Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Datasets for the San Francisco Bay Area Network: 2006-2024 - Data Package

This dataset contains data collected at 5 monitoring stations in Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore as part the San Francisco Bay Area Network Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Program. Monitoring involves annual summer-fall sampling of permanent photoquadrats, ochre star (Pisaster ochraceus) transects, surfgrass (Phyllospadix spp.) transects, mussel beds, motile invertebrates, and owl limpet (Lottia gigantea) plots. This dataset also includes legacy photoplot and seastar data collected at Golden Gate NRA from 1989-2005. Permanent photoplots (50 x 75 cm) are established in target assemblages (i.e. barnacles, mussels, turfweed, etc.) and percent cover of the major taxa within these photoplots is assessed using photographic analysis or field scoring. Owl limpet plots were established and sampled once in 2016 at Pt. Bonita, while motile invertebrate surveys were discontinued in 2014 at all sites. Table 'checklist_sampled_PORE_GOGA.csv' defines the monitoring components by site, survey date, survey type, target assemblage and quatraplot by survey event that were sampled. This table should be referenced to understand sampling effort and completeness of sampling by events. The purpose of this dataset is to provide monitoring information on the temporal dynamics of target invertebrate, algal species and surfgrass across accessible, representative, and historically sampled rocky intertidal sites at Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area to help assess level of impacts and changes outside normal limits of variation due to oil spills, non-point source pollution, or other anthropogenic stressors that may come from within and outside the parks; to help determine status, trends, and effect sizes through time for morphology, color ratios, and other key parameters describing population status (e.g., size, structure) of the selected intertidal organisms; and to document invasions of non-native species, changes in species ranges, disease spread, and rates and scales of processes affecting the structure and function of rocky intertidal populations and communities to better understand normal limits of variation. All tables were exported from the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network database managed by the University of California Santa Cruz.