NCCOS Assessment: Sediment, vegetation, and elevation data collected via peat and push core sampling to document the conditions in the Deal Island Wildlife Management Area on 2021-08-13 and 2022-08-18 (NCEI Accession 0301733)

This dataset contains the sediment, vegetation, and elevation data concerning the condition of the Deal Island Wildlife Management Area before placement of dredged sediment. The data are in three separate .csv files and one .tif file. The .csv files contain information about the sediment cores collected in 2021 and 2022 prior to sediment placement in February 2024, including sediment characteristics, sample coordinates, elevation, surrounding vegetation, and collection times. Three types of cores were taken: (1) short push cores using a 3 cm diameter polycarbonate tube, (2) longer push cores taken with a 10.16 cm diameter aluminum irrigation pipe, capped, and withdrawn using a jack, and (3) cores taken with a peat corer pushed into the sediments to refusal and withdrawn. Samples taken with the peat corer were moved to PVC cradles, wrapped, and labeled for lab analysis. The .tif file is an image mosaic that visually captures the “before” of Deal Island. The data were collected to establish a baseline of conditions before placing the dredged sediment and to serve as a comparison for conditions afterward.