Little is known about the local to regional scale variability in biomass and productivity of many subtidal ecosystems as direct surveys for these habitats are often time and labor intensive. Here, we combined high-resolution satellite imagery with detailed diver sampling to assess changes in giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) canopy cover and biomass along a ~60 km stretch coastline in the Santa Barbara Channel, California. Kelp canopy extent was determined by using principal component analysis on multispectral SPOT 5 satellite imagery.

Understanding the impacts of landuse and/or climate change on streamflow characteristics, such as peak discharge, sediment transport capacity, flow velocities and depths, within a given region or watershed requires knowledge of fine scale (0.01-10 m) hydraulic channel properties (i.e., detailed cross-sections, roughness, bed material). However, data for channel/reach properties are limited to primarily in-situ measurements.

 The primary research focus of the Santa Barbara Coastal (SBC) LTER is on the relative importance of bottom-up processes and allochthonous inputs to giant kelp forests, a highly diverse and productive marine ecosystem that occurs on shallow rocky reefs at the interface of the land-ocean margin. Giant kelp forests are found along the temperate coasts of western North and South America, southern Africa, Australia and most sub Antarctic islands, including Tasmania and New Zealand.

Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) is an organic substrate that fuels heterotrophic microbial production, and as a result of microbial production organic matter is re-mineralized.  DOC source and fate, and microbial processes, therefore have important implications for biogeochemical cycling in marine ecosystems.  In the Santa Barbara Coastal ecosystem the continental shelf is extremely narrow, being only a few kilometers wide in many areas, allowing greater potential for cross-shelf processes and supply of offshore resources to the near-shore rocky reef environment. 

Quantifying variability in nutrient transport is important for understanding the maintenance of coastal ecosystems. Understanding of the processes that control variability in nutrient transport off of Southern California is complicated by the very narrow continental shelf (2-5 km) in this region, which creates a more direct connection between shallow reefs and deeper oceanic waters. The Santa Barbara Channel (SBC) is one of these environments.

An aspect of climate change in California has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of winter storms. Disturbance from storms is a major source of variation in the standing biomass of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, a competitive dominant on shallow reefs that forms a dense overstory canopy at the sea surface. Climate induced changes in the standing biomass of Macrocystis are expected to have a profound effect on the assemblage of subordinate understory macroalgae.

 Most climate change research has concentrated on the direct effects of environmental change for individual species and their interactions. By affecting key foundation species and ecosystem engineers, however, climate change may have a variety of indirect that may complicate our abilities to predict the response of communities and ecosystems. In California, climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of storms over the last half century.  Storms may directly alter the structure of kelp forest food webs via disturbance.

Ecological communities can undergo sudden and dramatic changes between alternative states. Understanding the mechanisms that trigger such shifts and those that maintain them is crucial for ecological prediction as well as natural resource management. Differentiating between potential mechanisms is difficult however, because shifts are often recognized only in hindsight, and many occur on such large spatial scales that field experiments to test their cause are not possible.