Macroalgal cover and stream nutrients are reported during spring and summer 2008 at 15 stream and estuarine sites in the Ventura River catchment in southern California, USA. Data were collected within a mosaic of undeveloped, agricultural, and urban areas to examine relationships among land use, nutrients, algae, and dissolved oxygen (see paper, linked below). This dataset reports major dissolved nutrients (phosphate, nitrate, ammonium) and total dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus, from May to September 2008, and percent cover of macroalgae (benthic and floating) at the same sites at the beginning and end of this period.
Chlorophyll-a, physicochemical and land use parameters (e.g., land-use type, water depth, substratum size, % open canopy, and water velocity) were used in the paper's analysis and so were also collected, but are not reported here. Nutrient diffusing substrata (NDS) were deployed at 12 sites to assess the nutrient(s) limiting algal growth; these data are also not reported here.