Biodiversity

The biodiversity portion of the PISCO project documents the patterns of diversity and abundance of rocky shores along the US west coast. The primary PISCO biodiversity program is led by the University of California at Santa Cruz, with participation by personnel at University of California at Santa Barbara. For details, go to http://cbsurveys.ucsc.edu/. At OSU, a parallel program was run annually from 1999-2004 using a nested sampling design that included 16 major areas extending from Cape Flattery, WA to San Diego, CA. Nested within each of these major areas were three sites, and nested within each of these sites were three sets of sampled areas. In each sampled area, we sampled a 50 m transect tape at Mean Lower Low Water, Mean Sea Level, Mean Higher High Water, and the 30 Year Maximum Tidal Height and measured the abundance of all macro algae and invertebrates in 10 randomly placed quadrats along the transect. Physical data were also taken including aspect and slope of the shore, degree of sandiness, water temperature and wave force. Since 2004, under funding from Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon State Parks, and NSF, an annual program of community surveys limited to core areas on the Oregon and northern California coast has been taken to complement experimental studies of meta-ecosystem dynamics and to supplement the PISCO biodiversity surveys. For photos and more detailed information on this project, please visit the biodiversity home page at: http://biodiversity.science.oregonstate.edu

Updated 10/2009. Contact: Webmaster |Zoology Home Page| OSU Home Page