Research Technical Report

The Natural Resources of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: A Focus on Federal Waters

Brown, J.A., E.J. Burton, and S. De Beukelaer (June 2013)

Marine Sanctuaries Conservation Series ONMS-13-05.

ABSTRACT

This natural resources assessment synthesizes the current scientific knowledge of the physical and biological resources in the offshore habitats of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS). The main body of this report is organized into sections by offshore habitat category. Benthic habitats categories were defined by substrate type (hard and soft) and depth: shelf I (30-100 m), shelf II (100-200 m), slope (200-3,000 m), and rise (>3,000 m). Additional offshore habitat categories included in this report are open ocean, submarine canyon, seamount, oxygen minimum zone, chemosynthetic biological communities, and macrophyte detritus. For each of these habitat categories, information was compiled on topics spanning many levels of ecological organization (e.g., population, species, community) and various ecological processes (e.g., productivity, dispersal). Information sources included primary literature, unpublished data, and expert interviews. The purpose of this document is to identify sources of regional information, and describe natural resources and processes in federal waters of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Suggested Citation:

Brown, J.A., E.J. Burton, S. De Beukelaer. 2013. The Natural Resources of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: A Focus on Federal Waters. Marine Sanctuaries Conservation Series ONMS-13-05. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Silver Spring, MD. 264 pp.