Baseline Survey (conducted November 2004 - May 2005)
Abundance distributions: The overall statistics observed for the abundance of A. sola are shown below.
| Location | Area with A. sola (%) | Maximum density (A. sola/m2) | Average density (A. sola/m2)(p=0.5) | Standard deviation (A. sola/m2) | Fitted distribution (x: A. sola observed/m2; y: number of quadrats) |
| DuxburyReef | ~ 0% | 1 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Fitzgerald Marine Reserve | 20% | 6 | 0.37±0.1 | 0.93 | y = 0.317 e-0.7966x, R2 = 0.8498 |
| DavenportLanding | 85% | 30 | 4.97±0.03 | 4.93 | y = 0.1202 e-0.149x, R2 = 0.8483 |
The baseline survey shows a reduction in the abundance of A. sola for the more northern sites. Only a single individual of A. sola was sampled at Duxbury Reef, which is consistent with the northernmost limit of A. sola being Bodega Bay.
At both Davenport Landing and the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, an exponential curve is a good fit to the abundance of A. sola over area At both locations, there is an upward trend in the density of A. sola towards the ocean.
- Plot of the frequency of occurrence as a function of density.
- Variation of A. sola with intertidal distance.
Size distributions: The average sizes of A. sola observed at the survey sites are shown below. The samples include all 119 A. sola found during the survey at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and 971 of the 1583 A. sola observed at Davenport Landing.
| Location | Sample Size | Average size (cm) (p=0.5) | Standard deviation (cm) |
| Duxbury Reef | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Fitzgerald Marine Reserve | 119 | 9.1±0.6 | 3.3 |
| Davenport Landing | 971 | 7.2±0.15 | 2.3 |
Interestingly enough, the A. sola at Davenport Landing appear to be smaller than those at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. This could be a natural result of crowding, but could also be because the A. sola at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve were located in shallow pools formed within cracks and were thus open, while the ones at Davenport Landing were exposed during low tide and so more likely to be closed. In the current protocol, which measures the anemone along the widest part, open and closed anemones are not differentiated.
The plot above shows the relationship between abundance, size and topography when combined across the three sites.
Temperature Measurements: The baseline measurements indicate that, as an intertidal species, A. sola is exposed to a much wider range of temperature than is indicated by differences observed in either the ocean temperature or the atmospheric temperature. The measured profiles for atmosphere, ocean, and intertidal temperatures from April 2, 2005 to August 6, 2005 are summarized below:
| Type | Location | Number of Samples | Temperature (ºC) | ||
| Mean (p=0.5) | Maximum | Minimum | |||
| Air | Duxbury Reef | 3066 | 12.51 ±0.04 | 16.1 | 8.3 |
| Fitzgerald Marine Reserve | 3070 | 12.97 ±0.04 | 16.6 | 9.8 | |
| Davenport Landing | 3031 | 13.39 ±0.04 | 16.9 | 10.2 | |
| Ocean | Duxbury Reef | 3066 | 12.76 ±0.06 | 16.5 | 9.3 |
| Fitzgerald Marine Reserve | 3070 | 12.87 ±0.05 | 16.1 | 9.7 | |
| Davenport Landing | 3028 | 13.73 ±0.05 | 17.2 | 10.7 | |
| Intertidal | Duxbury Reef | 3043 | 15.15 ±0.14 | 33.6 | 6.6 |
| Fitzgerald Marine Reserve | 3032 | 13.90 ±0.17 | 38 | 7 | |
| Davenport Landing | 3031 | 12.53 ±0.08 | 27 | 6.5 | |
These measurements indicate that ocean and atmospheric temperatures do not reflect the temperature profiles of individual microhabitats: Intertidal temperatures cover a much wider range than either ocean or atmospheric temperatures. Over the four-month period, for example, A. sola was exposed to extremes in temperature from 6.5°C to 38°C, while the ocean and air temperatures showed a much smaller variation. Although both the average ocean and atmospheric temperatures were lower at the northern sites as compared to the southern sites, the average intertidal temperatures show the opposite trend, with the northern sites having the higher average temperatures.
2005 Survey (conducted November 2005 - December 2005)
Survey
results are not yet complete for the 2005 survey
References