Shrnutí

Popis

The Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) is an integrated, long-term program that takes an ecosystem approach to identify and understand changes to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. There are more than forty institutions and organizations in the greater Monterey Bay area that are currently examining various aspects of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Marine research conducted in the sanctuary includes long-term monitoring programs that are essential to furthering our understanding, and to determining the health, of the marine ecosystem. SIMoN enables researchers to monitor the sanctuary effectively by integrating the existing monitoring programs and identifying gaps in information. By avoiding duplication of these programs, resources can be more effectively directed towards surveying and characterizing habitats, assessing the impact of natural processes or human activities on specific resources, and long-term monitoring. Finally, SIMoN serves to make the monitoring data available to managers, decision makers, the research community, and the general public. Current projects, maps and graphs, and educational information are organized by subject on the website. In addition, three interactive maps are available which allow users to visualize, analyze and extract spatial data. The SIMoN Standard Viewer provides a wide variety of GIS data layers of various themes and focus. This viewer is useful for comparing spatial data from a wide variety of scientific disciplines. The SIMoN Water Quality Viewer provides GIS data layers relevant to water quality issues in and around the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Finally the R/V McArthur II Research Cruise Viewer provides GIS data layers and links to video clips and images obtained from the April, 2004 McArthur II survey conducted in the Monterey Bay, Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones national marine sanctuaries.