CLIMATE CHANGE IS RAPIDLY IMPACTING NUMEROUS ECOSYSTEMS. CLIMATE-RELATED IMPACTS ON FOUNDATION SPECIES DOMINANT SPECIES THAT PROVIDE FOOD AND HABITAT ARE PARTICULARLY CONSEQUENTIAL. GIANT KELP MACROCYSTIS PYRIFERA IS A GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED FOUNDATION SPECIES THAT SUPPORTS SOME OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS IN THE WORLD. HOWEVER GIANT KELP IS SENSITIVE TO CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENTALCONDITIONS; WE DO NOT KNOW HOW ITS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE HAS CHANGED IN THE MODERN ERA. CHARACTERIZING CHANGE IN KELPS AT EVEN REGIONAL SCALES IS IMPRACTICAL VIA FIELD SAMPLING. LUCKILY INCREASES IN THE AVAILABILITY OF LONG TERM GLOBAL SATELLITE IMAGERY HAS MADE IT POSSIBLE TO OBSERVE KELP FORESTS AT LARGE SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES VIA LANDSAT. HOWEVER THE PROCESS OF CREATING MAPS OF KELP CANOPY FROM SATELLITE IMAGERY HAS DEFIED AUTOMATION REQUIRING TIME-CONSUMING MANUAL ANALYSIS. HERE WE PROPOSE TO EXPAND THE GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF A CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM USING LANDSAT DATA (HTTP://FLOATINGFORESTS.ORG) TO EXAMINE CHANGE IN GIANT KELP ABUNDANCE OVER TIME AND ASK FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS ABOUT CLIMATE IMPACTS ON GLOBAL KELP PRODUCTIVITY.THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP A GENERALIZED TOOL IN COLLABORATION WITH ZOONIVERSE TO BUILD ONLINE CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS USING LANDSAT IMAGERY.PROTOTYPE PHASE:THUS FAR WE HAVE COLLABORATED WITH THE ONLINE CITIZEN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION ZOONIVERSE TO BUILD A PLATFORM FLOATING FORESTS TO HARNESS THE POWER OF CITIZEN SCIENCE TO MAP THE WORLDS GIANT KELP FORESTS OVER 30 YEARS (HTTP://FLOATINGFORESTS.ORG). WE HAVE AMASSED AN INITIALDATASET OF OVER 2 MILLION CLASSIFICATIONS TO VALIDATE CITIZEN SCIENCE CLASSIFICATIONS OF KELP. WE ARE NOW READY TO MOVE FROM SMALL REGIONAL DATASETS TO MAP THE PLANET ALONGSIDE OUR CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AND ANSWER FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE ONGIANT KELP AT AN UNPRECEDENTED SCALE.GIVEN THESE EFFORTS WE HAVE ESTABLISHED OUR NEXT SET OF GOALS TO MOVE THE PROJECT FORWARD. 1) FINALIZE A DATA PIPELINE CONVERTING USER-GENERATED DATA INTO GEOSPATIAL DATA READY FOR ANALYSIS. 2) FINALIZE CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION OF USER CLASSIFICATIONS WITH PREEXISTINGEXPERT CLASSIFICATIONS. 3) USE THE PROCESS OF IMPORTING REMAINING LANDSAT DATA FOR THE REST OF THE PLANET TO CREATE A GENERALIZED LANDSAT-ZOONIVERSE DATA PIPELINE. 4) FINALIZE A DATA-SHARING FRAMEWORK SO THAT CITIZEN SCIENTISTS CAN ACCESS ITH FLOATING FORESTS DATA. 5) BEGIN CRAFTING AN EDUCATION AND OUTREACH STRATEGY TO BROADEN OUR REACH.IMPLEMENTATION PHASE:DURING IMPLEMENTATION WE WILL ADDRESS OUR SCIENTIFIC GOALS BY USING DATA TO MODEL THE LONG-TERM CHANGES IN GIANT KELP. WE WILL MERGE OUR KELP DATA WITH VARIABLES SUCH AS WATER TEMPERATURE (FROM MODIS DATA) NUTRIENTS (DERIVED FROM SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURES IN CERTAIN REGIONS) PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY AVAILABLE RADIATION (FROM MODIS OCEAN COLOR DATA) WAVE DISTURBANCE (FROM WAVE WATCH III) ANDHUMAN IMPACT VARIABLES TO MODEL THE IMPACT OF HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL DRIVERS ON GIANT KELP FORESTS.WE WILL USE LESSONS LEARNED FROM OUR DATA IMPORT PROCESS TO AID ZOONIVERSES EFFORTS TO EXPAND THE FUNCTIONALITY OF THEIR PROJECT BUILDER TO SUPPORT THE BROADER RESEARCH COMMUNITY IN CREATING CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS BASED ON NASA SATELLITE DATA. THE ZOONIVERSE TEAM WILL HOST IN-PERSON AND ONLINE TRAINING WORKSHOPS FOR RESEARCHERS IN USING THE PROJECT BUILDER TO BUILD THEIR OWN LANDSAT-BASED CROWD-SOURCED RESEARCH PROJECTS INCORPORATE THE RESULTS INTO THEIR RESEARCH AND SUSTAIN AND NURTURE THEIR ONLINE VOLUNTEER COMMUNITIES.FINALLY TO DRAW IN MORE CITIZEN SCIENTISTS WE WILL 1) BUILD A SERIES OF FLOATING-FORESTS INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE CURRICULA FOR PRIMARY SECONDARY UNIVERSITY AND MUSEUM CLASSROOMS AND 2) FURTHER OUR EFFORTS IN ONLINE OUTREACH HOSTING ONLINE SEMINARS ON KELP RESEARCH AND OPEN DATA HACKATHONS WHERE WE WILL TEACH CITIZEN SCIENTISTS HOW TO USE OUR DATA.