Monthly Seagrass Metrics and Temperature in Nova Scotia 2018-2019

Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast provides monthly field data on seagrass productivity and resilience from May 2018 to July 2019. The dataset includes vegetative and reproductive shoot density, above and belowground biomass, and plant morphology measurements from 10 sampling stations per site. It also contains high-frequency bottom temperature records logged at 15-minute intervals.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between 15-minute interval bottom temperature and seagrass shoot density to model thermal stress impacts.
• Model seagrass above and belowground biomass as a function of leaf morphology features like length and width leaf 3.
• Investigate seasonal patterns in vegetative versus reproductive shoot density across the sampling period from May 2018 to July 2019.
• Assess plant resilience by correlating rhizome water soluble carbohydrates with environmental conditions recorded at the sites.

Strengths

• Data collection spans 15 months from May 2018 to July 2019, capturing seasonal cycles.
• Includes high-resolution environmental data with bottom temperature measured at 15-minute intervals.
• Sampling design is detailed, with 10 stations per seagrass bed and specific protocols for quadrats and corers.
• Dataset is peer-reviewed and formally cited in a 2023 Ecosphere publication.

Limitations

• The sample size in terms of total number of rows or data points is unknown.
• Geographic scope is limited to selected sites along the Nova Scotia coast, which may not represent other regions.
• Data collection ended in July 2019, making the environmental conditions potentially outdated for current climate studies.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, collected by researchers including Melisa C. Wong and Michael Dowd.

Collection Method

Monthly field sampling using quadrats and hand corers at 10 stations per site, with laboratory processing of plant samples. Temperature recorded by HOBO TidbiTv2 loggers.

Time Range

May 2018 to July 2019

Freshness

Last platform update was March 2026, but the underlying data collection ended in July 2019.

Geography

Selected field sites along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.