North Central Coast: rapid surveys of sandy beach ecosystems

This metadata record documents rapid surveys of sandy beaches for the California North Central Coast MPA baseline characterization of sandy beaches conducted between May 2010 and July 2011. The rapid surveys document seasonal variation of a subset of important and quick-to-measure ecosystem characteristics of sandy beaches including: bird assemblages, wrack deposition, physical characteristics and usage by people on sandy beaches. During rapid surveys we quantified: 1) wrack cover by type and physical characteristics of the beach and surf zone on cross-shore transects; and 2) the abundance of shorebirds, seabirds, people, carrion and freshly deposited kelp on along-shore transects. We also documented the weather and the activities of the birds and people observed.This dataset was originally uploaded to Oceanspaces (http://oceanspaces.org/) in 2013 as part of the North Central Coast baseline monitoring program. In 2020 the baseline data and reports were uploaded to the California Ocean Protection Council Data Repository by Mike Esgro ([e-mail]) and Rani Gaddam ([e-mail]). Every attempt has been made to include all of the original data, metadata, and reports submitted in 2013, but please contact the Data Set Contacts with any questions. The long-term California MPA boundary and project info tables referenced in this dataset can be found as a separate dataset here: https://opc.dataone.org/view/doi:10.25494/P64S3W