Number and mass of eelgrass seeds collected from sediment cores in shallow and deep zones at four coastal sites in Massachusetts, USA in 2019

This dataset includes the number and mass of eelgrass seeds collected from sediment cores in shallow and deep zones at four different sites in Massachusetts, USA in 2019. The four sites were West Beach in Beverly (N 42.55921, W 70.80578), Curlew Beach in Nahant (N 42.42009, W 70.91553), Lynch Park in Beverly (N 42.54488, W 70.85842), and Niles Beach in Gloucester (N 42.59711, W 70.65592). Like many marine foundation species, eelgrass often spans strong environmental gradients over relatively small spatial scales - this data set provides information on seed retention and seed size across the depth gradient at multiple sites in the Gulf of Maine. Seeds measured and counted in this dataset were subsequently genotyped to infer source.