Kelp Forest Monitoring 1994 Annual Report. Channel Islands National Park

摘要

The 1994 results of the Channel Islands Natonal Park Kelp Forest MonitoringProject are described in this report. Population dynamics of 68 taxa or categories of algae, fish, and invertebrates were measured at 16 permanent sites around the five islands within the park. Survey techniques utilized SCUBA and surface-supplied-air, and included quadrants, band transects, random point contacts, fish transects, video transects, size frequency measurements, artificial recruitment modules, and species list surveys. Temperature data was collected using temperature loggers deployed at each of the sixteen sites. Size frequency measurements were taken from artificial recruitment modules at ten sites. In 1994, 13 sites had giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, forests, one site was dominated by the aggregating red sea cucumber, Pachythyone rubra, one site was dominated by red sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus francisanus, and another by purple sea urchins, S. purpuratus. Wasting disease was observed in sea stars and wasting syndrome was apparent in sea urchins.