VCR/LTER Project Description version: 2.0

See instructions for details on specific fields. Send finished copy via 
email to jporter@lternet.edu or send floppy disk to LTER Office.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

>>Project ID:: RSS9601

>>Date Submitted (MM/DD/YY):: 02/21/96

>>Descriptive title (3 lines max.):: Distribution and abundance of salt marsh foraminifera and
their relationship to productivity of salt marsh grasses

>>Responsible PIs:: rspencer

>>Student(s)/ technician(s):: Monica Gruber

>>LTER core topic(s) (Y or N)::

>>>>Primary Productivity:: Y

>>>>Trophic Structure:: Y

>>>>Organic Matter:: N

>>>>Nutrient Movements:: N

>>>>Disturbance:: N

>>>>Other (specify):: abundance

>>Study site description:: Phillip's Creek



>>Expected project duration (number of growing seasons):: 1-2

>>Sampling (put Y after all that apply)::

>>>>Harvest:: 

>>>>Coring:: Y

>>>>Pumping:: 

>>>>Topographic Survey:: 

>>>>Trapping:: 

>>>>Collecting:: Y

>>>>Aerial/remote sensing::  

>>>>Other (specify):: 

>>Method/location of sample/voucher/core preservation:: "Coring done
by a 1cm (ID) x 10cm stainles steel coring tube.  Sampling in Phillips
Creek site and tied to previously surveyed elevations done by LTER.
Samples will be placed in ziploc plastic bags, preserved in buffered
formalin and Rose Bengal stain. At our ODU lab, samples will be gently
washed over a coarse seive to remove large vegetable matter. Samples
passing through the coarse seive will be trapped on a 63 micron seive.
This material will then be placed in a settling sorter which allows
the removal of 1cc of material. Foraminifera will be picked, live vs.
dead will be separated and all specimens will be identified.  


>>Keywords (separated by commas):: "Foraminifera, salt marsh,
zonation, productivity, Virginia

>>Study purpose and goals:: 1. To determine if the occurance of
various species of salt marsh foraminifera follow a zonation similar
to that of salt marsh plants.

2. If a zonation for the forams exists, it could be used to
track the advance and/or retreat history of a salt marsh.

3. To determination the relationship between the productivity of salt
marsh foraminifera,using live and total (live plus dead), should, in
som e way be linked to the productivity estimates of salt marsh
grasses.

4. If such a relationship can be established, than estimates
of past productivity for a salt marsh may be obtained.

>>Experimental/ sampling/ collecting methods:: A stainless steel
coring tube with an inside diameter of 1 cm and a length of 10 cm will
be used. Samples will be placed in ziploc plastic bags and preserved
in buffered formalin with Rose Bengal stain. Samples will then be
processed in our lab at Old Dominion University.

Sampling strategy will be more precisely determined once we acquire
surved elevations in Phillips Creek. Two transects will be established
and tied to the benchmark in Phillips Creek.  One will run from a
creek and in an eastward direction along a steeper sloping marsh face.
The other will run in a northerly direction along a more gentle
sloping marsh face. I estimate that on the shorter (eastward) transect
about 10 samples need to be taken and about 20 samples along the
longer, more northerly transect. I am estimateing that samples will
need to be taken four timees a year.

>>Impact of sampling on site integrity:: One centimeter diameter cores
over the distance outlined above should have very minimal (if any)
impact on the integrity of the area.

>>Other information::