Abstract
The overall goal of this project is to determine the changes in biological function of Ship Shoal in response to excavation of sand. To achieve this goal this study used a multidisciplinary approach that combined measurements of the changing physical setting of the shoal with potential changes in water column and benthic primary production, benthic faunal community and associated nekton, and stable isotope tracers to delineate changes in the shoal food web. The data included here are the raw counts of benthic invertebrates (animals collected on 1mm and 0.5 mm sieves).
NOTE: There are two dregde areas (i.e., pits).
The Caminada pit is older and deeper. It was last dredged prior to our sampling (2013-2016) so we have no pre-dredge samples in our dataset for Caminada.
The Terrebone pit (previously called Timbalier). It was dredged from Spring 2021 - Summer 2022. We consider the start of the dredging in March as 'post-dredging' as we sampled only in dredged areas.
Reference areas are undredged.
Location
Ship Shoal, Louisiana
Bounding box:
29°N, -90.8°W; 29°N, -90.5°W
28.8°N, -90.8°W; 28.8°N, -90.5°W
Methods
Samples were collected from Ship Shoal, a large transgressive sand shoal located approximately 10 miles off the central coast of Louisiana. Sampling was focused on three regions: the Caminada borrow pit (Caminada), the Terrebonne borrow pit (aka Timbalier), and a control area two km west of the Terrebonne pit (n=9 cores per region/sampling period). At each site sediment were collected using a GOMEX box corer (30cm x 30cm) and fixed and preserved in 5% buffered formalin and returned to the laboratory. After 48 hours, box core samples were sieved on a 1 mm sieve stacked on a 0.5 mm sieve using seawater. Formalin was replaced with 70% ethanol after 48 hours. Benthic organisms were picked and identified to the lowest possible taxon.
NOTE: Animal data are reported per core. To scale up to m2, multiply by 11.11. NA=Data not available. NA in Date column indicate samples not collected due to rough seas or lost in transit.
Description
Dataset is counts of benthic invertebrates in .xlsx spreadsheets. Can be opened with Microsoft Excel or imported into common statistical programs such as R.
Date
2025
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Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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Keywords
Benthic invertebrates, sand mining, dredging, recovery, sand shoal
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.25773/QXPN-SZ51