Long-term monitoring of macroalgal biodiversity in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

<p>The sampling was started by Varoon P. Supratya and Siobhan Schenk,
PhD candidates in the labs of <a
href="https://www3.botany.ubc.ca/martone/"
class="uri", target="_blank">Patrick T. Martone</a> and <a href="https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~parfrey/parfrey_lab/"
class="uri", target="_blank">Laura W.
Parfrey</a>, respectively, both at the University of British Columbia.</p>
<p>Both Varoon and Siobhan study macroalgae for their degrees.
Macroalgae are marine foundation species in intertidal ecosystems, but
data regarding their historical abundance, diversity, and phenology
remains lacking in many regions, including British Columbia.</p>
<p>This absence of historical baselines may hinder assessments of how
macroalgae are affected by anthropogenic stressors, such as extreme
weather events (e.g., 2021 heat dome) or invasive species. Obtaining
baseline data may be especially important for urban intertidal zones,
where the impact of increasing anthropogenic stressors is
underappreciated.</p>
<p>To fill this data gap, they started a collaborative long-term survey
in 2021 to document year-round macroalgal biodiversity in a highly
biodiverse urban intertidal zone around the Girl in a Wetsuit Statue in
Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (49.30275394688415, -123.12643462372476).</p>

For easy data visualization, the <a href = "https://siobhanschenk.shinyapps.io/algae_transects_stanley_park/", target="_blank">Shiny app linked here </a> may be useful, but we strongly reccomend doing your own data analysis. Please cite this Borealis page if you use these data, not the Shiny app.