Morphometrics of giant kelp forests in Southeast Alaska during Summer 2018

The purpose of this dataset was to collect length and weight measurements of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) for use in determination of surface canopy biomass. This is based on previous work demonstrating that giant kelp biomass can be predicted by length-to-weight relationships (Reed et al. 2009). These data were collected in conjunction with drone imagery to ground-truth biomass estimates obtained from Landsat satellite imagery. For each sampled plant, date, GPS location of the bed, stipe length, plant weight, growing tip presence, and level of erosion were recorded. These data were collected as part of a larger, interdisciplinary project (Apex Predators, Ecosystems, and Community Sustainability or APECS; http://apecs-ak.org/) aimed to assess the impacts of sea otter recolonization on the natural and human ecosystems of Prince of Wales Island, Southeast Alaska. Other datasets related to APECS are archived with KNB.