Phytoplankton production in the Santa Barbara Channel supports one of the richest marine ecosystems in the Southern California Bight. The climatology of chlorophyll biomass in the area reveals maxima over the Santa Barbara Basin in the western Channel and along the mainland in the eastern channel where the continental shelf broadens and where two rivers discharge seasonally.

Coastal marshes must increase elevation to maintain themselves in the face of sea-level rise. At the same time processes at their borders determine areal extent by fostering erosion or progradation at the seaward edge and transgression or stalling landward. Two major plant communities are recognized in many salt marshes: the high marsh and low marsh. At the mainland portion of the Virginia Coast Reserve we consider the high marsh to be dominated by Distichlis spicata and Spartina patens with prominent patches of Juncus roemerianus.

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 The productivity of giant kelp forests is highly variable across time and space. Winter storms and summer periods of nutrient limitation act as bottom-up regulators of kelp abundance and growth in a geography-dependent manner. Our goal is to develop a predictive understanding of giant kelp forest dynamics in the nearshore waters of California using a combination of (i) bio-optical modeling of kelp productivity, (ii) high-resolution remote sensing of kelp cover, biomass and its physiological state.

In Georgia coastal marshes, the annual marsh plant Suaeda linearis is usually found in association with oyster shell deposits. Dense piles of oyster shells in the marsh support low densities of dominant salt marsh plants but are the primary locations where we find S. linearis. We hypothesized that in oyster shell deposits, abiotic stresses (e.g. lower soil water content due to faster drainage) would decrease densities of marsh plants, therefore, lowering competition and enabling the relatively drought-resistant S. linearis to survive.

The inherent dynamism of coastal environments makes documentation of change especially challenging. At the same time, the loss of historical and ecological landscapes is particularly evident in the coastal zone. The disappearance of wetlands, native vegetation and wildlife, and the alteration of natural processes have greatly affected the ecology of remaining coastal zone habitats, while the historical introduction of numerous species of plants and animals has transformed much of the open landscape.

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.