Baseline Assessment of the Proposed Rewild Area in Mission Bay, San Diego, CA
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Description
Over 90% of the wetlands that existed in California prior to the 1920's have disappeared. The remaining wetlands in Southern California have been significantly altered by coastal development and impacted by other anthropogenic stressors such as stormwater runoff and dredging. These stressors may affect the resilience of marine estuaries, which provide crucial ecosystem services such as juvenile nursery habitat and carbon sequestration. Mission Bay, San Diego, California is the largest aquatic park (4,235 acres) in the United States, and since the 1920's, it has been subject to multiple phases of alteration including dredging and the creation of artificial shorelines and islands. There are currently only 40 acres of wetlands remaining in Mission Bay. A recently proposed project (ReWild) to rehabilitate wetlands in the northeast corner of Mission Bay, San Diego, California has been put forth by the San Diego Audubon Society. As part of the proposal effort, data from an ongoing multi-year study of geologic, biologic and physical/chemical benthic data from Mission Bay, completed by the University of San Diego, was compiled for the proposed ReWild area. This project establishes baseline measurements from Fall 2015 - Fall 2019 and examines trends in sediment (grain size, organic matter, metals concentrations), water temperature, and water nutrient concentrations that will be utilized in the design proposals for the rehabilitation site. Long term data sets such as this are crucial for monitoring these sensitive marine ecosystems and can provide useful data for maintaining and rehabilitation of wetland environments.
Baseline Assessment of the Proposed Rewild Area in Mission Bay, San Diego, CA
Over 90% of the wetlands that existed in California prior to the 1920's have disappeared. The remaining wetlands in Southern California have been significantly altered by coastal development and impacted by other anthropogenic stressors such as stormwater runoff and dredging. These stressors may affect the resilience of marine estuaries, which provide crucial ecosystem services such as juvenile nursery habitat and carbon sequestration. Mission Bay, San Diego, California is the largest aquatic park (4,235 acres) in the United States, and since the 1920's, it has been subject to multiple phases of alteration including dredging and the creation of artificial shorelines and islands. There are currently only 40 acres of wetlands remaining in Mission Bay. A recently proposed project (ReWild) to rehabilitate wetlands in the northeast corner of Mission Bay, San Diego, California has been put forth by the San Diego Audubon Society. As part of the proposal effort, data from an ongoing multi-year study of geologic, biologic and physical/chemical benthic data from Mission Bay, completed by the University of San Diego, was compiled for the proposed ReWild area. This project establishes baseline measurements from Fall 2015 - Fall 2019 and examines trends in sediment (grain size, organic matter, metals concentrations), water temperature, and water nutrient concentrations that will be utilized in the design proposals for the rehabilitation site. Long term data sets such as this are crucial for monitoring these sensitive marine ecosystems and can provide useful data for maintaining and rehabilitation of wetland environments.