Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve

06 Dec, 12 AM - 06 Dec, 08 AM

For this mission, PISCO divers will launch the Big Creek inflatable and the R/V Dal Ferro from Big Creek to remove the Esalen and Lopez moorings bordering the Big Creek State Marine Reserve. We will also complete a logger switch on the Big Creek mooring and an optional dive on the permanent transect to reinforce the surface float anchor. Since the inception of PISCO in 1999, PISCO has monitored kelp forest ecosystems at a growing number of sites throughout the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Kelp forest ecosystem monitoring includes depth stratified quantitative surveys of the density of select fishes, macroinvertebrates and macroalgae, and estimates of percent cover of select invertebrates and macroalgae. Surveys are conducted once each year at each site. Detailed descriptions of the sampling design, protocols and history are available at the PISCO kelp forest monitoring web site: http://www.piscoweb.org/research/science-by-discipline/ecosystem-monitoring/kelp-forest-monitoring/subtidal-sampling-protoco. Along with its kelp forest monitoring surveys, PISCO has installed and operated moorings in nearshore waters of the Central California Coast to obtain data on ocean temperatures and currents. Data from these moorings are used with biological data from PISCO?s subtidal and intertidal study sites to characterize the effects of physical processes (e.g., upwelling and current variations, including inter-annual variability due to climatic phenomena such as El Ni?o/La Ni?a) on nearshore ecosystem structure and processes. Sites in and surrounding Big Creek Reserve have been an integral part of PISCO?s monitoring effort since 2001 and we hope to continue collecting long term data from this section of the coast for as long as we have sufficient funding.

Visit #26834 @Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 10694 | Research

PISCO Annual Kelp Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Surveys

research_scientist - University of California, Santa Cruz

Reservation Members(s)

Group of 5 Research Scientist/Post Doc Dec 6, 2011 (1 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Day use 5 Dec 6 (8 hours)
Day Use Only 5 Dec 6 (8 hours)