Dataset: Abiotic and biotic data from Zostera Experimental Network (ZEN) 2014 surveys (ZEN 2 project)

Release Date:2018-07-01Final no updates expectedDOI: 10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.712069.1Version 1 (2016-09-26)Dataset Type:Other Field Results

Principal Investigator: J. Emmett Duffy (Smithsonian Institution)

Co-Principal Investigator: Kevin Alexander Hovel (San Diego State University)

Co-Principal Investigator: John J. Stachowicz (University of California-Irvine)

Scientist, Contact: Dr Pamela L Reynolds (University of California-Davis)

BCO-DMO Data Manager: Nancy Copley (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)


Project: Global biodiversity and functioning of eelgrass ecosystems (Zostera Experimental Network 2) (ZEN 2)


Abstract

This dataset includes biomass and diversity measurements of eelgrass communities from 50 sites across the Northern Hemisphere. The purpose was to study the plant and animal responses to top-down and bottom-up manipulations in eelgrass (Zostera marina) habitat.

Twenty meter square plots (2 meters apart) were sampled at 50 eelgrass meadows ("sites") in summer 2014. Abiotic parameters were quantified in situ and/or using local monitoring station data. The epifaunal community was quantified as in Duffy et al. 2015. Seagrass density was quantified in 20cm diameter rings, and dry mass from 20 cm diameter cores which captured all above ground mass, and below ground to a depth of 20 cm. A three centimeter section from each of 5 shoots per plot was quantified for leaf carbon and nitrogen (processed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science), while another 3 cm section was utilized for plant genetic analyses (processed by J. Olsen at the University of Groningen). Additional details are included in the Zostera Experimental Network 2014 survey handbook protocol, available upon request.

Methodology is available from: J. Emmett Duffy, et al. Biodiversity mediates top-down control in eelgrass ecosystems: A global comparative-experimental approach. 2015. Ecology Letters 18:7 (696–705). DOI: 10.1111/ele.12448.


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Related Publications

Results

Duffy, J. E., P.-O. Moksnes, and A. R. Hughes. (2013). Ecology of Seagrass Communities. Pages 271–297 in M. D. Bertness, J. F. Bruno, B. R. Silliman, and J. J. Stachowicz, editors. "Marine Community Ecology and Conservation". Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Results

Duffy, J. E., Reynolds, P. L., Boström, C., Coyer, J. A., Cusson, M., Donadi, S., … Stachowicz, J. J. (2015). Biodiversity mediates top-down control in eelgrass ecosystems: a global comparative-experimental approach. Ecology Letters, 18(7), 696–705. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12448
Results

Reynolds, P. L., Richardson, J. P., & Duffy, J. E. (2014). Field experimental evidence that grazers mediate transition between microalgal and seagrass dominance. Limnology and Oceanography, 59(3), 1053–1064. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2014.59.3.1053
Results

Whalen, M. A., Duffy, J. E., & Grace, J. B. (2013). Temporal shifts in top-down vs. bottom-up control of epiphytic algae in a seagrass ecosystem. Ecology, 94(2), 510–520. https://doi.org/10.1890/12-0156.1