Sediment elevation transects for the Seagrass Recovery Experiment, South Bay, VA 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 meadow 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...). A nor'easter storm moved through the area in early May 2022 producing 59% and 48% of the year's total Gale and Near Gale force winds. After the storm passed, depressions were noticed within the edge treatment sites. To quantify the depression depths a survey of the sediment surface depth was coordinated among all sites in October 2022. Results provide evidence that the edge treatment sites were depressed by 9.4-10.4 cm relative to outside of the treatment plots.