This accession consists of the papers of marine ecologist Richard W. Osman. Osman received his A. B. in Geology-Biology from Brown University in 1970 and his Ph. D.
from the University of Chicago in 1975. These materials pertain to a three-year experimental marine benthic panel study conducted between 1977 and 1981 at 28 sites along the
southern California coast. The study occurred during his tenure as an Assistant Research Biologist at the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Study locations included 25 sites along the coast from San Clemente to Oceanside (20-25 kilometers), two sites on Santa Catalina Island, and one site on Santa Cruz Island.
All sites were between 8 and 15 meters in depth. New panels were exposed every three months and monitored every six to 10 weeks for the duration of the study.
Materials in this accession include notebooks containing raw data files, station data, field notes, species information, experimental design information, and other auxiliary
data. Associated with the notebooks are 70 mm photographic slides of the panels taken each time they were analyzed. Each slide corresponds to data in the notebook material.
In addition, there is a final project report and compiled data and metadata. Some materials are in electronic format.
