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Project ECOTONE (Energetic Connectivity Of Terrestrial and Oceanic Nearshore Ecosystems) needs your help to identify trail cam footage of land animals moving through coastal and marine habitats!
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Understanding how animals move and behave in undeveloped coastal habitats is so important, especially because there are so few left. You can help us improve coastal conservation practices by volunteering your time and eyeballs!
zoeologistAbout Project ECOTONE
The Gaviota Coast, between Santa Barbara, CA, and San Luis Obispo, CA, is one of the only remaining undeveloped parts of the Southern California coastline. The public is not allowed to visit much of the Gaviota Coast, which includes restricted areas like Vandenberg Space Force Base and the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve. The lack of significant human activity allows animals to behave more naturally and access habitats that are otherwise cut off by roads, buildings, housing, or other human infrastructure. Preliminary photo evidence from the Gaviota Coast suggests that, in this undeveloped coastal area, animals that otherwise stick to inland ecosystems are accessing and utilizing marine habitats.
The primary objective of this research is to use wildlife cameras to capture further evidence of terrestrial animals foraging in the land-sea ecotone (transitional habitat). We need you to help us identify the animals in the thousands of photos we get from our trail cams. These identifications become data on animal activity that helps us answer our research questions:
Are terrestrial animals regularly visiting intertidal habitats such as beaches, splash zones, rocky intertidal shelves, or boulder fields?
What species use intertidal habitats to find food and at what frequency?
Does time of year affect the use of intertidal habitats by these species?
Does human activity affect the use of intertidal habitats by these species?