skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Seasonal Electrofishing Data from Rookery Branch and Tarpon Bay, Everglades National Park (FCE LTER), Florida, USA, November 2004 - ongoing
This study examines temporal and spatial dynamics in the fish community of the oligohaline to mesohaline reaches of ecotonal creeks along the southwest region of Everglades National Park. Collections of fish in SW ENP during 2004 - 2014 across Rookery Branch and Tarpon Bay. Sampling started in the wet season of 2004, and has been conducted three times per year at these approximate times: November (wet season); February (transition); and April (dry season). Electrofishing samples were processed in the field, and all species (except for non-natives) were returned live at the point of collection. In the Rookery Branch region, fish abundance varies markedly yearly and seasonally. Catches peak in the drier months, reflecting a pulse of movement by freshwater taxa into creeks as marshes upstream dry. The timing of this pulse is closely tied to the pattern of water recession in upstream marshes, and has important ramifications for wading bird prey availability.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2025954 1832229 2424122
PAR ID:
10643733
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Environmental Data Initiative
Date Published:
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Marsh plant species stem counts for Rowley River tidal creeks associated with long term fertilization experiments, Rowley and Ipswich, MA. The TIDE project aims to simulate eutrophication on a large scale by the addition of NO3- aiming to reach 70µM concentrations from May to September every year during the growing season. This fertilization of the marsh has been going on at Sweeney Creek since the 2004 growing season through 2012 and at Clubhead Creek in 2005 and from 2009 till 2012. The reference creeks, West and Nelson, have been sampled in pair with the nutrient enriched creeks. 
    more » « less
  2. Melampus bidentatus (coffee bean snail) length and biomass measurements for Rowley River tidal creeks associated with long term fertilization experiments, Rowley and Ipswich, MA. The TIDE project aims to simulate eutrophication on a large scale by the addition of NO3- aiming to reach 70μM concentrations from May to September every year during the growing season. This fertilization of the marsh has been going on at Sweeney Creek since the 2004 growing season through 2016 and at Clubhead Creek in 2005 and from 2009 till 2016. Invertebrates were sampled after fertilization ended to look at recovery. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract Ecosystem engineering is a facilitative interaction that generates bottom‐up extrinsic variability that may increase species coexistence, particularly along a stress/disturbance gradient. American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) create and maintain ‘alligator ponds’ that serve as dry‐season refuges for other animals. During seasonal water recession, these ponds present an opportunity to examine predictions of the stress‐gradient (SGH) and intermediate disturbance hypotheses (IDH).To test the assumption that engineering would facilitate species coexistence in ponds along a stress gradient (seasonal drying), we modelled fish catch‐per‐unit‐effort (CPUE) in ponds and marshes using a long‐term dataset (1997–2022). Stomach contents (n = 1677 from 46 species) and stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen (n = 3978 representing 91 taxa) from 2018 to 2019 were used to evaluate effects of engineering on trophic dynamics. We quantified diets, trophic niche areas, trophic positions and basal‐resource use among habitats and between seasons. As environmental stress increases, we used seasonal changes in trophic niche areas as a proxy for competition to examine SGH and IDH.Across long‐term data, fish CPUE increased by a factor of 12 in alligator ponds as the marsh dried. This validates the assumption that ponds are an important dry‐season refuge. We found that 73% of diet shifts occurred during the dry season but that diets differed among habitats in only 11% of comparisons. From wet season to dry season, both stomach contents and stable isotopes revealed changes in niche areas. Direction of change depended on trophic guild but was opposite between stable‐isotope and stomach‐content niches, except for detritivores.Stomach‐content niches generally increased suggesting decreased competition in the dry season consistent with existing theory, but stable‐isotope niches yielded the opposite. This may result from a temporal mismatch with stomach contents reflecting diets over hours, while stable isotopes integrate diet over weeks. Consumptive effects may have a stronger effect than competition on niche areas over longer time intervals.Overall, our results demonstrated that alligators ameliorated dry‐season stress by engineering deep‐water habitats and altering food‐web dynamics. We propose that ecosystem engineers facilitate coexistence at intermediate values of stress/disturbance consistent with predictions of both the SGH and IDH. 
    more » « less
  4. Marsh plant species percent cover for Rowley River tidal creeks associated with long term fertilization experiments, Rowley and Ipswich, MA. The TIDE project aims to simulate eutrophication on a large scale by the addition of NO3- aiming to reach 70µM concentrations from May to September every year during the growing season. This fertilization of the marsh has been going on at Sweeney Creek since the 2004 growing season through 2011 and at Clubhead Creek in 2005 and from 2009 till 2011. 
    more » « less
  5. Marsh plant species shoot height, weight and diameters for Rowley River tidal creeks associated with long term fertilization experiments, Rowley and Ipswich, MA. The TIDE project aims to simulate eutrophication on a large scale by the addition of NO3- aiming to reach 70μM concentrations from May to September every year during the growing season. This fertilization of the marsh has been going on at Sweeney Creek since the 2004 growing season through 2012 and at Clubhead Creek in 2005 and from 2009 till 2019. 
    more » « less