High-frequency water and sediment temperature from the Seagrass Recovery Experiment, South Bay, VA 2020-2022

To understand intra-meadow stability, the Seagrass Recovery Experiment was designed to ask 1) is recovery faster at sites with less thermal stress owing to greater exchange with cooler oceanic water at the meadow edge? 2) what is the shape of recovery? and 3) what are the recovery mechanisms? To conduct this experiment, aboveground seagrass biomass was removed from 28.3 m2 plots within the interior and along an edge of a restored seagrass meadow in South Bay, VA. Sites 1-3 correspond to the meadow interior while sites 4-6 correspond to the northern edge. Each site was comprised of a control (i.e., C) where no seagrass was disturbed and a treatment (i.e., T) where seagrass was removed (n = 12 sites total, e.g., 1C, 1T, 2C...). To further characterize differences between the meadow interior and edge, water and sediment temperatures were collected continuously. Water temperature was monitored at fixed positions 20 cm above the sediment surface at the center of each plot, while sediment temperature was monitored at 5 cm depth at the center of two sites within the central and northern edge South Bay locations.