Methodology

Sampling was performed for two project separately - once for NAGISA According to the methods described in www ... and separately for the intertidal survey:
- sampling has been performed from one hour before to one hour after the lowest tide (regular, M2 semidiurnal moon tides, of 1.6 m average amplitude). At each sampling station submerged rocks were selected (skjerra) with visible vegetation cover. Name of the station, geographic position (GPS), date and hour were noted. Notes on litter, wildlife, and algae deposits were taken. Temperature and salinity of the tidal pools were measured with the electronic field reader. Next, series of photos were taken - general view of the shore, and 5 to 10 close-up photos of individual coast fragements. Each close up was taken from the 50 cm distance, and presents approximatively 60 x 60 cm, for the assessment of the scale 20 cm long leatherman tool was placed on the rock.

1. Macroorganisms - hard substrate - three vegetated rock fragments of 20 x 20 cm were scraped down to the bare stone, all squares situated within 1m from each other. All the organisms, algae, soft sediment removed was placed to the large 1 dm³ bottle unsorted and fixed with 5% formalyne solution.
2. Macroorgansisms - soft substrate - six sediment squares were cut (15 x 15 cm and 5 x cm depth), placed unsorted into 1 dm³ plastic jars and fixed with 10% formalyne solution.
3. Macroorganisms - free moving - from the neighbouring area - tidal pools, holes among rocks etc., all conspicuous organisms were collected with the hand pushing net of 0.5 mm mesh size. Additionally 30-40 gammarid amphipods were collected from below the flat, loose rocks in the study site.
4. Meiofauna - from soft sediment (also fine gravel and coarse sand) three replicates of surface (upper 5cm) sediment were collected with the use of 10 cm² plastic tube.

NAGISA employs a simple, cost efficient and intentionally low-tech sampling protocol that can be adopted by many research groups and countries, promoting local community involvement. The ultimate goal is a series of well-distributed standard transects from the high inter-tidal zone to the depth of 20 m covering the world, which can be repeated over a 50-year or greater time frame.

NaGISA focuses on two key shallow water habitats: seagrasses and rocky seashores.

	rocky sea shores three sampling sites in each geographical area samples taken at high tide, mid tide, low tide, 5 m, 10 m and (optionally) 15 m and 20 m 5 replicates at each depths a replicate consist of: 1 m x 1 m frame - estimaton of macroalgae coverage, 0.5 m x 0.5 m frame - sample of macroalgea, 0.25 m x 0.25 m frame- sample of macroalgae and benthos
	sea grasses three sampling sites in each geographical area 5 replicates located in the center of the sea-grass patch a replicate consist of: 5 cm diameter core for sea grasses and macrofauna and 2 cm diameter core for meiofauna macrofauna sieved on 0.5 mm sieve, meiofauna sieved on 0.063 mm
	link to protocols at NaGISA web page