SBC LTER: Reef: Kelp Forest Community Dynamics: Cover of sessile organisms, Uniform Point Contact

These data describe the cover of sessile invertebrates, understory
macroalgae, and bottom substrate types as determined by a uniform
point contact method. The presence of over 150 taxa of sessile
invertebrates and macroalgae are recorded at 80 uniformly spaced
points along permanent 40m x 2m transects. Multiple species can be
recorded at any given point. Percent cover of a given species on a
transect can be estimated from UPC observations as the fraction of
total points at which that species was present x 100. The total
percent cover of all species combined using this method can exceed
100%; however, the percent cover of any single species cannot
exceed 100%. These data are part of SBC LTERs kelp forest monitoring program,
which began in 2000 and was designed to track long-term patterns
in species abundance and diversity of reef-associated organisms in
the Santa Barbara Channel, California, USA. The sampling locations
in this dataset include nine reef sites along the mainland coast
of the Santa Barbara Channel and at two sites on the north side of
Santa Cruz Island. These sites reflect several oceanographic
regimes in the channel and vary in distance from sources of
terrestrial runoff. Data collection began in 2000 and this dataset
is updated annually. The time period of data collection varied among the 11 kelp forest
sites. Sampling at BULL, CARP, and NAPL began in 2000, sampling at
the other 6 mainland sites (AHND, AQUE, IVEE, GOLB, ABUR, MOHK)
began in 2001 (transects 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 at IVEE were added in
2011). Data collection at the two Santa Cruz Island sites (SCTW
and SCDI) began in 2004. See Methods for more information.   The two tables in this data package include: 1) The percent cover
of sessile invertebrate and understory macroalage; and 2) the
percent cover of bottom substrate.