Almost half of the world’s human population lives in coastal areas, and associated coastal development has significantly degraded or destroyed many coastal ecosystems. Burgeoning human populations and rising sea levels only further constrain the availability of habitat that coastal species depend on.
California’s 1,100 mile coast has more than 200 threatened, endangered or rare species living in coastal habitats. There are hundreds of coastal estuaries that provide critical rearing habitat for marine species, and are also important for recreation, water filtration, and carbon sequestration.
Only 10 percent of California’s historic coastal wetlands remain. Without intervention, we are at risk of losing 40 percent of our remaining coastal wetlands to sea level rise over the coming decades. Conservancy scientists are working to reverse these trends.
California is one of the most hydrologically altered landscapes in the world. As water becomes ever more scarce and… >>
In a normal year, groundwater accounts for 40 percent of California’s water supply. That number jumps to 60… >>
Californians have fundamentally altered many of the state’s rivers and streams with dams, pipes, and diversions, and the… >>
In California, a day’s drive can take a visitor from record-setting desert heat to glaciated peaks to temperate… >>
Nearly half of California is protected in some land status that prevents most kinds of intensive human land… >>
A third of California is privately-owned forestland, woodland or grassland. From redwood forests on the north coast to… >>
California is the leading agricultural state in the country and it’s agriculture generates more than $45 billion annually.… >>
With California’s population on track to reach 50 million people, the demand for energy, water, and land will… >>
Wild capture fisheries supply food and jobs for hundreds of millions of people across the globe. Yet an… >>
Almost half of the world’s human population lives in coastal areas, and associated coastal development has significantly degraded… >>
Tamara S. Wilson, Jason Sherba, Dick Cameron, Benjamin M Sleeter
Human land use will increasingly contribute to habitat loss and water shortages in California, given future population projections and associated land-use demand. Understanding how land-use change may impact future water use and where existing protected areas may be threatened by land-use conversion will be important…
Miriam Tsalyuk, Maggi Kelly, Kevin Koy, Wayne M. Getz, H. Scott Butterfield
Monitoring the effects of grazing on rangelands is crucial for ensuring sustainable rangeland ecosystem function and maintaining conservation values. Residual dry matter (RDM), the dry grass biomass left on the ground at the end of the grazing season, is a commonly used proxy for rangeland condition…
Langin, K.M., T.S. Sillett , W.C. Funk, S.A. Morrison, M.A. Desrosiers, C.K. Ghalambor
Islands are renowned laboratories for discovery into natural selection. This study looked at “islands” of habitat within a single island and remarkably found that the Island Scrub-Jay – notably, a highly vagile species – had different shaped bills depending on whether it occurred in pine…
Jeanette Howard, Matt Merrifield
The California Freshwater Species Database is the first comprehensive geospatial database of California’s freshwater species compiled and standardized into single format from nearly 500 sources. It provides a single source for geodata covering the plants and animals that rely on California’s freshwater resources to survive.
Hofman, C.A., T. C. Rick, M. T. R. Hawkins, W. C. Funk, K. Ralls, C. L. Boser, P. W. Collins, T. J. Coonan, J. L. King, S.A. Morrison, S. D. Newsome, T. S. Sillett, R. C. Fleischer, J. E. Maldonado
Genomics techniques provide powerful means of understanding evolutionary history. This paper examines the evolution of the island fox, which occurs on six of the California Channel Islands. Insights from the research include the role humans played in the evolution of the species, and the remarkably…
Doak, D.F., G.K. Himes Boor, V.J. Bakker, W.F. Morris, A. Louthan, S.A. Morrison, A. Stanley, L. Crowder
One of the key components of a recovery plan for a threatened or endangered species in the United States is the set of recovery criteria that will be used to evaluate progress in abating the threats to the species and reducing its risk of extinction.…
Katie Andrews, Megan Webb, Robin Cox
This interactive webmap takes a multimedia approach to showcase the Conservancy’s conservation legacy in Marin County, California. Eleven achievements are profiled with photographs and summaries that provide a “then and now” perspective.
Cause Hanna, Ida Naughton, Christina Boser, Ruben Alarcón, Keng-Lou, James Hung, David Holway
Floral visitation by ants can compromise plant reproduction in situations where ants interfere with more effective pollinators. This paper documents how Argentine ants on Santa Cruz Island in California interfere with pollination services provided by native invertebrates, leading to negative impacts for native plants. The…
Daniel Karp, Sasha Gennet, Rodd Kelsey
Recognition of the magnitude of human impacts on the planet and the urgent need to increase the pace and scale of conservation has led many conservation organizations to emphasize conservation for both “people and nature.” This article proposes a framework that clarifies what that relationship…
M.L. Mann, P. Berck, M.A. Moritz, E. Batllori, J.G. Baldwin, C.K. Gately, D.R. Cameron
Between 1940 and 2000, nearly 10 million housing units were constructed in California. This new development led to increased interaction between human and natural communities. Tha authors of this paper modeled the extent and intensity of future housing settlements between 2000 and 2050 using three…
Strategies for preserving the Earth’s biodiversity that can be employed within cities are likely to become more common as urban areas continue to increase in size and number. Progress towards the development of effective conservation methods for urban areas is impeded by several factors, including…
Walter N. Heady, Kevin O'Connor, Jennifer Kassakian , Kate Doiron, Charles Endris, Daniel Hudgens, Ross P. Clark , Jena Carter , Mary G. Gleason
Estuaries are some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet. This inventory classifies more than 600 coastal confluences on the West Coast of the United States. Each estuary was classified using the federal Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). A spatial database of…
Brent B. Hughes, Matthew D. Levey, Jennifer A. Brown, Monique C. Fountain, Aaron B. Carlisle, Steven Y. Litvin, Correigh M. Greene, Walter N. Heady, Mary G. Gleason
Estuaries support significant biodiversity and important ecosystem functions such as providing rearing habitat for juvenile fish and invertebrates. This report synthesizes the scientific literature and geospatial data on the nursery requirements of fifteen species of commercial, cultural, and conservation concern and highlights the potential nursery role…
Matt Miller, Dick Cameron
H.B. Ernest, T.W. Vickers, S.A. Morrison, M.R. Buchalski, W.M. Boyce
Highly fragmented landscapes can pose myriad threats to wide-ranging species like mountain lions. Coastal southern California has long been the focus of research into demographics, genetics, and movement patterns of lions, in large part to inform conservation planning. This paper presents genetic data, which combine…
Tim Bean, Bob Stafford, Scott Butterfield, Justin Brashares
This paper presents a multi-step approach to estimate the realized and potential distribution of the endangered giant kangaroo rat. The authors estimate the potential distribution by modeling suitability using static bioclimatic variables, then examine annual changes in extent at a population-level. The best model indicated the…
Jennifer K. Carah, Christopher C. Blencowe, David W. Wright
Coho salmon in California are critically imperiled so there is strong impetus to achieve as much habitat restoration as possible in priority watersheds quickly and with limited resources. This paper discusses a proven low-cost restoration technique for salmon streams. Adding fallen trees and pieces…
Beltran, R.S., N. Kreidler, D.H. Van Vuren, S.A. Morrison, E.S. Zavaleta, K. Newton, B.R. Tershy, D.A. Croll
Introduced predators and herbivores can have dramatic ecological effects on island ecosystems; their eradication can produce similarly profound ecological responses. This paper analyzes data from photo-monitoring stations and vegetation maps to characterize the passive recovery of vegetation that occurred over decades on Santa Cruz Island,…
Eric Hallstein, Matt Miller