salt marshes

Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) counts and gut content analysis from lift trap transect collections along Rowley River tidal creeks associated with long term fertilization experiments, Rowley, MA.

Abstract: 

The lift traps were used to capture mummichogs accessing the high marsh platform. Mummichogs were collected  to study the effect of marsh-edge geomorphology on mummichog distribution and foraging. 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. Years 2017-2020 are enrichment recovery years.

Data set ID: 

602

Keywords: 

Short name: 

LTE-TIDE-LiftTrap-2019

Data sources: 

LTE-TIDE-LiftTrap-2019_v1_csv
LTE-TIDE-LiftTrap-2019_v1_xlsx

Methods: 

Locations: Sweeney (SW), West (WE), and Clubhead (CL) 

Lift Traps

 

    In 2019, 2 transects of 3 lift traps were deployed per study creek. Lift traps within transects were placed at 15m, 30m, and 45m. Lift traps captured a square 2 x 2m area, enclosed with a 5mm mesh walls that were dug into the marsh surface and supported by bamboo poles when raised. 

 

Sampling Collection and Processing

 

Lift trap collections occurred at night within 48 hours of the monthly spring tide for the months of July and August 2019. At slack high tide teams quietly approached the nets and deployed them capturing any mummichogs inside the area during high tide. Once the tide lowered, the fish were recovered from the traps. In the lab the mummichogs were measured to the nearest millimeter and weighed. All weights were measured to the nearest 0.001g. For fishes total length (TL) was measured from the tip of the snout to the end of the caudal fin. The fish were dissected and stomach and intestine mass (stmass) was weighed, stomach and intestine content was then extracted and weighted (ctmass). Stomach contents were identified, if possible. Catches from 30m and 45m were combined into one bin for analyses.

Maintenance: 

Version 1 March 07, 2022, original upload of data and metadata.  Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007_Jan2015.xlsm to check metadata.

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