Varoon P. Supratya

Abstract Historical baseline data are critical to measuring how communities shift in response to climate change and anthropogenic activity. Macroalgae are marine foundation species that are vulnerable to climate change, but there is a lack of baseline macroalgal biodiversity data for many areas of British Columbia, particularly at a high temporal resolution over years.

RGR relative growth rate INTRODUCTION Kelps (order Laminariales) are a major component of nearshore, temperate marine communities (Steneck et al., 2002), where they provide habitat for other organisms (Teagle et al., 2017), modify their surrounding environment (Kennelly, 1989; Pfister et al., 2019), and increase coastal primary productivity (Pfister et al., 2019).