The Core Surveys track key assemblages of plants, algae and animals such as mussels, barnacles, surfgrass, seastars, and rockweed. The advantage to this approach is, because of the fixed plot design, we have the ability to detect a fairly small amount of change (10-25%). These surveys are also designed to be accomplished in one tide per site; in fact, if the sites are close enough, more than one site can be sampled on a tide.
