Research Technical Report

A Map of Monitoring Sites in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

King, C.E., A. DeVogelaere, S. Lonhart, and J. de Marignac (March 2003)

Poster presentation at the Sanctuary Currents Symposium, Seaside, CA

ABSTRACT

Long-term ecosystem monitoring is a fundamental element of effective conservation and a requirement of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary's management plan. By integrating ongoing efforts at over 30 regional marine research institutions, and filling in critical gaps, the Sanctuary can gain a comprehensive understanding of its resources and processes. The Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) has therefore been designed in partnership with the regional science and management communities to identify and track natural and human induced changes to the Sanctuary (see related poster by Lonhart et al.). This map represents SIMoN's initial effort at compiling historic and current monitoring sites. Associated with these sites are metadata, detailing who, when, where, why and how the data were collected, processed, and analyzed. These site locations represent a wide array of data types, resolution, time duration, age and complexity from varying sources, including state, federal and private organizations. However, some basic patterns are clear. For example, while the Monterey Bay is heavily studied, there are few monitoring data sets off of the Big Sur Coast. This poster presentation is interactive in that we are asking the reader to provide additional locations and contact information on data sets they feel are important. Within the next year, these data will be made available through an interactive mapping site on the World Wide Web.