The Santa Barbara Coastal LTER (SBC LTER) is an interdisciplinary research and education program established in April, 2000 to investigate the relative importance of land and ocean processes in structuring ecosystems at the land-sea margin. The principal study area is the Santa Barbara Channel and the coastal watersheds that drain into it, and the focal ecosystem is giant kelp forests, which occur on shallow rocky reefs at the interface of the land-sea margin throughout the study area and other temperate coasts throughout the world. The major focus of the work proposed here is developing a predictive understanding of the structural and functional responses of giant kelp forest ecosystems to environmental forcing from the land and the sea. The amount of nutrients and organic matter delivered to the kelp forest from land and the surrounding ocean varies in response to short- and long-term changes in climate, ocean conditions and land use. Variation in the supply of these commodities interacts with physical disturbance to influence the abundance and species composition of the forest inhabitants and the ecological services that they provide. The overarching question of the proposed research is: How do abiotic drivers acting over different spatial and temporal scales interact to influence kelp forest structure and function?
To address this question the investigators will focus research around three general themes: (1) The influence of abiotic press and pulse drivers on rates of delivery of N and C to giant kelp forests, (2) The direct and interactive effects of key press and pulse drivers on kelp forest community structure and function through the modification of nutrient supply and wave disturbance, and (3) The indirect effects of pulse and press drivers on kelp forest community structure and function and the feedbacks between structure and function. The research will take advantage of a variety of approaches that include: (1) Coordinated long-term measurements of key abiotic drivers and ecological response variables, (2) Manipulative field experiments designed to isolate the causal mechanisms underlying the patterns observed in long-term measurements, (3) Measurement-intensive process studies aimed at obtaining a mechanistic understanding of processes that cannot be isolated using manipulative experiments, and (4) Integrated synthesis using modeling and analyses that allow for predictions beyond the spatial and temporal scope of SBC data, and that help guide the direction of future research. These efforts will be facilitated by SBC LTER's information management system which focuses on data organization integrity and preservation as well as provision of web-based access to a variety of different users.
Education and training are tightly integrated into all aspects of the research. The scientists/educators have successfully developed a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach to education and outreach that highlights and integrates the research interests of SBC LTER investigators, students, and the general public. The programs include active links with K-12 students and teachers, graduate and undergraduate student training, direct public outreach, and productive interactions with the media, local NGOs and agencies. The outreach and education programs will continue to expand during the next six years as collaborations mature and attract additional support from participants and agencies. This interdisciplinary group of scientists are committed to sharing research findings with resource managers, decision makers, stakeholders, and the general public who are interested in applying the findings to policy issues concerning natural resources, coastal management, and land use.
Although there is increasing concern about the impacts of human activities on coastal ecosystems, there have been few long-term studies of the linkages among oceanic, shallow reef, sandy beaches, wetland, and watershed habitats on land. SBC LTER is helping to fill this gap by evaluating oceanic and coastal watershed influences on giant kelp forests, a highly productive and diverse marine ecosystem that occurs in shallow waters of the land-ocean margin in temperate regions throughout the world. The amount of nutrients and organic matter delivered to kelp forests from land and the surrounding ocean varies in response to short- and long-term changes in climate, ocean conditions and human use. Variation in the supply of these commodities interacts with natural and human-induced disturbances to influence the abundance and species composition of the forest inhabitants and the ecological services that they provide. The research conducted during this award period (2006-2012) focused on three general themes: (1) The influence of environmental drivers on the exchange rates of organic and inorganic materials between giant kelp forests and adjacent land and ocean habitats, (2) The direct effects of environmental drivers on the biological structure and ecological functions of kelp forest communities, and (3) The indirect effects of environmental drivers on kelp forest community structure and function and the feedbacks between biological structure and ecological function. Our research on these themes has revealed: (1) The significant role of fire and land use on the amount and timing of delivery of nutrients, organic matter and sediments from watersheds to the coastal ocean, and the emergent importance of cross-shelf circulation in delivering offshore ocean nutrients and organic matter to inshore kelp forests (Theme 1); (2) Regional differences in wave disturbance can overwhelm those in nutrient supply and grazing intensity to determine regional patterns of primary production by giant kelp (Theme 2); and (3) Shifts in climate-driven disturbances to foundation species like giant kelp are likely to cause indirect impacts that cascade through entire ecosystems (Theme 3). The ongoing time series data collected by the SBC LTER are providing unique and valuable insights into key ecological processes, including ecosystem responses to climate and human activities across relevant spatial and temporal scales. All SBC data are fully documented and are freely available to the science community via SBC LTER’s public website (http://sbc.lternet.edu/). University education and training are tightly integrated into all aspects of our research which involved the active participation of 14 post docs, 54 graduate students, and more than 250 undergraduate students during the award period. Our K-12 education program engages teachers and students around a theme of watershed and marine ecology that incorporates SBC LTER research. By partnering with the educational marine aquarium facility at UC Santa Barbara our research results reached over 42,000 students and many visitors from the general public.
