CCMA: Biogeography: A Biogeographic Assessment off North/Central California for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: Phase I

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A Biogeographic Assessment off North/Central California for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: Phase I— Marine Birds, Fishes and Mammals

A Biogeographic Assessment off North/Central California for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: Phase I — Marine Birds, Fishes and Mammals

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Objectives

The objectives of this assessment were to:

Identify and compile available priority biological and environmental data sets in and around the Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones, and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries to conduct biogeographic analyses for updates to sanctuary management plans;
Conduct marine biogeographic analyses of available data to define significant biological areas (i.e., hot spots) and time periods, based on species distributions, abundance, habitats, life history functions and community metrics (e.g., species richness, diversity);
Produce a report that describes the ecological components and linkages between the estuarine and coastal and marine ecosystems along the north/central California coast; and
Organize relevant information and analyses into GIS maps and tables for later use in the assessment of various management strategies and modification of sanctuary boundaries on the biota. Couple the results from objectives 1-3 to enable integration of the biogeographic analyses into a variety of products for the National Marine Sanctuary Program.

Project Summary

Map of coast of Northern/Central California region of interest

Area of Interest for the North/Central California
Marine Biogeographic Assessment
Click image to enlarge

A marine biogeographic assessment was conducted from 2001-2004 to support the management plan review and development for the three national marine sanctuaries off north/central California: Cordell Bank (CBNMS), Gulf of the Farallones (GFNMS), and Monterey Bay (MBNMS). Every ten years sanctuary staff are required to update their management plans, for this to happen, new information was needed to update the plans. This work supports NOAA's environmental stewardship goal to sustain healthy coastal ecosystems by assessing the distribution and relative abundance of the coastal biota and associated habitat.

The goal of this assessment was to identify and gather the best available data and information to characterize and identify important biological areas and time periods within the study area. The study area encompasses three national marine sanctuaries and extends along the coastal ocean off California from Point Sal to Point Arena (~35°N - 39°N). This partnership project was lead by CCMA's Biogeography Branch and the National Marine Sanctuaries Program (NMSP), and included over 90 contributors and 25 collaborating institutions.

Phase I was completed in 2004 and the results include:

An assessment report folio that summarizes and highlights the major project components;
An ecological linkage report on the marine and estuarine ecosystems along the coast of north/central California; and
A CD-ROM and webpage that contains hundreds of maps, tables, and analyses, which are available for viewing and to download in several formats (see link below).

Products

Current/Completed -

Reports and Publications

Maps

**Example Phase 1 Products.** Below are six maps from the assessment, but there are hundreds of maps and analyses on fishes, birds, mammals, and the integration of these analyses to identify important biological areas and time periods. Click images to enlarge.
Bathymetric complexity off north/central CA. Areas in blue are relatively flat and red areas show highest variance, or slope. Complexity was calculated as the standard deviation of depth for all grid cells within 1km radius.	Presents four community metrics for demersal fish and rockfish surveys off north/central CA. Results are limited by collection method, but do show some hot spots.	Four maps showing at-sea diversity of marine birds in 1) warm-water periods; 2) cold-water periods; 3) neutral temp periods; and 4) all years (1980-2001).
A map of the 40 largest marine bird colonies off north/central CA.	A map showing the integration of diversity and density metrics for selected marine fishes and birds, to identify important marine biological areas off north/central CA.	A map showing the available at-sea sightings and survey effort for northern elephant seal off north/central CA, along with the locations of known rookery and haulout sites.