Four permanent shoreline transects in Trout Lake, Wisconsin, have been sampled annually each August to document submersed plant communities. The dataset contains biomass per square meter for individual species at three depths and species frequency data along transects. Research was conducted by the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research site, affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Limnology, with data collection starting in 1981.
Use Cases
- Analyze long-term stability of aquatic macroflora by tracking `biomass per m2` and `species frequency` trends across years at fixed transects.
- Model the impact of invasive crayfish on macrophyte communities using `biomass per species` and `total crop` data before and after invasion events.
- Compare species composition and `relative frequency` across different lake types (oligotrophic to eutrophic) using supplemental surveys from Sparkling, Crystal, and Weber lakes.
- Correlate `biomass` and species distribution data from three sampling depths with other limnological parameters like water clarity or nutrient levels.
Strengths
- Long-term annual sampling at four permanent transects provides a consistent time series.
- Data includes multiple quantitative measures: biomass per species, total crop, and relative frequency.
- Surveys cover a representative region with one of the world's highest lake concentrations, spanning lakes from 0.1 to 1,500 hectares.
Limitations
- Primary data is limited to four transect sites on a single lake (Trout Lake) for the core time series.
- Supplemental surveys from other lakes (Sparkling, Crystal, Weber) are from single years (1981, 1984), limiting temporal comparison.
- Exact row count, temporal range, and update recency are unknown from the provided description.
Provenance
- Source
- North Temperate Lakes (NTL) Long-Term Ecological Research site, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- Collection Method
- Annual August sampling along permanent line transects at four shoreline sites; species lists and distribution maps prepared from supplemental surveys.
- Time Range
- Annual sampling in August; core transect data collection started by at least 1981.
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Trout Lake, Wisconsin, USA, within the Northern Highland Lakes District; supplemental data from Sparkling, Crystal, and Weber (Firefly) lakes in the same region.