field resources

Select your seagrass geographic bioregion.  Click on your region below to download the relevant web data entry spreadsheet

Region 1: Temperate North Atlantic (North Carolina, USA to Portugal)
Region 2: Tropical Atlantic (including the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and both tropical coasts of the Atlantic)
Region 3: Mediterranean (including the Mediterranean Sea, the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas and northwest Africa)
Region 4: Temperate North Pacific (Korea to Baja, Mexico)
Region 5: Tropical Indo-Pacific (East Africa, south Asia and tropical Australia to the eastern Pacific)
Region 6: Temperate Southern Oceans (New Zealand and temperate Australia, South America, and South Africa)

Save the spreadsheet file to your computer before you begin data entry. We suggest changing the file name to the site code and the sampling date.

For example, if the site was Burrum Heads 1, and it was sampled on 09 February 2019 then the filename would be “BH1_09Feb19.xls”

The spreadsheets are a similar layout to the standard datasheets. Each transect has it’s own worksheet. To select the appropriate worksheet, click on the tab at the bottom

To enter data, select each cell with your mouse. You can jump between cells by using the TAB button on your keyboard.

First enter the name of the observers and the sampling date.

Enter the location and site code.

For the above example, the location is “Burrum Heads” and the site code is “BH1”.

Seagrass-Watch site codes are unique. It is important to request a site code from Seagrass-Watch HQ before establishing a new site. This will ensure your data can be integrated into the program and to prevent confusion in future.

Enter the time you started sampling the transect and the time you finished.

Times are entered at 24 hr with the hour separated from the minutes by a colon.
For example. if the time was half past one in the afternoon, the time entered would be “13:30”.

If you had a GPS (Global Positioning System) at the monitoring site, enter the latitude and longitude of start of the transect

Enter the data for each quadrat

Sediment: enter by the dominant grain size first, separating sediment categories by a forward slash.

• For example, if the quadrat was predominantly mud with some sand, then the data would be entered as “Mud/Sand”. Please do not use abbreviations “M/S” when entering into the spreadsheet.

Comments: Enter information (including counts) of any features which may be of interest.

• For example, “sea cucumbers (x2), sea urchin (x1), evidence of turtle cropping”

Photograph: type in “True” if you took a photo of the quadrat

% cover: enter the total percent cover of seagrass within the quadrat

% cover by species: enter the percentage cover that each species contributes to the total cover

CR = Cymodocea rotundata

CS = Cymodocea serrulata

EA = Enhalus acoroides

HC = Halophila capricorni

HD = Halophila decipiens

HM = Halophila minor

HO = Halophila ovalis

HP = Halodule pinifolia

HS = Halophila spinulosa

HT = Halophila tricostata

HU = Halodule uninervis

SI = Syringodium isoetifolium

TC = Thalassodendron ciliatum

TH = Thalassia hemprichii

ZM = Zostera muelleri

Canopy: enter the three canopy heights of the dominant strap leaf species (the average will calculate automatically)

% Algae: enter the percent cover of maco-algae in the quadrat. Macro-algae are seaweeds that are not attached to seagrass leaves and may even overlie the seagrass shoots. The combined seagrass and algae cover may be greater than 100%.

Epi %: Enter the percentage cover of epiphytes on the total seagrass leaves.

If you had a GPS (Global Positioning System) at the monitoring site, enter the latitude and longitude of end of the transect

Enter any general comments about the transect or site

Repeat steps 5 to 10 for the remaining transects

Ensure your file is securely saved

Submit a copy of the excel file via internet to Seagrass-Watch HQ (hq@seagrasswatch.org/admin@seagrasswatch.org)

Quadrat & Miscellaneous images can be submitted via yousendit/Dropbox etc or on CD

• Quadrat photos must be of the highest quality digital images possible for camera used. Please note, we require quadrat photos to be taken at every quadrat (0m-50m) along each transect.
• Site & people photos (digital images are preferred) etc be of the highest quality possible for the camera used

Mail original datasheets and herbarium voucher specimens ( if collected) to

Seagrass-Watch HQ
PO BOX 4
CLIFTON BEACH, QLD 4879
AUSTRALIA