Long-term Burrowing Crab Population Abundance Data from the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Fall Marsh Monitoring Program

This data set includes long-term observational data on burrowing crab abundance at 10 Georgia Coastal Ecosystems marsh sites used for annual plant and invertebrate population monitoring. Crab abundance was determined by performing surveys of crab hole occurance within replicate 625 square centimeter quadrats and converting the counts to number per square meter. Surveys were performed annually during October within the mid-marsh and creek bank zones at GCE marsh study sites 1 through 10 (i.e. n = 4 per zone at each site). Surveys were also performed in an additional high marsh Juncus zone at several sites beginning in 2009 (i.e. n = 4 quadrats per site). Note that this census method does not differentiate which species made a particular hole and therefore only estimates total burrowing crab abundance, potentially including species Uca pugnax, Uca minax, Uca pugilator, Armases cinereum, Eurytium limosum, Sesarma reticulatum and Panopeus spp. Crab holes that are not actively maintained are quickly covered by tidal activity and other sediment disturbances, therefore plugged holes were assumed to be unoccupied and excluded from the counts. This data set includes cumulative observations from 2000 to 2020, and will be updated annually to include the prior year observations.