Surfgrass Communities - Motile Invertebrate Surveys - BC Central Coast - 2018-2019

The surfgrass motile invertebrate dataset is a component of the Hakai Institute’s Nearshore research and monitoring program, designed to capture change in rocky intertidal habitats. The overarching objective of Hakai Nearshore research is to investigate the role of habitats and their associated communities, in the face of stress and disturbances from global climate change and local coastal perturbations. The motile invertebrate community was assessed at three coastal sites along the northwest edge of Calvert Island on the central coast of British Columbia, beginning in 2018. All sites were exposed rocky shorelines with beds of Surfgrass (Phyllospadix spp) growing in the low intertidal. The abundance and diversity of the motile invertebrate community was surveyed in these beds using transects and quadrats. The placement and length of the transect was replicated through time, quadrat placement was not. Counts or percent cover were recorded for mobile invertebrates within quadrats placed along a surfgrass bed transect .

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