Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

This site is currently in beta, and your feedback is helping shape its ongoing development.

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

Published by California Ocean Protection Council | State of California | Metadata Last Checked: July 29, 2025 | Last Modified: 2018-01-25T20:14:58.307264
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.

data.gov

An official website of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services

Looking for U.S. government information and services?
Visit USA.gov