Research Update

The sandy beach research is coming along well so far. Over winter break, I was able to revisit my twelve beach sites from Santa Monica to Refugio State Beach. I have found that the Nothern Ventura County and Santa Barbara County beaches have higher species richness and heterogeneity than do beaches further south. I have also found that overall, beach invertebrate communities have declined since the summer sampling took place. I speculate that this decline in invertebrate presence is likely due to increased wave and physical energy during this year’s winter swells and storms.

In addition to these findings, I have noticed that multiple beaches are being bulldozed to protect the upper beach during these large winter swells. One of these beaches is Goleta County beach which is a site that has been sampled multiple times throughout the history of this ecology project. I plan on sampling again at this site in the next 2 weeks in order to find out if this bulldozing has had a significant effect on invertebrate communities.

A recent natural phenomena has occurred that may also effect sandy beach biological communities. Due to the increase in rain, Santa Clara River Mouth breached its sand bar that separated it from the ocean. This event rarely takes place, so it should be interesting to see the effects this breach has had on the sandy beach region of this site. I plan on conducting another sampling at this beach within the next 2 weeks.