Cabrillo National Monument Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program Plot Photos 1990-Present

The rocky intertidal zone at Cabrillo National Monument, and in the surrounding areas of San Diego county (CA, USA), is a valued and rare natural resource in southern California. It has been monitored since 1990 and was incorporated into the “Vital Signs” monitoring program of the Mediterranean Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network in 2011. Target species are monitored using core Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) protocols (Engle 2008 - https://marine.ucsc.edu/methods/index.html), which consist of: (1) circular plots to monitor the size and abundance of Lottia gigantea, (2) permanently marked photo-plots to monitor percent cover of sessile invertebrates and rockweed (Chthamalus/Balanus, Tetraclita, Mytilus, Pollicipes and Silvetia), (3) line transects to assess percent cover of dominant algae and seagrass (red algal turf, Egregia and Phyllospadix), and (4) timed searches to record presence of rare species (Pisaster spp. and Haliotis spp.). These surveys are conducted across three Zones at Cabrillo National Monument and at 3 sites in San Diego County (Scripps Reef, Swami's Reef and Cardiff Reef) which encompass a gradient of human use. Detailed site information is located  on the MARINe website: https://marine.ucsc.edu/sites/index.html. 

This generic dataset includes photos of photo-plots taken by National Park Service (NPS)  staff, associates, and volunteers at six long-term rocky intertidal monitoring sites in San Diego. Many of the earlier photos were taken with film cameras and digitized from slides, while newer photos were taken by digital cameras with varying quality. 

Zipped photo folders in the "files" tab of this reference are labeled with the following convention: site_seasonYEAR, where upper-case words indicate numeric values and lower-case words indicate text values. Site refers to a 3- or 4- letter code that corresponds to each monitoring site, described in detail below this paragraph. The season is indicated by a two-letter code, with FA indicating data collected in Fall (generally September - December) and SP indicating data collected in the spring (generally March - May). A two-digit year code ends the sequence. Data presented were collected between 1990 and the current survey year. 

Site Code Descriptions: 
scre - Scripps Reef
swam - Swami's Beach
care - Cardiff Reef
cab - Cabrillo I, Cabrillo II, Cabrillo III

Within each zipped folder are plot photos taken at a given site, season, and year. The images are labeled with the following convention: site_speciesREPLICATE_seasonYEAR, and are in jpg format. Site, season, and year labels are consistent with the conventions for folder names. Replicates refer to replicate plots targeting a given species at a site, and range from 0-9, with most taxa having 5 replicates labeled, sequentially, 1-5. Species is indicated by a 3-letter code, with details below this paragraph. 

Taxa Code Descriptions: 
cht - Chthamalus/Balanus, Tetraclita
myt - Mytilus
pol - Pollicipes
sil - Silvetia

Tags: ecological-framework-biological-integrity-focal-species-or-communities-intertidal-communities
Organization: Department of the Interior