Pits dug by sea otters in sediments associated with eelgrass beds and qualitative sediment grain size descriptions in Southeast Alaska

• Main Authors: Tiffany Stephens, Ginny Eckert
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity 2019
• Subjects: Sediment; Seagrass; Eelgrass; Sea otter; Alaska; Grain size; Disturbance; Prince of Wales Island; Archipelago
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:e4087e20-03cb-438a-a293-7ed7cc370ea6

This dataset is composed of counts of the number of pits that were dug by sea otters, as well as a qualitative assessment of the primary and secondary sediment grain sizes (most common and second most common). The number of pits and sediment grain size were quantified at intertidal sites that included seagrass meadows (dominated by Zostera marina), in which three 100-m (year 2017) or 50-m (year 2018) transects were placed at different locations relative to the seagrass meadow: within the seagrass meadow, along the edge of the seagrass meadow, and outside the seagrass meadow. Across 2017 and 2018, observations were conducted at 37 different sites total in Southeast Alaska on Prince of Wales Island (n = 21 in 2017; n = 26 in 2018). These data directly compliment clamshell litter data (which was collected along the same transects) for which the cause of death for clams was estimated using shell forensics. Generally, these data were collected to compliment a larger, interdisciplinary project called APECS (Apex predators, Ecosystems, and Community Sustainability), the focus of which investigated the role that sea otters have on seagrass habitats, their ecological function, and influences on traditional and subsistence harvest of specified marine organisms (search "APECS_alaska" in KNB for all related datasets).