## 1.1 Why Monitor Kelp Forest Ecosystems As key marine habitats along approximately 36% of the world’s coastlines (Figure 1, Jayathilake & Costello, 2021), kelp forests support immense biodiversity [1](/citation/mon-2024-1/), have...

Monitoring kelp forest ecosystems and their associated benefits involves in-water, on-water, and land-based or aerial observations and measurements. In-water surveys use people, cameras, or a combination of the two to...

## 3.1 Logistics Sampling should be conducted to minimize variation between sampling dates (Sections 2.3 and 2.4). Another way to minimize variation is to sample at the same time of day...

There are many elements, services, and stressors related to kelp forest ecosystems. Few projects will be able to regularly monitor all these parameters; therefore, projects will therefore need to select...

## 5.1 Biodiversity Biodiversity refers to the number of different taxonomic or functional units of organisms living in a kelp forest. It is reported in number of species, number of functional...

## 6.1 Primary Production Primary production is defined as the amount of biomass that is created by an individual kelp or an area of kelp over a given period. It is reported...

## 7.1 Harvested Kelp Harvested kelp is kelp biomass that is removed or collected for human use. It is reported in weight (either wet weight or dry weight) per unit area.

## 8.1 Community Engagement Community engagement is defined as number of volunteers (hours) working on a project, including unpaid community or citizen scientists. It is quantified by reporting the number of hours...

Monitoring the physical parameters of the ocean over time can provide important information about drivers of changes in the kelp forest structure and abundance. For example, increasing temperatures beyond the...