Canopy height and epiphyte biomass of artificial seagrass landscapes in June, July, and August 2019 in Back Sound, NC

This dataset contains metadata and data for canopy height and epiphyte biomass of artificial seagrass landscapes in June, July, and August 2019. These data were collected as part of the following study published in Yarnall et al. (2024):

To explore the independent influence of fragmentation per se (patchiness) on mobile juvenile bay scallop (Argopecten irradians) density, we constructed 16 artificial seagrass unit (ASU) landscapes, consisting of four replicates each of four treatments. Fragmentation per se treatments consisted of three levels of patchiness while maintaining consistent total ASU area. We also examined the effect of patch-scale position on scallop densities.

We were also interested in examining fine-scale complexity influences scallop density. In June, July, and August 2019 fine-scale habitat complexity metrics, including ASU canopy height and epiphyte biomass, were sampled across landscapes where mobile scallops were present.

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.