Data for: Effects of Chronic Pesticide Exposure on an Epibenthic Oyster Reef Community

This data was collected for an undergraduate thesis project that is now being submitted for publication in Marine Pollution Bulletin. Here we elucidated the potential chronic effects of the commonly utilized pesticide, carbaryl, on oyster reef communities in the Loxahatchee River Estuary in southeast Florida. Though carbaryl had a limited effect on total epifaunal community diversity, species richness and evenness, the results of this experiment indicate that carbaryl significantly shifted crustacean community composition, resulting in a substantial loss in total crustacean abundance. One crustacean in particular, Americorophium spp. (tube building amphipod), was significantly less abundant within the carbaryl treatment, driving the shift in crustacean community composition. Ultimately, our results signal that pesticide pollution in estuaries will negatively impact crustaceans. Organisms were allowed to colonize a string of 5, 10 cm^2 travertine tiles for 28 days in the Loxahatchee River Estuary in Jupiter, Florida. For the data file "mobile fauna", all unattached organisms were rinsed off of the tiles, and rinsed in a 500 micron sieve and were stored in alcohol. The specimens were then sorted, identified to the lowest practical level and quantified. The most abundant species were small crustaceans including several species of amphipod. For density calculations, these organisms were collected from an area of 0.1 square meters. For the file labeled "sessile_fauna", the organisms attached to the tiles were identified and quantified under a dissecting scope. Only the middle three tiles were analyzed this way from an area of 0.06 square meters. For the data file labeled "dissolutionblockdata", we used plaster dissolution blocks to slowly release carbaryl insecticide adjacent to tiles. The initial and final weights of each block were recorded before deployment and after collection.本数据集采集自一项本科毕业论文研究项目，该项目目前已提交至《海洋污染通报（Marine Pollution Bulletin）》期刊待发表。 本研究阐明了常用农药甲萘威（carbaryl）对佛罗里达州东南部洛萨哈奇河河口牡蛎礁群落的潜在慢性影响。尽管甲萘威对底表动物群落的总多样性、物种丰富度及均匀度影响有限，但本实验结果显示，甲萘威可显著改变甲壳动物群落组成，导致甲壳动物总丰度大幅下降。其中一类甲壳动物——美钩虾属（Americorophium spp.，管栖端足类）在甲萘威处理组中的丰度显著降低，这一变化主导了甲壳动物群落组成的改变。综上，本研究结果表明，河口地区的农药污染会对甲壳动物产生负面影响。 实验于佛罗里达州朱庇特市的洛萨哈奇河河口开展，将5块面积为10 cm²的石灰华瓷砖置于水域中，供生物附着定植28天。 在名为"mobile fauna"的数据文件中，研究人员将瓷砖上所有未附着的生物冲洗下来，经500微米筛网过滤后用乙醇保存。随后对标本进行分类、鉴定至最低可行分类阶元，并完成计数。丰度最高的类群为小型甲壳动物，包含多种端足类。在计算种群密度时，采样覆盖面积为0.1平方米。 在名为"sessile_fauna"的数据文件中，研究人员在解剖镜下对附着于瓷砖上的生物进行鉴定与计数。本部分仅选取其中中间3块瓷砖开展分析，采样覆盖面积为0.06平方米。 在名为"dissolutionblockdata"的数据文件中，研究人员使用石膏溶解释放块在瓷砖附近缓慢释放甲萘威杀虫剂。在投放前与回收后，分别记录每个溶解释放块的初始重量与最终重量。