DOI: 10.25494/p6/mlpa_kelpforest.12
title: Monitoring and Evaluation of Kelp Forest Ecosystems in the MLPA Marine Protected Area Network

description: 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.