Santa Cruz Island Reserve

30 Jan, 01 AM - 05 Feb, 05 AM

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has awarded a grant to support the activities of a consortium of scientists at four US West Coast universities: Oregon State University (B. Menge, J. Lubchenco), the Universities of California at Santa Cruz (P. Raimondi, M. Carr) and Santa Barbara (S. Gaines, B. Warner), and Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station (G. Somero, M. Denny). The primary goal of the consortium, named PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans), is to understand the interaction of the nearshore oceanographic environment with coastal marine communities over 2200km of the US Pacific coast. This includes quantifying patterns of distribution, abundance and diversity of the biota in nearshore ecosystems, and determining how ecological, evolutionary and oceanographic processes influence these patterns. The research involves studies of patterns, processes, and the mechanics of community distributions over multiple scales of space and time. At present, no appropriately sampled assessments of community patterns in rocky habitats are available along the West Coast of North America. Our coordinated quantitative assessments will thus be the first of their kind, and will provide a powerful and unique source of information for scientists and managers. To quantify the ecological and oceanographic processes that influence the patterns of community structure, we are conducting investigations of recruitment, larval abundance, phytoplankton concentration, nutrients, currents, growth, and species interactions at, and/or offshore of, each study site. Insight into how and why each process causes pattern comes both from studies that integrate linked processes (e.g., currents and larval abundances, wave climate and patch dynamics) and mechanistic studies that investigate how species respond to particular processes from population to suborganismal levels. In particular, our portion of the PISCO project documents the patterns of diversity and abundance of rocky shores by using a nested sampling scheme. At the largest scale, we have chosen stretches of rocky habitat that are spaced across the U.S. West Coast to represent the major areas that are relatively similar in physical factors. Nested within each of these major areas are three sites, and nested within each of these sites are three sets of sampled areas. In each sampled area, we place a 50 m transect tape at Mean Lower Low Water, Mean Sea Level, and Mean Higher High Water and measure the abundance of all macro algae and invertebrates in 10 quadrats along each transect. At each site we also collect a suite of physical data including aspect and slope of the shore, degree of sandiness, water temperature and wave force. We have three sites on Santa Cruz Island; all confined to the west end of the island. There are three replicate sets of transcects at Frasier Point, approximately 1 km south at Blue Gum, and beneath the former UC Trailer. Thus far we have 3 years of data for those sites. Our goal is to continue to sample these sites on an annual basis to monitor changes and collect data which will help us understand the suite of factors structuring biological communities.

Visit #978 @Santa Cruz Island Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 844 | Research

OregonState University - Department of Zoology

research_scientist - Oregon State University

Reservation Members(s)

Group of 3 Research Assistant (non-student/faculty/postdoc) Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2003 (7 days)

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Pickup Truck 3 Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2003