Dataset: Data and code from an analysis of twenty years of winter minimum temperature data near Port Fourchon, LA from 2002 to 2022

Location description:  All data for this analysis were collected near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, USA (29.10 °N, 90.19 °W). The marshes around the port are microtidal, with a mean tidal range of ~0.37 m. The site sits at the precise edge of black mangrove expansion into saltmarsh habitats and although some land loss in the areas has occurred, mangroves in the area have been expanding since the 1990s (Osland et al., 2013). 

Methods & Sampling:
     The expansion of mangroves, and many other range expanding species, is catalyzed by increasing winter temperatures (Osland et al., 2013). To verify that the winter temperatures are increasing in Port Fourchon we used data from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) of Louisiana from the Coastwide Reference and Monitoring System (CRMS)-Wetlands Monitoring Data. We retrieved water temperature data from 2005 to 2022 for the CRMS sites closest to the species sampling locations. In total, we pulled data from 11 stations located in Barataria and Terrebonne Bay marshes (Retrieved from Coastal Information Management System (CIMS) database, 2023; Steyer, 2010). We used a regression analysis on the mean minimum temperature for the winter months (November-February) to determine the trend in temperature from 2005 until 2022.