Ant Abundance and Dune Plant Conditions, Padre Island, TX, to St. George's Island, FL, Summer 2011.

We are addressing scientific questions about community change resulting from presumed stressors arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and various response efforts. We expect to quantify and understand the effects of stressors (i.e., hydrocarbons, dispersants, freshwater diversion) and remediation-related human activities on marsh and adjacent open water communities. Specifically, we are measuring the effects of stressors in insect and spider populations, soil strength, marsh grass above ground and root biomass, and mollusks (in the marsh and adjacent open water). Stressors have both direct (toxicity) and indirect effects because, as hydrocarbons degrade, these compounds enter food webs via primary consumers such as insects/spiders and mollusks. This dataset records the presence of ants on coastal dunes in 2011.本研究旨在解答由深水地平线（Deepwater Horizon）漏油事件及其各类应急响应措施所引发的假定胁迫因子导致的群落变化相关科学问题。本研究拟量化并阐明各类胁迫因子（即碳氢化合物（hydrocarbons）、分散剂（dispersants）、淡水改道（freshwater diversion））以及修复相关人类活动对滨海盐沼及其邻近开阔水域群落的影响。具体而言，本研究将测定胁迫因子对昆虫与蜘蛛种群、土壤强度、滨海盐沼草本地上部与地下部生物量，以及盐沼及邻近开阔水域中软体动物（mollusks）的影响。胁迫因子兼具直接（毒性）与间接影响：随着碳氢化合物降解，这类化合物可通过昆虫/蜘蛛、软体动物等初级消费者进入食物网。本数据集记录了2011年滨海沙丘上蚂蚁的存在情况。