Sandy Beach Ecosystems, California South Coast MPA Baseline Study, 2011 to 2013

Sandy beaches are among the most intensely used coastal ecosystems for human recreation and are vitally important to coastal economies. Beaches support unique biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem functions and services including endemic invertebrate communities and food webs that are prey for birds and fish, buffering and absorption of wave energy by stored sand, filtration of large volumes of seawater, extensive detrital processing and nutrient recycling, and the provision of critical habitat and resources for declining and endangered wildlife, such as shorebirds and pinnipeds. Sandy beaches compose 36% of the 693 km of shoreline in the South Coast (SC) region, including the California Channel Islands. The goal of this ecological characterization study is to provide a quantitative, baseline description of sandy beach ecosystems in the region from which future ecological changes may be assessed, and to document any differences that may already exist between sandy beaches located within and outside of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). We also evaluated potential ecological indicators for monitoring and developed and tested new protocols for potential use by citizen-scientists and educators.