Data from reef core samples collected from oyster reefs along Southeastern Atlantic Bight (SAB) from North Carolina to Florida in 2011 (Oyster Trophic Cascades project)

Website: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/555047
Version: 2015-04-01

Project
» The influence of predators on community structure and resultant ecosystem functioning at a biogeographic scale (Oyster_Trophic_Cascades)
ContributorsAffiliationRole
Kimbro, David L.Northeastern UniversityPrincipal Investigator
Grabowski, JonathanNortheastern UniversityCo-Principal Investigator, Contact
Copley, NancyWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO)BCO-DMO Data Manager


Dataset Description

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 the weight and count of live and dead oysters and spat counts in the planted reefs.

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


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Data Files

File
cores.csv
(Comma Separated Values (.csv), 2.85 KB)
MD5:b2a0cc1aa51186cbf7ed91899cfcd77c
Primary data file for dataset ID 555047

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Parameters

ParameterDescriptionUnits
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
wgt_total

Weight of all oyster material in core sample (includes live oysters and dead shell)

kilogram
wgt_planted_reef

Weight of oyster material installed in cages that were taken from live natural reef

kilogram
wgt_base_shell

Weight of dead base shell installed in cages underneath the planted reef

kilogram
num_spat_total

Total number of spat in sample (oysters <25mm in length)

spat
num_live

Total number of live adult oysters in sample (>25mm)

adults
num_dead

Total number of dead adult oysters in sample (>25mm). Includes gapers and whole bottom valves.

adults
num_dead_planted_shells

Number of dead oysters that were part of the planted reef (clusters taken from live natural reef)

adults
num_dead_base_shells

Number of dead oysters that were part of the dead base shell

adults
comment

Additional notes/collected organisms

unitless

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Deployments

Kimbro_2011

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.


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Project Information

The influence of predators on community structure and resultant ecosystem functioning at a biogeographic scale (Oyster_Trophic_Cascades)

Coverage: St. Augustine, FL to Cape Hatteras, NC


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.

 



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Funding

Funding SourceAward
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)

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