Marine Macrofauna Community Assembly in Artificial Kelp Holdfasts Over 13 Months

Community assembly in macrofauna communities developed in artificial kelp holdfasts was monitored at 1-month intervals over a 13-month period. The dataset was collected by the Australian Ocean Data Network using a sampling design with systematic patterns of temporal overlap and changes in start and collection dates. The hierarchical experimental design allows analysis by deployment date, collection date, and community age.

Use Cases

• Modeling community succession over time based on the monthly monitoring intervals.
• Analyzing seasonal effects on community end-states based on the comparison of assembly with and without seasonal collection date effects.
• Testing for alternative community assembly trajectories based on season or recruitment history using the community age analysis approach.

Strengths

• Data collection spanned a 13-month period, providing a full annual cycle.
• Sampling was conducted at 1-month intervals, offering fine temporal resolution.
• The hierarchical experimental design enables multiple analytical approaches (by deployment, collection, and community age).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Monitoring of community assembly in artificial kelp holdfasts using a systematic sampling design.

Time Range

13-month monitoring period (specific dates unknown).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 17:03:38.167809; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Marine environment (specific location unknown).