Goal 5: Safeguard Environmental Health

Protect and enhance environmental conditions by improving watershed, floodplain, and aquatic condition and processes.

Objectives

  • Practice, promote, improve, and expand environmental stewardship
  • Maintain and increase watershed protection through conservation activities and investments
  • Protect aquatic, floodplain, and riparian biotic communities

Associated Indicators

Coastal Fauna: Suspension feeders abundance and size (MLPA)

Suspension feeders play an important role in ecosystems, converting phytoplankton to biomass and, as prey, providing energy available to higher trophic levels. Presence of sand crabs indicates a beach with sufficient nutrient inputs and size of the beach populations may be related to near-shore richness. Sand crab populations are generally robust and may vary with climatic and oceanographic conditions. Razor clams are one of thelongest-lived organisms in the sandy intertidal so they may integrate ecosystem conditions over long time-frames. Focal species: sand crabs and razor clams

Coastal Habitat: Biogenic habitat, extent and structure of macroalgal/plant communities (MLPA)

In temperate marine ecosystems, loss of biogenic habitat (i.e., habitat formed by the growth and architecture of particular species) has contributed to declines in fish and invertebrate popilations and loss of species diversity. In estuarine ecosystems, habitat provisioning by eelgrass (Zostero marina) is critical to maintaining the ecological roles played by these estuaries as nursery and foraging habitats.

Coastal Processes: Zonation and change in zonation of intertidal species (SLR)

In the presence of naturally varying tides and storm conditions, intertidal organisms occupy certain ranges, or zones, within intertidal areas. These zones vary in width and location depending on local topography and wave/tide reach. As sea levels change and storm conditions intensify with climate change, these zones will be altered in location, with some organisms occupying new territory and others potentially being excluded from certain areas due to lack of habitat. The intertidal monitoring program LIMPETS is tracking occupied zones over time, comparing their new records (collected by high school students) with records collected over the last 30+ years by Dr. John Pearse of UC Santa Cruz.

Conservation and Restoration Projects

Number of conservation and restoration projects. The presence of these types of projects may indicate both social commitment to the environment and changing environmental quality.

Ecological Footprint

The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a measure of the amount of biological productive land and sea area are required to meet the consumption and waste production patterns of a population or human process.

Fertilizer Application Rate

Rate of fertilizer applied per unit area (kg/ha). Fertilizer contains chemicals (e.g., forms of nitrate) that can harm aquatic ecosystems and degrade drinking water quality.

Floodplain Restoration

Extent of floodplain restoration and connection between channel and floodplain. Both the absolute amount of protection and restoration and the proportion of the historic area are informative.

Flow Patterns

Flow pattern variability / alteration (both important seasonally and annually). Ecosystems depend on natural flow patterns and variability. High flows are needed to move sediment and re-work riparian and floodplain areas.

Flows for Fish

Sufficient flows and timing of flows for maintaining historically-present native fish. Native fish, including anadromous species, need sufficient in-stream water to complete life-cycles, forage, disperse, seek thermal refuge, and escape predation.