Marine Reserves News: On the Rocks

A Deeper Dive

INVESTIGATING ROCKY INTERTIDAL HABITATS

intertidal monitoring

 
In the field last week, scientists from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and ODFW set up sampling plots to monitor rocky intertidal habitats at the Otter Rock and Cascade Head marine reserve sites. Rocky intertidal habitats are located in the intertidal zone, a narrow band of shoreline that is covered by water during high tides and then exposed at low tides. Marine organisms commonly found in this habitat include mussels, barnacles, sea stars, crabs, and many varieties of seaweeds.

These sampling plots will be surveyed over time to evaluate any changes that occur to the biological community. Data collected at the Otter Rock and Cascade Head marine reserves join a dataset formed from over 100 intertidal sampling sites between Alaska and Mexico, surveyed by the MARINe/PISCO team based out of UCSC.

Visit our Blog to see more photos and hear more about this work from our summer interns, Abby and Sara.

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