Plant richness survey of mainland and barrier island locations along the Texas Gulf Coast in April and May 2005

I conducted a plant richness survey of 49 sites on the Texas Gulf Coast in the Spring (April-May) of 2005. Sites were chosen to include a range of mainland and barrier island locations. All sites were dominated by salt marsh plant species, primarily Spartina alterniflora. To provide a general indication of the salinity conditions prevailing at each site, I measured salinity of the nearest body of water with a refractometer on the date that the site was sampled. Plant richness was documented along a single 5.0m wide transect at each site. Each transect began at the lower elevational limit of vegetation and continued perpendicular to the water’s edge to the shrub community at the upper marsh border. Plant presence was noted in a series of nested subplots within a 1.0m x 5.0m plot at each meter along the transect. The results posted here are sites, position, salinity, and the site pool, or species encountered at the site. This data set is a companion to PLT-GCET-0608, which provides similar data for sites around Sapelo Island, Georgia.本研究于2005年春季（4月至5月）对德克萨斯湾沿岸（Texas Gulf Coast）的49个样地开展了植物物种丰富度调查。所选样地涵盖大陆沿岸与障壁岛（barrier island）两类生境类型，所有样地均以盐沼植物类群为优势种，其中以互花米草（Spartina alterniflora）为主。为表征各采样样地的原位盐度条件，本研究于样地采样当日使用折射仪（refractometer）测定了样地附近最近水体的盐度。本研究在每个样地设置单条5.0米宽的样带（transect），沿该样带记录植物物种丰富度：每条样带均从植被分布的下限海拔处起始，垂直于水岸延伸至盐沼上部边界的灌丛群落；沿样带每间隔1米，在1.0m×5.0m的样方内设置一系列嵌套样方（nested subplots），记录植物的出现情况。本次公开的数据集内容包括样地信息、样地位置、盐度数据，以及样地物种库（site pool），即该样地内观测到的所有物种。本数据集为PLT-GCET-0608的配套数据集，后者提供了佐治亚州萨佩洛岛（Sapelo Island）周边样地的同类调查数据。