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 |
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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 |
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Complete Salt Marsh Vegetation Monitoring Plan by 2022 | 2021 |
Threat Name | Threat Code |
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Altered hydrology | ALTHYD |
Climate change | CLICHN |
Human uses of the Preserves | HUMUSE |
Invasive plants | INVPLA |
Urban development | URBDEV |
California Least Tern Predator Monitoring (Ternwatchers)
Volunteer-based predator monitoring program at the nesting sites in Mission Bay. Citizen scientists are trained to monitor nesting sites for predators from mid-April through late May, with the program concluding the end of September.
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Rare Plant Inspect and Manage Monitoring 2014-2026
From 2014-2026, a Management and Monitoring Strategic Plan (MSP Roadmap) monitoring objective for 30 rare plant species is to inspect occurrences to determine management needs. The inspect and manage (IMG) objective is implemented to document the status of rare plant occurrences and assess habitats and threats to develop specific management recommendations. IMG monitoring is implemented by a combination of land managers and contracted biologists in coordination with the SDMMP. Available rare plant data is posted below. New annual updates are typically posted in March. Based upon an evaluation of these data, a 2014-2026 monitoring schedule has been developed for the 30 rare plant species (attached below). Coordinating data collection across the region allows analyses of species and population trends over time and provides a better understanding of the association between habitat and threat covariates and population dynamics.
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Vegetation Mapping and Classification 2012
This project first created a vegetation classification system and manual. Then, based on 2012 data, this project completed 3 tasks: Task 1. Vegetation Mapping. Task 2. Invasive Nonnative Species Plant Mapping. Task 3. Tecate Cypress Mapping. In 2014, the data was updated based on user's comments. The final products are available to download in the data section.
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Wandering Skipper Surveys
Surveys for Wandering Skipper at 10 sites in coastal San Diego County.
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Southern coastal salt marsh is a highly productive vegetation community full of herbaceous plants [1]. The majority of plants in this community are suffructescent, especially in the higher drier sites, and salt-tolerant hydrophytes. Vegetation forms moderate to dense cover up to 1 meter tall. Unlike northern coastal salt marsh where species are active in the summer and dormant in the winter, the southern coastal salt marsh has a longer growing season. It intergrades broadly with northern coastal salt marsh along the south central coast. Southern marshes are nowhere as extensive as the larger northern marshes.
Species special to the southern coastal salt marsh include Atriplex watsonii, Batis maritima, Lycium californicum, Distichlis littoralis, Suaeda californica, and Arthrocnemum subterminale [2]. Characteristic species include: Amblyopappus pusillus, Atriplex watsonii, Batis maritima, Cressa truxillensis, Cuscuta salina, Distichlis spicata var. spicata, Frankenia grandifolia, Heliotropium curassavicun, Jaumea carnosa, Juncus acutus sphaerocarpus, Limonium californicum, Distichlis littoralis, Salicornia bigelovii, Salicomia spp., Spartina foliosa, and Suaeda californica. Nonnative plants that have invaded southern salt marsh include: Carpobrotus aequilateralis, Mesembryanthemum crystallimum, and M. nodiflorum.
Bays, lagoons, and estuaries along the coast from Point Conception to the Mexican border [1].
There are 2,700 acres of salt marsh in the MSPA in MUs 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7, of which 2,296 acres are conserved. There are 1,557 acres in MU1 (1,260 conserved), 15 acres in MU2 (2 acres conserved), 10 acres in MU3 (0.6 conserved), 42 acres in MU6 (39 conserved), and 1,075 acres in MU7 (994 conserved).
Salt marsh is typically found along sheltered inland margins of bays, lagoons, and estuaries [1]. The hydric soils found at these sites are subject to regular tidal inundation by salt water for at least part of each year. Water and air temperatures are warmer in southern than northern coastal salt marsh. Frankenia grandifolia, Suaeda califomica, and/or Salicornia subterminalis often occur along the upper, landward edges of the marshes; Salicornia bigelovii, S. virginica, and Batis maritima at middle elevations; and Spartina foliosa closest to open water.
Sites are subject to regular tidal inundation by salt water for at least part of each year [1].
Since 1850, 75% (5,819 ha) of Southern California salt marshes have been lost [3]. In Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego County there has been a significant increase in subtidal water while both intertidal and vegetated wetlands have decreased. There are many challenges associated with urban salt marsh restoration, including: habitat isolation and fragmentation, impacts from exotic species, the loss of transitional upland habitats, and alterations to hydrologic and sediment dynamics [4]. The development of salt marsh functions, such as biomass and nitrogen accumulation, slow with low species richness. In many marshes with hydrological modifications nonnative species have invaded the upper reaches of the salt marshes. Some hydrological connections are impaired by roads and structures, constraining the natural migration of channels, and altering sediment dynamics that often lead to lagoon mouth closures. In extreme cases of increased sedimentation, the sediment can cover vegetation and convert salt marsh to upland. The biggest threat to salt marsh are the affects of climate change through accelerated sea-level rise [5, 6], shifting precipitation patterns [7, 8], erosion [9], and changing frequency and intensity of storms [10, 11].
The extensive loss of salt marsh in southern California highlights the need to preserve and restore remaining salt marsh [3]. For habitats that are isolated, planting is vital for ensuring the colonization of dispersal-limited plants [4]. There are additional restoration challenges in areas where the gradual slopes between wetland and upland have been replaced by sharp transitions next to urban developments. This severely limits the ability to restore rare plant and animal populations. Additionally, salt marsh may not be able to move upslope with sea level rise due to surrounding development. There are 15 MSP species associated with salt marsh vegetation.
[1] Holland, R. F. 1986. Preliminary Descriptions of the Terrestrial Natural Communities of California. Sacramento, CA. ftp://ftp.conservation.ca.gov/pub/oil/SB4DEIR/docs/BIOT_Holland_1986.pdf.
[2] Oberbauer, T. A., M. Kelly, and J. Buegge. 2008. Draft Vegetation Communities of San Diego County. Based on “Preliminary Descriptions of the Terrestrial Natural Communities of Californiaâ€, Robert F. Holland, Ph.D., October 1986. San Diego, CA.
[3] Stein, E. D., K. Cayce, M. Salomon, D. L. Bram, D. De Mello, R. Grossinger, and S. Dark. 2014. Wetlands of the Southern California Coast: Historical Extent and Change Over Time. SCCWRP Technical Report #826. www.sfei.org/sites/default/files/826_Coastal Wetlands and change over time_Aug 2014.pdf.
[4] Callaway, John C, and Joy B. Zedler. 2004. Restoration of Urban Salt Marshes: Lessons from Southern California. Urban Ecosystems 7: 107–24. doi:10.1023/B:UECO.0000036268.84546.53.
[5] Holgate, S. J. and P.L. Woodworth. 2004. Evidence for enhanced coastal sea level rise during the 1990s. Geophysical Research Letters 31:2–5. https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL019626
[6] Kemp, A. C., Horton, B. P., Donnelly, J. P., Mann, M. E., Vermeer, M., and S. Rahmstorf. 2011. Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(27), 11017–22. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015619108
[7] Hamlet, A. F. and D. P. Lettenmaier. 2007. Effects of 20th century warming and climate variability on flood risk in the western U.S. Water Resources Research 43(6), n/a-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005099
[8] Bengtsson, L., Hodges, K. I., and N. Keenlyside. 2009. Will extratropical storms intensify in a warmer climate? Journal of Climate 22:2276–2301. https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2678.1
[9] Leatherman, S. P., Zhang, K., and B. C. Douglas. 2000. Sea level rise shown to drive coastal erosion. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 81:55. https://doi.org/10.1029/00EO00034
[10] Emanuel, K. 2005. Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years. Nature 436:686–688. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03906
[11] Webster, P. J., Holland, G. J., Curry, J. A., and H. R. Chang. 2005. Changes in Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Environment. Science 309(5742):1844–1846. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1116448