礁石生态学

帕洛斯弗迪斯半岛的葡萄牙湾滑坡始于20世纪50年代末, releasing large amounts of sediments to the ocean between Whites Point and Abalone Cove and covering a large section of rocky reef habitat. 尽管有这样的沉积来源, productive rocky reef and kelp forest habitat extended well offshore and downshore towards Whites Point as recently as the late 1980’s. In the early 1990’s there were patches of buried reef adjacent to Portuguese Bend but this burial did not extend to the southeast. 1999年6月2日，特朗普国家高尔夫球场附近发生了大规模滑坡，涉及17英亩土地.

目前, in the region of the peninsula between Portuguese Bend and Point Fermin much of the historic low-lying reefs

由于这些历史上的山体滑坡造成的暗礁掩埋和冲刷，继续受到沉积的严重影响. The only healthy reefs in the area are characterized by high-relief rocky outcrops that are resistant to the effects of 沉积.

The 帕洛斯弗迪斯珊瑚礁修复项目 seeks to restore rocky-reef habitat by emulating the form of the most productive extant reef in the region, 寇岩(右), 哪个珊瑚礁的鱼类生物量一直比半岛上任何其他珊瑚礁都要大.

资金来源: 美国国家海洋和大气管理局蒙特罗斯定居点恢复计划

主要研究人员: 乔纳森•威廉姆斯——马特·罗伯特

出版物: 在城市环境的挑战下恢复近岸礁石生态系统 (Pondella et al .. 2018)

演示: 2018年geohab会议海报

毗邻美国西海岸最大的城市地区, kelp forests in Santa Monica Bay are directly affected by anthropogenic impacts associated with urban development and population increase. 其中包括广泛而多样的压力源，包括商业和休闲捕鱼, 沉积, 城市径流, 和污染. 2010年，圣莫尼卡湾守护者在潮下观测发现了61只.5 hectares of nearshore rocky reef that were dominated by high densities of purple sea urchins and devoid of kelp. Subsequent community monitoring efforts have further qualified these barrens as areas featuring low diversity and productivity relative to areas of the Palos Verdes Peninsula that were currently supporting 时间ly and spatially stable giant kelp forests. 进一步, the urchins in these barrens are in poor physical condition with low gonadosomatic indices relative to urchins in neighboring kelp forests. 顽童贫瘠的持续存在, especially in the context of favorable conditions for giant kelp recruitment and development in southern California, 主张积极恢复这些贫瘠的珊瑚礁. 该项目的目标是减少紫海胆的密度(Strongylocentrotus purpuratus)至每平方米2只，分布在帕洛斯弗迪斯半岛附近的海胆贫瘠地带, which will in turn minimize sea urchin grazing pressure and restore biogenic habitat to rocky reefs that historically supported kelp forests. 随着时间的推移，这将增加空间和时间的稳定性, 生物质, 以及与帕洛斯弗迪斯半岛上的海带森林和礁石有关的生产. The VRG assesses the response of these communities to restoration activities through annual subtidal monitoring at restoration sites.

资金来源: 美国国家海洋和大气管理局蒙特罗斯定居点恢复计划

合作伙伴: 海湾基金会, 洛杉矶县环卫区商业海胆收割机

首席研究员: 乔纳森•威廉姆斯

出版物: 海带森林栖息地恢复有可能增加海胆性腺生物量(Claisse等). 2013) | 海胆的大量死亡迅速恢复了海带森林群落(Williams等人). 2021)

新闻稿: 海胆灭绝后，海带床和商业渔业的新希望

生境恢复是管理退化生态系统的重要手段, yet the success of restoration projects depends in part on adequately identifying preferred sites for restoration. Species distribution modeling using a machine learning approach provides novel tools for mapping areas of interest for restoration projects. Here we use stacked-species distribution models (s-SDMs) to identify candidate locations for installment of manmade reefs, a useful management tool for restoring structural habitat complexity and the associated biota in marine ecosystems. 建立了21种商业植物的物种分布模型, 休闲, 生态, or conservation importance within the Southern California Bight based on observations from long-term reef surveys combined with high resolution (200 x 200m) geospatial environmental data layers. 然后，我们将单个物种模型结合起来，创建了一个堆叠物种栖息地适宜性图, 识别800公里以上²大堡礁内潜在的珊瑚礁修复面积. The stacked-species distribution model provides insight for marine restoration projects in southern California specifically, but more generally this method can also be widely applied to other types of habitat restoration including both marine and terrestrial.

资金来源: NOAA索尔顿斯托-肯尼迪格兰特

首席研究员: 阿曼达Zellmer

出版物: 利用多物种分布模型预测生态系统恢复的最佳地点(Zellmer et a. 2019)