Monitoring kelp forests ecosystems in the west coast of US and Mexico: past, present and future.
Species associated with kelp forest ecosystems in the west coast of US and Mexico show a great variation in abundance and diversity. We are interested on how this ecosystem will respond to different sources of variation (e.g. Climate change, Fishing, Pollution) along the coast given the differences in both function and structure in the latitudinal gradient.
This image shows the macroalgae distribution along the coast of US, Canada and Baja California.
The aim of this project is to integrate the existing data collected from different monitoring programs along the coast of the United States and Mexico. Particularly:
- Review monitoring programs in the west coast of the US and Mexico.
- How to keep this monitoring programs going? What is the future for these programs?
- Prioritize and reconcile monitoring goals and questions:
- Ecological communities response to environmental variability
- MPAs effects and functioning.
- Marine reserves as a way to involve users.
- Identify ecological attributes of coastal marine communities that are more susceptible to environmental drivers.
- Create a multidisciplinary research and education consortium to conduct comparative studies.
Monitoring programs
This is a list of some monitoring programs in this area:
– BCMP (Baja California Monitoring Program)
– PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary studies of Coastal Oceans)
– Channel Islands LTER (Long term ecological research)
– California ReefCheck
– Alaska Monitoring Program
– Canada Outer Shores
Kelp forest ecosystems
We are focusing our efforts in analysing the variance of the abundance of the different functional groups that represent the different kelp forests. For example, these images show the different species compositions of a set of functional groups at different locations in California and Baja California.
Images courtesy from: Carr, M.H. and D.C. Reed. In press. Chapter 17: Shallow Rocky Reefs and Kelp Forests. In: H. Mooney and E. Zavaleta (eds) Ecosystems of California. Berkeley: University of California Press