Website

http://www.gtmnerr.org/

Region(s)

NE

Summary

Given the importance of oysters in estuarine ecosystems, it is the goal of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR) to understand the status of local oyster populations and the reef habitats they build, and to track changes over time. Methods were developed for use on intertidal reefs of Crassostrea virginica using the following body of work as general guidance: Baggett (2014), Dix (2010), Volety & Savarese (2001). Original applications of these methods are documented in a report summarizing a pilot oyster monitoring project within the GTM NERR conducted from 2014-2016 (linked below). The methods were developed for assessing baseline reef, population, and community structure on intertidal oyster reefs within sub-estuaries of the ~76,000-acre reserve. In 2022, annual long-term monitoring was initiated using refined protocols and a sub-estuary rotation approach.

Parameters

number and sizes of all live oysters, mussels and clams (mm), densities of predatory gastropods and mangroves (#/m^2), percent cover (point intercept method), reef height (m), oyster cluster density (#/m^2)

Notes

Application

Publications

Gray et al. 2021. Beyond residence time: Quantifying factors that drive the spatially explicit filtration services of an abundant native oyster population. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12237-021-01017-x

Start

2014

End

Current

Frequency

Annual

Method

Sampling of randomly-selected reefs using randomly positioned quadrats along a transect. Percent cover assessed using 1m x 1m quadrats and point-intercept method; samples for oyster measurements and faunal census taken using a 25cm x 25cm quadrat and excavated to 15cm depth.

Discontinuity

Data from 2018 were added because they were collected in association with the Historical Oyster Body Size Project; 2020 data were collected in association with another project

Data Location

GTMNERR

Data Format

xlsx, docx, pdf

Habitats

Oyster/Oyster Reef

SEACAR Citation

Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection (RCP); Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR). (2024). Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Oyster monitoring. Updated 07/09/2024. Distributed by: SEACAR Data Discovery Interface, Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection, Florida Department of Environmental Protection. https://data.florida-seacar.org/programs/details/4000

Alternative Citation

indicates priority attributes