Uniform point contact (UPC) transect data from Isla Natividad from 2006 to 2021

Abstract

This dataset encompasses information about Uniform point contact (UPC) transects between 2006 to 2021 in Isla Natividad. UPC refers to the information about the substrate where the transect is laid. Every meter (along the 30m transect) you identify what type of substrate there is (e.g., sand, cobble, boulder, reef, other such as anthropogenic), what type of cover there is (e.g., none, brown algae, green algae, red algae, crustose coralline algae, mobile invertebrates, sessile invertebrates or seagrass) and the height of the relief (e.g., less than 10cm, between 10cm and 1m, between 1m and 2m or more than 2m). With this information you can assess the kelp forest ecosystem. This dataset also has information about the dates when the transects were done, site, the name of the diver, the depth the transect was laid, if the site was a marine reserve or not, if the site is inside a marine protected area or not, the latitude and longitude of the sites, the temperature of the water, the number of transect from where the information was counted and the total of substrate, cover and relief points.

Ecological monitoring is important to collect data of species that inhabit an specific ecosystem. For this data set, we present all the data form 2006 to 2021 on algae, marine invertebrates, fish and uniform point contact at six different sites in Isla Natividad off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Data was collected once a year by trained divers as a collaborative effort from Stanford University, non-governmental organizations, and fishing cooperative federations. These data provides the abundaces of algae, invertebrates, fish and substrate of Isla Natividad over the spam of 15 years and may be use to assess changes in the ecosystems after shocks such as hypoxic events or marine heatwaves.

For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/907373