Monitoring and Evaluation of Kelp Forest Ecosystems in the MLPA Marine Protected Area Network

The kelp forest monitoring datasets provided here are assembled from four academic institutions involved in the baseline and long-term monitoring phases of California’s statewide Marine Protection Area implementation and evaluation process. These datasets include the baseline periods for all regions, and additional historical data. The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) kelp forest program, administered out of the University of California campuses in Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara and funded primarily by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, has been monitoring across California since 1999, and with a focus on Marine Protected Areas. The Vantuna Research Group at Occidental College has conducted monitoring in the southern California region since 1966, and has been using similar sampling methods to the PISCO program to monitor kelp forests in the region since the 2004 wide-scale monitoring effort of the Cooperative Research and Assessment of Nearshore Ecosystems (CRANE) Program. Researchers at Humboldt State University began monitoring sites in the north coast region in 2014 and 2015 using the PISCO sampling methodology. Data have been integrated across all four programs. To comprehensively and quantitatively characterize the ecological community and geological features at each kelp forest site, four different sampling methods are employed, all of which are conducted visually by SCUBA divers. Fish transects and benthic macroalgae and invertebrate transects overlap with, but are spatially distinct from one another. Surveys are conducted annually, during the summer or early fall. Typically, two to four sites inside a given MPA and two to four sites outside of the MPA are surveyed in a given year, with the number and shape of sites varying depending on habitat (e.g. onshore-offshore steepness of the reef) and longshore width of the MPA. Sampling history varies by program, MPA, and sampling site. We strongly encourage collaboration with the scientists who collect and manage these data and co-authorship when appropriate, and request that the Data User contact the dataset authors to minimize duplicative efforts. The Data User should realize that these data are likely being actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. Please use this form as an initial method of contact: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSct8vbkyM3l36GjQ0Uq6E50oeCQWlW7682DYecXnTfxpmzlUQ/viewform The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. The Data User has an ethical obligation to cite the data source appropriately in any publication or product that results from its use, and notify the dataset authors. A recommended citation for the data package is available from the download page. Please send copies of any published manuscript based on these data to the data contact and data creator. The Data User should be aware that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. Extensive efforts are made to ensure that online data are accurate and up to date, but the authors will not take responsibility for any errors that may exist in data provided online. Furthermore, the Data User assumes all responsibility for errors in analysis or judgment resulting from use of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data.

Citation: Mark H. Carr, Jennifer E. Caselle, Brian N. Tissot, Daniel J. Pondella, Daniel P. Malone, Kathryn D. Koehn, Jeremy T. Claisse, Jonathan P. Williams, Avrey Parsons-Field, & Sean F. Criag. (2024). Monitoring and Evaluation of Kelp Forest Ecosystems in the MLPA Marine Protected Area Network. California Ocean Protection Council Data Repository. doi:10.25494/P6/MLPA_kelpforest.9.

Published: September 22, 2025 at 18:54

URL: https://ipt-obis.gbif.us/resource?r=mlpa_kelp_forest_monitoring