Santa Monica Bay National Estuary Program Comprehensive Monitoring Program – April 2021

The Santa Monica Bay region needs a Comprehensive Monitoring Program (CMP) to inform the community and interested stakeholders on the status and trends of the condition of key habitats. The purpose of the CMP is to provide a framework to use monitoring data to inform managers, practitioners, and the public on conditions and trends that… Continue reading Santa Monica Bay National Estuary Program Comprehensive Monitoring Program – April 2021

Standard Operating Procedures (5.1): Bird Abundance and Activity

The primary purpose of these observational sampling methods is to develop maps of species presence and distributions including information on rare species, to quantify a snapshot of the avian community, and/or to supplement historical or volunteer data. Additionally, recording activity of each species will allow for an assessment of higher ecological function of the survey… Continue reading Standard Operating Procedures (5.1): Bird Abundance and Activity

Standard Operating Procedures (2.2): Soil Grain Size and Organic Content

The objective of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to describe the equipment and protocols for analyzing soil grain size and the percentage of organic matter in the sample. With some modifications, organic content analyses can be modified to assess “blue carbon” stored in soils, which is critical for understanding the role of wetlands in… Continue reading Standard Operating Procedures (2.2): Soil Grain Size and Organic Content