Goal: Maintain, enhance and restore salt marsh vegetation on Conserved Lands in the MSPA that supports or has the potential to support VF species (i.e., wandering skipper, Belding's savannah sparrow) and to incidentally benefit other MSP species (e.g., salt marsh bird's-beak, Ridgway's rail) so that the vegetation community has high ecological integrity, and these species are resilient to environmental stochasticity and threats such as climate change, and will be likely to persist over the long term (>100 years).
Management units: 1, 7
In 2021, evaluate existing salt marsh monitoring programs for Conserved Lands in the MSPA to determine gaps in monitoring salt marsh vegetation to assess community composition, structure and ecological integrity, and to document threats and assess environmental conditions. If there are gaps in current monitoring, develop a long-term regional salt marsh vegetation monitoring plan. The plan should include a conceptual model, specific monitoring questions, the sampling frame within the MSPA, monitoring methods, a statistically valid sampling design, permanent sampling locations, timeline, and standardized protocols. Use models predicting future sea level rise under changing climate to help determine the sampling frame. Evaluate ecological integrity at monitoring sites by integrating other types of monitoring into the long-term sampling plots, such as abiotic element monitoring (e.g., tidal flow monitoring, automated weather stations and soil sensors, GIS-data layers), ecological integrity monitoring (e.g., plant and animal communities, ecological processes), MSP VF species monitoring, and threats monitoring (e.g., climate change, invasive plants).
Action | Statement | Action status | Projects |
---|---|---|---|
PRP-1 | Establish a vegetation monitoring working group of scientists, wildlife agencies, land managers, and other stakeholders to participate in developing the monitoring plan. The group should also include interested parties from outside the MSPA, such as representatives from other multiple species plans in Orange and Ventura Counties and from San Diego County military bases, to create a regional monitoring program with greater efficiencies in effort and a broader inference across southern California. | On hold | |
PRP-2 | Submit project metadata, datasets, analyses, and Salt Marsh Vegetation Monitoring Plan to the MSP web portal | On hold |
Criteria | Deadline year |
---|---|
Complete Salt Marsh Vegetation Monitoring Plan by 2022 | 2021 |
Threat Name | Threat Code |
---|---|
Altered hydrology | ALTHYD |
Climate change | CLICHN |
Human uses of the Preserves | HUMUSE |
Invasive plants | INVPLA |
Urban development | URBDEV |