| Contributors | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Kimbro, David L. | Northeastern University | Principal Investigator |
| Grabowski, Jonathan | Northeastern University | Co-Principal Investigator, Contact |
| Copley, Nancy | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO) | BCO-DMO Data Manager |
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 intitial and final oyster shell size and evaluation of shell damage.
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
| File |
|---|
clam_len.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 183.88 KB) MD5:bfb49c5b71b12cb97274b2fa9efaa3ae Primary data file for dataset ID 554910 |
| Parameter | Description | Units |
| site | Experimental study site/estuary within each region; Two sites per region | unitless |
| lat | latitude; north is positive | decimal degrees |
| lon | longitude; east is positive | decimal degrees |
| cage | ID number of caging enclosure | unitless |
| treatment | Experimental treatment | unitless |
| subcage_phantom | Indicates whether clam was planted in a subcaged or phantom caged location | unitless |
| on_off_reef | Whether clams were planted on or off the reef (for untagged live clams on/off reef will be unknown) | unitless |
| position | Position at which individual clam was assigned within the cage | unitless |
| set | Refers to a set of non-overlapping tag numbers (since FL used some tag numbers more than once at one site). Not relevant for GA because they had more bee tag colors and did not have to repeat tags at one site. | unitless |
| tag | Tag on clam | unitless |
| len_init | Initial shell length of clam | millimeter |
| retrieval_status | Status of clam at end of experiment | unitless |
| len_final | Final length of clam if recovered and measurable | millimeter |
| shell_damage | Whether clam had shell damage (cracked or drill hole) | unitless |
| comment | Additional notes | unitless |
| 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. |
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.