Benthic kelp and invertebrate counts, California sheephead abundance, substrate rugosity data, and benthic temperatures from long-term kelp forest ecosystem monitoring sites at San Nicolas Island, California

Four data sets are included here to aid in assessing the influence of substrate complexity on kelp forest ecosystem stability. One data set consists of counts of a suite of kelps and benthic invertebrates on permanent band transects (swaths) at six long-term monitoring sites from 1980-2018. A second data set consists of total counts of adult California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher), an important sea urchin predator, on these sites from 1981-2018. The third data set gives an index of the relative substrate rugosity in the form of replicate distances along the bottom profile of each permanent swath. Finally, bottom temperatures recorded from 2015-2019 show the relatively homogenous water mass that encompasses all the sites.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {010:12}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier USGS:61c25a06d34e2ca389d9e84a
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20220218
old-spatial -119.60000, 33.20000, -119.40000, 33.30000
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash b61de93d27035aca7be44194b7fb1b70226c75dd
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-119.60000, 33.20000], [-119.60000, 33.30000], [ -119.40000, 33.30000], [ -119.40000, 33.20000], [-119.60000, 33.20000]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • attached-sea-urchins
  • bathymetry
  • benthic-macroalgae
  • biota
  • brown-algae-and-kelp
  • california
  • ckan
  • geo
  • geoss
  • kelp-forest
  • marine-fishery-resources
  • national
  • north-america
  • northeast-pacific
  • ocean-temperature
  • oceans
  • pacific
  • reef-ecosystems
  • san-nicolas-island
  • sea-urchins-and-sand-dollars
  • southern-california-coastal
  • structure
  • substrate
  • united-states
  • usgs-61c25a06d34e2ca389d9e84a
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center
maintainer_email gs-b-werc_data_management@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T04:06:43.319893
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T04:06:43.319897
notes Four data sets are included here to aid in assessing the influence of substrate complexity on kelp forest ecosystem stability. One data set consists of counts of a suite of kelps and benthic invertebrates on permanent band transects (swaths) at six long-term monitoring sites from 1980-2018. A second data set consists of total counts of adult California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher), an important sea urchin predator, on these sites from 1981-2018. The third data set gives an index of the relative substrate rugosity in the form of replicate distances along the bottom profile of each permanent swath. Finally, bottom temperatures recorded from 2015-2019 show the relatively homogenous water mass that encompasses all the sites.
num_resources 2
num_tags 27
title Benthic kelp and invertebrate counts, California sheephead abundance, substrate rugosity data, and benthic temperatures from long-term kelp forest ecosystem monitoring sites at San Nicolas Island, California