Oxygen Fluxes on Virginia Tidal Flats, 2015-2018

Bare tidal flats along the eastern USA coast are increasingly undergoing state changes to one of two systems: human-restored Crassostrea virginica oyster reefs or invasive Agarophyton (Gracilaria) macroalgal mats, with little known about how these changes impact ecosystem metabolism. This dataset details aquatic eddy covariance (AEC) benthic oxygen fluxes, along with physical drivers such as flow speed and light, of 3 oyster reefs, 2 macroalgal beds, and 1 bare mudflat located at the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR). The oyster reef data spans 4 years (2015 - 2018) and all seasons, while the mudflat and Agaraphyton data are from summers 2015 and 2017, respectively. These flux data are used to calculate the metabolism (R, GPP, NEM) of these systems, in order to better understand how state changes have impacted carbon cycling on the Virginia coast.