Seagrass density surveys on the Central Coast of British Columbia

The Seagrass Site-Level Production dataset is a component of Hakai Institute’s Nearshore research and monitoring program, designed to determine the drivers of change in seagrass ecosystems. The overarching objective of Hakai Nearshore research is to investigate the role of habitats and their associated communities, in the face of stress and disturbances from global climate change and local coastal perturbations.

This data package contains seagrass (Zostera marina) primary production observations collected from May 2015 to Feb 2019, at long-term seagrass meadow monitoring sites on British Columbia’s Central Coast. SCUBA divers collected data from 9 sites annually and 1-3 sites seasonally along permanent 30m transects. Primary productivity data was collected during two concurrent, but separate surveys (i.e., different parameters, methodologies, and sample designs). The data files included in this data package are: 1) ‘Habitat’ surveys, focused on landscape-level habitat variables (e.g., substrate type, subdominant vegetation, adjacent habitat types, seagrass patchiness), and 2) ‘Density’ surveys measuring seagrass specific variables at a finer scale (e.g., seagrass shoot density, and canopy height). Data included here are a subset of the Hakai Institute’s seagrass monitoring dataset.