Eelgrass Meadows Return to Frenchy's Cove, Anacapa Island: Recovery Ten Years after Successful Transplantation

Altstatt, Jessica; Ambrose, Richard F.; Carroll, Jay C; Coyer, James A.; Wible, Joseph G.; Engle, John M.

doi:10.3398/042.007.0139

Cited by 3 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…Material was collected from donor beds, for both the single shoot and bundle shoot transplant methodologies, in a systematic fashion, utilizing a thinning approach to avoid the creation of noticeable (> 0.5 m -2 ) bare patches, and minimizing fragmentation. For the single shoot method, divers selected individual shoots and gently maneuvered the shoot and rhizome out of the sediment such that at least three internodal segments (~100 mm) of rhizome were attached to the apical shoot (Altstatt, 2003). Rhizomes with a single shoot were selectively used for this method, but per Paling et al (2007) sediment was not actively removed from the rhizomes.…”

Section: Donor Materials Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Open coast seagrass habitats, especially on the West Coast of the U.S., are plagued by inconsistent, outdated, or entirely absent data; congruent with the challenges highlighted by global assessments seeking to gauge seagrass coverage more accurately (McKenzie et al, 2020). To date, nearly all seagrass restoration projects in the SCB have focused on Z. marina following impacts from coastal development projects occurring in depths from 1 to ~6 m in protected bays, lagoons, and estuaries (Altstatt, 2003;and e.g., Hoffman, 1986;Pondella et al, 2006;Merkel & Associates, Inc, 2010;Obaza et al, 2015;MBC Applied Environmental, 2016), a disparity evidenced in a meta-analysis that identified 43 out of 44 transplant projects occurring in the SCB from 1989 to 2020 focused on Z. marina in protected embayments and estuaries (Ward and Beheshti, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seagrass spatial coverage and habitat function are controlled by complex abiotic and biotic environmental factors (Munsch et al, 2023). Biological top-down controls can positively impact seagrass health (Hughes et al, 2013;Foster et al, 2021), or as is the case with herbivory, cause direct consumptive loss to the seagrass bed (Altstatt, 2003;Heck and Valentine, 2006;Jimeńez-Ramos et al, 2021;Valentine and Heck, 2021). High ocean temperatures can change photosynthetic efficiencies, deteriorate disease resistance, alter community structure, and reduce growth and survival of seagrasses growing near species-specific thermal tolerances (Johnson et al, 2003;York et al, 2013;Moore et al, 2014;Jakobsson-Thor et al, 2020;Strydom et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…habitat have been ongoing for nearly 50 years (Phillips, 1964), and in the SCB, for more than 30 years (Ward and Beheshti, 2023). These compensatory mitigations and active restoration projects have remained relatively small and have utilized a multitude of transplant techniques, including single shoot, bundle shoot, transplant frames (TERFS), among others, and each project resulted in varying degrees of project success (Williams, 2001;Altstatt, 2003;Ward and Beheshti, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…in SMB reveal patchy and ephemeral beds predominately along the north-western shores near Malibu (Egstrom, 1974;Bernstein et al, 2011), in addition to robust and stable beds on offshore islands (Engle and Miller, 2005). This paucity of information specifically regarding Z. pacifica habitat hinders conservation efforts (but see Engle and Miller, 2005;Coyer et al, 2008;Altstatt et al, 2014;Olsen et al, 2014;Obaza et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wave, light, and dissolved oxygen exposures drive novel coastal eelgrass (Zostera pacifica) transplant performance

Sanders,

Obaza,

Grime

et al. 2024

Front. Mar. Sci.

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The high ecological and economic value of seagrass has been long recognized, with these foundational habitats providing myriad ecosystem services. Yet through cumulative anthropogenic impacts, seagrasses are exhibiting extensive declines globally. A litany of studies and active restoration trials have demonstrated practical methodologies to restore seagrass habitats and effectively return critical habitat functions to degraded coastal zone systems worldwide. Seagrass loss along the U.S. West Coast has precipitated decades of seagrass protection, conservation, and restoration efforts. Yet, mitigation transplanting efforts have prioritized Zostera marina (narrow-leaved eelgrass) in shallow, protected environments, while a dearth of information is available on species inhabiting offshore islands and exposed mainland coasts. In this study, we conducted a novel transplant of Zostera pacifica, a wide-leaved species found in depths of 7 – 20 m along the offshore islands and mainland coast of California. Transplants were conducted at three geographically distinct sites in Santa Monica Bay, coupled with continuous monitoring of biophysical parameters providing insight into physical drivers at transplant and donor sites. Utilizing in situ data, and environmental thresholds adapted from the literature for Z. marina, we performed exposure analyses to evaluate factors influencing Z. pacifica transplant performance. Exceedances of threshold values for environmental parameters, specifically, wave exposure and near-bed flow speeds (Hrms > 0.59 m and Urms > 0.1 m s-1), photosynthetically active radiation (< 3 and > 5 mol m-2 day-1) and dissolved oxygen (< 3 mg O2 L-1) exposure impacted transplant survivorship. These results suggest Z. pacifica persist in biophysically dynamic conditions and are sensitive to exceedances of thresholds, underlining the importance of pre-transplant site-selection processes to this species. These data represent the first holistic study of Z. pacifica transplanting on an exposed mainland coast, which provides a view into the baseline environmental envelopes within existing Z. pacifica habitat, and further, may serve as a model for investigating scalable open coast seagrass restoration for temperate regions.

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Section: Donor Materials Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%