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USGS/DOI Santa Barbara Channel Workshop Held March 26-27, 2008, in Santa Cruz, California
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), hosted a USGS/DOI workshop focused on coastal and ocean science in the Santa Barbara Channel. Held at the USGS Pacific Science Center in Santa Cruz, California, on March 26-27, 2008, the workshop attracted 45 participants, including representatives from several DOI bureaus—the USGS, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)—as well as State agencies and academia. The Santa Barbara Channel is a DOI focus because of ongoing offshore oil production in Federal waters (MMS), the presence of endangered species (FWS), Channel Islands National Park (NPS), the California State Waters Mapping Program (USGS), important coastal-zone-management issues, and numerous Federal, State, and local stakeholders. The goals of the workshop included the following:
The workshop featured 26 presentations organized in six sessions: (1) Introduction; (2) Geologic, Sea-Floor, and Habitat Mapping; (3) Coastal Watersheds; (4) the Nearshore Coastal Zone; (5) Island Ecosystems; and (6) the Coastal Ocean. Several major multidisciplinary themes were raised and reinforced repeatedly throughout the workshop; they are summarized below. Important DOI/Federal land-management responsibilities are numerous in the Santa Barbara Channel—DOI has specific land-management responsibilities in the Santa Barbara Channel because of Channel Islands National Park (NPS), ongoing petroleum production and infrastructure in Federal waters (MMS), and responsibilities for managing and monitoring endangered species (FWS). The Santa Barbara Channel is also host to Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). No other part of the densely populated Southern California Bight has this DOI/Federal land-management focus. This Federal role commonly requires scientific information to inform decision making, and the USGS has a long history of partnering with other Federal agencies to conduct scientific work in the Santa Barbara Channel. Given increasing environmental stress due to onland development, climate change, and significant natural hazards, the scientific role of the USGS should continue to grow in this area. The Santa Barbara Channel area is a natural laboratory—For the workshop, we defined the "Santa Barbara Channel" as extending from the steep Santa Ynez Mountains on the north to the Channel Islands and adjacent continental shelf on the south, and from Point Conception on the west to Mugu Submarine Canyon (about 20 km east of Anacapa Island) on the east. This highly dynamic landscape is characterized by diverse ecosystems, intensive resource management, varying human impacts, and dense population centers. It is thus an ideal and stimulating place to conduct investigations of the links between ecosystems, hazards, climate change, wildlife and human health, natural-resource management (water, mineral, wildlife), and landscape-scale human impacts. Scientific partnerships and collaboration are extremely important—Maximizing the impact of scientific studies in the Santa Barbara Channel area will require developing and maintaining long-term relationships with other active and ongoing scientific efforts. Coastal watersheds have significant impacts on the coastal ocean—Given the varying geomorphology and land-use practices described above, the Santa Barbara Channel is an ideal place to study the impacts of coastal watersheds on the coastal ocean. USGS mapping provides an important multidisciplinary opportunity—The USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team (WCMG) is in the middle of a significant mapping campaign in the Santa Barbara Channel. This important effort will result in several map folios, including map sheets and geographic-information-system (GIS) layers that show high-resolution bathymetry, bathymetric perspective views, backscatter (the strength of sound energy reflected by the sea floor, which yields information about sea-floor composition), sea-floor characteristics, ground-truthing imagery of the sea floor, benthic habitats, and shallow stratigraphy and structural geology as revealed by seismic-reflection data. Other USGS disciplines have an opportunity to add to this landmark effort by contributing additional spatial data, such as land-use data from geographers and information about flora and fauna from biologists. Climate change may significantly affect humans and ecosystems in the Santa Barbara Channel—Potential changes in ocean temperature, upwelling, and currents will likely affect basal marine food webs and upper-trophic-level predators. Sea-level rise will likely result in increased coastal erosion, beach loss, increased inundation from coastal storms, wetland loss and degradation, and associated negative impacts on nearshore marine and adjacent terrestrial ecosystems. Potential changes in rainfall (and important coastal moisture from fog) could significantly affect water availability and terrestrial-ecosystem function. Changes in local and regional rainfall patterns and local ground-water levels are all expected to result from climate change. Forecasts and modeling of these impacts, which link processes across geographic and temporal scales, are needed to inform public planning and policy. Removal of Matilija Dam presents an important scientific opportunity—Matilija Dam in the Ventura River watershed is slated for decommissioning and removal in the next 3-5 years. The dam currently serves no practical purpose, and the lake behind the dam is almost completely filled with sediment. Investigation and monitoring of this dam removal is an important opportunity because (1) anticipated increased sediment loads may affect watershed and coastal ecosystems, and (2) the pace of dam removal in the Western United States is expected to grow significantly in coming years, and policy makers will need information to develop science-based forecasts of dam-removal impacts. Designing a coordinated research plan will require significant collaboration with numerous agencies and entities: the FWS, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Forest Service, Regional Water Quality Boards and Water Districts, and local county and city governments. Beach health and the role of submarine-ground-water discharge are important issues—Beach closures and warnings triggered by high bacterial levels are becoming increasingly common in the Santa Barbara Channel area and elsewhere. USGS multidisciplinary studies can help determine the relative importance of such factors as shorebirds, submarine ground-water discharge, sewage infrastructure, and coastal circulation. Multidisciplinary science is needed to understand and manage ocean ecosystems—The USGS can bring a multidisciplinary, holistic approach to understanding marine ecosystems, collecting and synthesizing important information about physical, chemical, and biological/ecological processes. Some specific issues that the USGS could address are:
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in this issue:
Palos Verdes Shelf Experiment: Whatever Can Go Wrong Submarine Landslides and Large Earthquakes
USGS Part of Law of the Sea Delegation Carolinas Coastal Change Processes Project
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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