Eelgrass Maximum Observed Extent - California [ds2795]

Eelgrass is a type of marine, flowering seagrass that grows underwater in temperate marine environments around the world, and on the West coast includes three species: Zostera marina, non-native dwarf eelgrass Zostera japonica, and a distinct species to Southern California, Zostera pacifica. In 2014, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership (PMEP) produced the report, Nursey Functions of U.S. West Coast Estuaries: The State of Knowledge for Juveniles of Focal Invertebrate and Fish Species, which found that eelgrass (Zostera sp.) beds are one of the most important juvenile habitats for a broad array of fish species. Understanding the spatial extent of eelgrass habitats in West Coast estuaries is important for restoration and conservation of this valued habitat. This is not a complete collection of eelgrass data on the West Coast, it is the best available information available at the time of compilation. The extent of eelgrass has been derived from multiple datasets and sources, from data collected over different time periods using a variety of data collection methods. Data sources include Washington Department of Land Conservation and Development's Submerged Vegetation Monitoring Porgram (SVMP), Island County, Clallam County, Snohomish County, Skagit County, Whatcom County, Pierce County, and Jefferson County, Marine Resource Consultants, United States Geological Survey (USGS), Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL), Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development's (DLCD) Estuary Plan Book, the Environmental Protection Agency, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlifes SEACOR program, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (SSNERR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Merkel and Associates, Inc., Tetra Tech, Inc., Point Reyes National Seashore, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ESNERR), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), California Seagrant, Coastal Resource Management, MBC Applied Environmental Sciences, Ocean Imaging, Golden State Aerial Surveys, Inc., and Pentec. For a complete list of datasets and data sources, see accompanying table PMEP_WestCoast_USA_Eelgrass_DatasetList, or the accompanying report for this dataset titled, Eelgrass Habitats on the U.S. West Coast: State of the Knowledge of Eelgrass Ecosystem Services and Eelgrass Extent at www.pacificfishhabitat.org/assessment-reports/.

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