GNDNERR_SAV

These spatial data represent seagrass/SAV beds within Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve during the 2005-2010 growing seasons. Data were collected from 4-band orthoimagery. Field personnel also visited areas of historical seagrass/SAV beds to document the presence and spatial extent of each bed. In addition, personnel visited sites where no seagrass/SAV had been found historically; these sites were believed to be potential seagrass/SAV habitat based on the physical conditions at the sites (e.g., substrate, water depth). The perimeters of seagrass/SAV beds were delineated in the field using one of the following methods: (1) snorkeling from the shoreline along a transect perpendicular to the shoreline until the distant edge of the bed was encountered, (2) raking surveys from a boat, (3) visual inspection in areas of shallow and relatively clear water. Points along the perimeters of beds were recorded in the field using a Trimble GeoXT GPS unit set to approximately 1.5 meter accuracy. GPS data were differentially corrected and imported into ArcGIS. Once in the GIS, the perimeter points of each bed were connected to form a polygon. The seagrass/SAV species occurring in each bed was recorded.