A Shared Research Effort

While initially prompted by the arrival of sea star wasting syndrome in Sitka’s waters, this study was also purposely designed to fill gaps in our understanding of subtidal community seasonal dynamics as well as provide repeatable surveys for future documentation of change. This project enabled the first series of subtidal winter surveys in Sitka Sound – a cold, but worthy effort to capture a snapshot of invertebrate communities during a season of low productivity, pH, light, and temperature.

SSSC is thrilled that the results from these surveys are already being used to inform ongoing subtidal research in Sitka Sound by two PhD students at the University of California Santa Cruz, and there is interest in repeating a subset of these surveys during future undergraduate diving field courses based in Sitka. Any researchers interested in access to the data collected through these surveys can contact lead investigator Lauren Bell at lbell@sitkascience.org