SBC LTER: Reef: Bottom Temperature: Continuous water temperature, ongoing since 2000

Giant kelp forests and the organisms living within them are exposed to a variable
environment where biotic and abiotic drivers may affect populations and biological processes
on the scale of hours to decades. To examine temporal and spatial patterns of temperature in
giant kelp forests, SBC has measured ambient water temperature at nine long term monitoring
sites beginning in 2000. Two submersible temperature loggers, sampling every 30 minutes and offset from each
other by 15 minutes, are deployed so that data is recorded every 15 minutes at each
site. Temperature loggers were retrieved and replaced bi-annually with a new
logger, typically in the early summer (June-July) and in early winter (January-March).
These temperature loggers measure temperature in water within a range of -20 to
30 degrees Celsius, and accuracy of ± 0.20C at 25 degrees Celsius.