Data from scallop survival assays conducted as part of a larger concurrent study of fragmentation effects on estuarine faunal communities with Artificial Seagrass Units (ASU) in Back Sound, NC from July to September 2018

Abstract

This dataset contains metadata and data from scallop survival assays conducted in 2018 (assays across landscape area x fragmentation per se treatments) as part of the following study published in Yarnall et al. (2024):

To parse the influences of fragmentation components on scallop survival, we generated nine unique landscapes composed of artificial seagrass units (ASUs), were constructed to mimic Zostera marina. These landscapes were part of a larger-scale concurrent experiment, during which we examined seagrass fragmentation effects on estuarine faunal communities (Yarnall et al. In Press). Landscapes were designed to be treatments along orthogonal axes of seagrass percent cover of the landscape footprint (10%, 35%, 60%) and fragmentation per se, indexed by percolation probability (0.1, 0.35, 0.59). Relative scallop survival was measured by deploying tethered juvenile bay scallops in two density treatments. Five 24-h survival assay trials were conducted from July to September 2018. During each survival assay, observers snorkel surveyed tethers and recorded the number of live and dead scallops per treatment.

Data were collected by Drs. F. Joel Fodrie and Amy H. Yarnall for the Estuarine Ecology Laboratory of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences.

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/939581