LA MBON Louisiana Oyster Reef-Associated Benthic Biodiversity - Biodiversity Information

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 40 records.

2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: a802e813-af22-4047-a7cd-0b9ec9961ce4.  NOAA Integrated Ocean Observing System publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF-US.

Keywords

occurrence; oyster; louisiana; oyster reef; benthic; reef-associated; habitat trays; estuarine; observation; oyster; louisiana; oyster reef; benthic; reef-associated; habitat trays; estuarine

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

Gulf of America

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

This project will establish a new MBON effort in coastal Louisiana, focusing on highly productive and diverse estuarine ecosystems as sea level rise sentinels

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

At each oyster reef sediment organic matter and reef material are quantified within 6 haphazardly placed 0.25 x 0.25 m quadrats. Within each quadrat, sediment for organic matter quantification is collected by pushing a 50ml core into the sediment. The core contents are then emptied into a pre-labeled whirl-pak. In the lab, organic matter is quantified using the Loss-on-Ignition method. Next, all reef material within the quadrat up to 10cm depth is collected and rinsed of excess mud. Reef material (live and dead shell material) volume is quantified using the volume displacement method and live oysters and mussels are counted. The first ten live oysters are measured for shell height from umbo to tip. Barnacles are recorded on a relative abundance scale: 0 – no live barnacles; 1 – 1-10 live barnacles; 2 – 11-50 live barnacles; 3 – > 50 live barnacles. The contents of the reef material sampling are added to pre-filled benthic habitat trays so that the contents of one quadrat go into one tray. The benthic habitat trays (n=6, 0.48 × 0.48 x 0.10 m; 20 L) are lined with 3-mm chicken wire and 1-mm mesh bags and pre-filled with ~3L of disarticulated oyster shell. Once all six trays are topped with reef material they are placed in a row on the oyster reef running parallel to shore. A hydrophone (ST 300HF or ST 600HF) set to record continuously a with a 48 kHz sampling rate and high pre-amp gain is attached to a sandbag and deployed in the center of the row of trays. All sampling gear is left for two weeks to allow the community to develop. After two weeks the habitat trays are collected by cinching closed the mesh bag prior to pulling the tray off of the bottom. Once all trays are collected the mesh bags are tied shut and removed from the trays. Excess mud is rinsed from the bags and all material is rinsed through a 1mm mesh sieve. Larger shells are removed and all material retained on the mesh is frozen for future analysis. When ready for processing samples are thawed and rinsed through a 1mm sieve. Material retained on the sieve is visually inspected under 10x magnification and all organisms identified are retained and sorted into probable unique taxa groups. Taxa groups are reviewed and identified to the lowest practicable taxonomic unit (typically species). Individuals within taxa groups are counted, weighed, then dried for 48 hours at 60℃, or until a stable dry weight is reached. When new taxa to the dataset taxa are encountered a voucher specimen is collected. The specimen collected as a voucher is placed into 90% ethanol after a wet weight is recorded. This voucher specimen is recorded separately. The voucher specimens are deposited into the LUMCON Natural History Collection so that taxonomic identification can be continually refined it necessary. Post-processing of hydrophone recordings is described elsewhere.

Method step description:

1. At each oyster reef sediment organic matter and reef material are quantified within 6 haphazardly placed 0.25 x 0.25 m quadrats. Within each quadrat, sediment for organic matter quantification is collected by pushing a 50ml core into the sediment. The core contents are then emptied into a pre-labeled whirl-pak. In the lab, organic matter is quantified using the Loss-on-Ignition method. Next, all reef material within the quadrat up to 10cm depth is collected and rinsed of excess mud. Reef material (live and dead shell material) volume is quantified using the volume displacement method and live oysters and mussels are counted. The first ten live oysters are measured for shell height from umbo to tip. Barnacles are recorded on a relative abundance scale: 0 – no live barnacles; 1 – 1-10 live barnacles; 2 – 11-50 live barnacles; 3 – > 50 live barnacles. The contents of the reef material sampling are added to pre-filled benthic habitat trays so that the contents of one quadrat go into one tray. The benthic habitat trays (n=6, 0.48 × 0.48 x 0.10 m; 20 L) are lined with 3-mm chicken wire and 1-mm mesh bags and pre-filled with ~3L of disarticulated oyster shell. Once all six trays are topped with reef material they are placed in a row on the oyster reef running parallel to shore. A hydrophone (ST 300HF or ST 600HF) set to record continuously a with a 48 kHz sampling rate and high pre-amp gain is attached to a sandbag and deployed in the center of the row of trays. All sampling gear is left for two weeks to allow the community to develop. After two weeks the habitat trays are collected by cinching closed the mesh bag prior to pulling the tray off of the bottom. Once all trays are collected the mesh bags are tied shut and removed from the trays. Excess mud is rinsed from the bags and all material is rinsed through a 1mm mesh sieve. Larger shells are removed and all material retained on the mesh is frozen for future analysis. When ready for processing samples are thawed and rinsed through a 1mm sieve. Material retained on the sieve is visually inspected under 10x magnification and all organisms identified are retained and sorted into probable unique taxa groups. Taxa groups are reviewed and identified to the lowest practicable taxonomic unit (typically species). Individuals within taxa groups are counted, weighed, then dried for 48 hours at 60℃, or until a stable dry weight is reached. When new taxa to the dataset taxa are encountered a voucher specimen is collected. The specimen collected as a voucher is placed into 90% ethanol after a wet weight is recorded. This voucher specimen is recorded separately. The voucher specimens are deposited into the LUMCON Natural History Collection so that taxonomic identification can be continually refined it necessary. Post-processing of hydrophone recordings is described elsewhere.

Additional Metadata