Coastal Reserves (Hosted by NCEAS)

• Davis, Frank

Abstract
Systematic conservation planning in marine environments has generally operated independently of land conservation planning, despite potentially strong coupling between land use, watershed processes, and coastal riverine, estuarine and marine ecosystems. There is increasing recognition of the impacts of human activities in the coastal zone and the need for conservation policy and design of coastal management systems to account for these impacts. The goal of the working group, with funding from the Resources Legacy Fund, is to identify key principles and research needs for a scientifically credible approach to conservation site prioritization, design, and ecosystem management in coastal environments. The working group will focus on conservation planning for coupled terrestrial and marine ecosystems in Central Coastal California, but its findings will have broader applicability. The group will not conduct original field research, but will instead focus on synthesizing existing theory, data and information. We will meet several times over the course of one year.