval was set to 30 seconds. The data was offloaded using AquaPro V1.37.08 and then converted to a Profile CSV. The .csv was uploaded into R and reorganized (see Processing Description). 

Data processing
The data was offloaded using AquaPro V1.37.08 and then converted to a Profile CSV. The .csv file was uploaded into R and reorganized using the R code titled "Flowmeter_Processing.R", which is accessible from the Supplemental Files section below, along with the data files used for input.  

Butler site Aquadopp raw data files: 

• RR.B0202.csv (time period: 2019-09-20 to 2019-11-12)
• RR.BU01.csv (time period: 2019-12-01 to 2020-01-07)
• Risk.B01.csv (time period: 2020-01-21 to 2020-01-31) 
• RiskB01.csv (time period: 2020-02-08 to 2020-03-04)
• RR.301.csv (time period: 2020-03-06 to 2020-03-30)

Pellicer site Aquadopp raw data files: 

• RT.Pel01.csv (time period: 2019-08-19 to 2019-08-29)
• RT.Pel03.csv (time period: 2019-10-02 to 2019-10-22)
• RT.P201.csv (time period: 2019-11-06 to 2020-02-19)
• RT.pel04.csv (time period: 2020-03-04 to 2020-04-02)

Both sites (Butler and Pellicer) have multiple raw data files because each logger deployment (time period) had specific processing steps that needed to be performed. 

Readings that were underwater or included the surface of the water were used while the rest of the readings were not. This was done by adding 0.1 to the pressure sensor readings and then only including values less than the position of the cell. For example, if the pressure was 0.54m then the sort value would be 0.64. Cells with measured values of 0.5 and 0.6 would be included, but 0.7 would not. 

Attitude sensor data (i.e. pitch, roll, and bearing) were used to correct for any motion or change in the instrument's position.  Additional summary and statistics information can be found in the "rt_flow.csv" file, which includes the Date, Site, Speed (meters/second), and N (number of readings collected per deployment). 

Problems/Issues
Aquadopp data was missing from:

• Butler: June 2019;
• Butler 3: November 2019; 
• Pellicer 1: January 2020 and Febuary 2020
• Pellicer 3: January 2020 and February 2020; 

Note: Pellicer 1 and Pellicer 3 are the same from September 2019 onward. 

BCO-DMO Processing description:
- Converted dates to format (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Sorted by Site and DateTime
- Added columns for "Latitude" and "Longitude" based on geospatial bounds
- Added a conventional header with dataset name, PI names, version date

NSF Award Abstract:
Predators can affect populations of their prey in two ways: by consuming them ("consumptive effects" or "CE"s), or by causing the prey to change behavior to avoid contact with the predator. For example, prey often spend less time feeding and more time watching out for predators, which comes with the cost of lower food intake and thus slower growth. Such "non-consumptive effects" (NCEs) have been described for a wide range of terrestrial and marine prey species, from elk to clams, but mostly in short-term (< 1 month) experiments. These prior results suggest that in some cases, the behavioral changes (NCEs) have a bigger effect on prey populations than consumption by predators (CEs). However, those short-term, controlled experiments may artificially inflate the perceived importance of NCEs. Over longer time periods, prey may adapt or become acclimated to predation risk, and NCEs may become less important. Additionally, environmental variability (e.g., differences in the availability of the prey's food between study sites) may have a bigger effect on prey populations than NCEs do. This project will use a combination of short- (months) and long-term (years) field experiments and mathematical models to evaluate the role of NCEs on Florida oyster reefs. The prey species in this study is the eastern oyster, an important marine resource in the southeast US for harvesting and habitat creation; the main oyster predator is a mud crab. In this study, results from mathematical models of oyster populations will be compared to experimental data from the field to see whether including NCEs in the model leads to better model predictions. Better understanding of NCEs in oysters should improve management of that important marine resource. Furthermore, the mathematical model will be used to develop broader, generalizable conclusions about the importance of NCEs that could be applied to other important prey species. This project will provide data useful for oyster resource management, will support public education regarding the ecological importance of NCEs, and will enhance the scientific engagement of underrepresented groups in the study region. The project will support a partnership with the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve in Florida, including data sharing, sponsoring an oyster management symposium, and funding the development of multimedia scientific outreach materials at the reserve that will be used by a large and diverse population of K-12 students in the surrounding community. The project will train a postdoctoral researcher, two graduate students, two undergraduate students, and research results will be disseminated by those students and the principal investigators at scientific conferences, in journal publications, and in online content through an ongoing partnership with a Florida public television station.

Predators can alter prey population dynamics by causing fear-based shifts in prey traits (nonconsumptive effect, NCE). The importance of NCEs for prey populations - relative to direct consumption by predators (consumptive effects, CEs) - remains uncertain, particularly because short-term studies of NCEs cannot estimate their effect over multiple prey generations. This project addresses that knowledge gap by combining short- and long-term field experiments with population models to investigate the importance of NCEs on oyster population dynamics in a Florida estuary. The central question is whether accounting for NCEs improves the ability to predict long-term trends in oyster population abundance. Several types of NCEs are present in this system: exposure to water-containing predator odors reduces oyster larval recruitment and causes juvenile oysters to increase shell thickness, reducing their somatic growth. In addition to CEs and NCEs, environmental gradients in stress, food, and propagule delivery are also present in this system. Those environmental factors can have strong effects on post-settlement survivorship, growth, and recruitment of oysters, so the relative importance of predator CEs and NCEs may vary along those spatial gradients as well. This project will consist of four components. (1) A series of short-term field experiments to test how NCEs vary with predator density and environmental variables, and whether one of the NCEs (increased shell thickness) actually reduces vulnerability to predators. (2) A population model, parameterized using experimental results; model simulations will quantify how the relative importance of NCEs should vary over time, space, and environmental gradients. (3) A longer-term (3.5 year) field experiment; the results from this experiment will be compared to model predictions to test whether accounting for NCEs improves predictions of long-term variation in oyster population dynamics. (4) A general form of the model will be developed to broadly investigate the effect of NCEs on non-equilibrium, transient population dynamics. By combining models and field experiments, this project will bridge the gap between the theoretical understanding of how NCEs affect population dynamics and empirical tests of that theory, advancing the field towards the goal of predicting how multiple interacting factors structure communities.