Metadata

Description
Aquatic-animal monitoring sites were established in Everglades National Park in 1977 and expanded to a greater spatial coverage in 1996 to monitor responses of aquatic animals to changes in water management. From July 1996 through December 2021 (25 years), fishes and invertebrates were collected using a 1-m2, 2-mm mesh throw trap. In each sampling period (five per year: February, April, July, October, and December), seven throw-trap samples were taken at three plots (A, B, C) at sites in the two major drainages of ENP, Shark River Slough (SRS) and Taylor Slough (TS), and Water Conservation Areas 3A and 3B. While plots were at fixed locations, throw-trap samples were taken at positions determined from a random number table. After 1996, 367 samples were typically collected for each of the sampling periods (throws x plots x sites) and 1,835 were taken annually; fewer samples were taken in the case of dry years when some plots were unsampleable for lack of water for some of the periods. We focus our analyses on sites in SRS because those are sites where the jewelfish population demonstrated boom-bust dynamics. At two SRS sites (06 and 23), sampling began in 1978. However, from 1978 to 1985 sampling occurred monthly at one plot at each of these sites, and the number of throw traps performed was determined by estimates of inter-sample variance.

Instrumentation
1-m2, 2-mm mesh throw trap