Fall 2005 crab population monitoring: mid-marsh and creek bank abundance based on crab hole counts at GCE marsh, monitoring sites 1-9

This data set is the Fall 2005 estimate of crab densities at the GCE-LTER marsh sites used for population monitoring. Crab abundance was determined by counting the number of crab holes within a 625 cm^2 quadrat and converting the counts to number per square meter. Counts were made in the mid-marsh and creek bank zones (n = 4 per zone) at GCE sites 1 through 9. Site 10 was not sampled (see anomalies below). This method does not differentiate which species made a particular hole and therefore only estimates total crab abundance. Plugged holes were excluded from the counts. Mean density across all sites and zones was 226 m^-2 (+/- 181 s.d.)