In California, a day’s drive can take a visitor from record-setting desert heat to glaciated peaks to temperate rainforests with the world’s tallest trees. This astounding climatic and landscape diversity has helped create a biodiversity hotspot. California is also an economic hotspot – the 6th largest economy in the world – and is home to nearly 40 million people. The demand for land for new development and farms, along with accelerating climate change, puts tremendous stress on ecosystems, and the benefits they provide.
The state’s legacy of conservation has created a network of natural and working lands that benefit people by supplying clean water, capturing carbon, and directly contributing to the state’s economic and cultural vitality through recreation, tourism, and agricultural production. Conservancy scientists work across the spectrum of ecosystem types and human land uses, to advance conservation goals that also contribute to the well-being of people in those places.
H. Scott Butterfield, Miriam Tsalyuk, Carrie Schloss
The Nature Conservancy in California monitors residual dry matter (RDM) on approximately 300,000 acres of conservation lands. Researchers evaluated whether satellite remote sensing data could be used…
Tim Bean, Laura Prugh, Bob Stafford, Scott Butterfield, Mike Westphal, Justin Brashares
In this study, the authors developed a suite of species distribution models (SDMs) for the endangered giant kangaroo rat using the machine-learning method Maxent. They compared these models with three…
H.R. Sofaer, T.S. Sillett, K.M. Langin, S.A. Morrison, C.K. Ghalambor
The density of birds in their breeding areas can affect reproductive success in myriad ways – and it is often difficult to distinguish which factors are more influential. For example, areas that…
S.A. Morrison, K.A. Parker, P.W. Collins, W.C. Funk, T.S. Sillett
Pest eradication as a means to restore island ecosystems may come too late for populations that have already been driven extinct. Over decades, the California islands have been the focus of numerous…
CL Boser, C Hanna, KR Faulkner, C Cory, JM Randall, SA Morrison
Argentine ants are a highly aggressive and impactful non-native species introduced to California and around the world, impacting ecologically sensitive areas, commercial industries and residential…
TJ Coonan, V Bakker, B Hudgens, CL Boser, DK Garcelon, SA Morrison
The island fox is a rare carnivore existing on only six California Channel Islands. In the late 1990’s, due to new and excessive golden eagle predation, it was threatened with extinction on the…
Jeanne M. Robertson, Kathryn M. Langin, T. Scott Sillett, Scott A. Morrison, Cameron K. Ghalambor, W. Chris Funk
Conservation of biodiversity can be complicated when there are many priority taxa and tradeoffs in management need to be made. This can be especially challenging on islands, where populations with…
Mario B. Pesendorfer, Kathryn M. Langin, Brian Cohen, Zachary Principe, Scott A. Morrison, T. Scott Sillett
Acorns are an important food resource for many species that occupy oak habitats. Patterns of acorn abundance across time and space, however, are often difficult to characterize. This paper describes…
CL Boser, C Cory, KR Faulkner, JM Randall, JJ Knapp, SA Morrison
Biosecurity is the prevention of damaging non-native species’ arrival and establishment to new areas, for the protection of native plants and animals. This paper discusses the first iterations…
Michelle D Staudinger, Shawn L Carter, Molly S Cross, Natalie S Dubois, J Emmett Duffy, Carolyn Enquist, Roger Griffis, Jessica J Hellmann, Joshua J Lawler, John O'Leary, Scott A Morrison, Lesley Sneddon, Bruce A Stein, Laura M Thompson, Woody Turner
This paper synthesizes research pertaining to climate change impacts on biodiversity, reviewed by the biodiversity technical working group of the 2014 National Climate Assessment. The paper focuses on…
Golet G.H., D.L. Brown, M. Carlson, T. Gardali, A. Henderson, K.D. Holl, C.A. Howell, M. Holyoak, J. Hunt, G.M. Kondolf, E.W. Larsen, R.A. Luster, C. McClain, C. Nelson, S. Paine, W. Rainey, Z. Rubin, F. Shilling, J.G. Silveira, H. Swagerty, N.M. Williams, D.M. Wood
Large-scale ecosystem restoration projects seldom undergo comprehensive evaluation to determine project effectiveness. Consequently, there are missed opportunities for learning and strategy…
J Yoon, TS Sillett, SA Morrison, CK Ghalambor
When members of a single species display very different behavioral patterns it can present a helpful model for ecological study. This paper examines two breeding populations of a songbird species: one…
Principe, Z., J.B. MacKenzie, B. Cohen, J.M. Randall, W. Tippets, T. Smith, S.A. Morrison
Coastal southern California has long been the focus of regional conservation planning efforts. Decades ago – and prior to today’s heightened awareness of the magnitude of the likely…
Joshua H. Viers, John N. Williams, Kimberly A. Nicholas, Olga Barbosa, Inge Kotzé, Liz Spence, Leanne B. Webb, Adina Merenlender, Mark Reynolds
As an essential component of food security, agricultural landscapes must play a role in conservation efforts because they occupy large areas of land, are adjacent to critical habitat, and both depend…
Luke Caldwell, Victoria J. Bakker, T. Scott Sillett, Michelle A. Desrosiers, Scott A. Morrison, Lisa M. Angeloni
The Island Scrub-Jay is the only island restricted bird species in the continental U.S. This study presents findings of a comprehensive breeding ecology study, aimed at elucidating demographic…
Butterfield, H.S., D. Cameron, E. Brand, M. Webb, E. Forsburg, M. Kramer, E. O’Donoghue, L. Crane
The Western San Joaquin Valley Least Conflict Solar Energy Assessment characterizes the land use constraints and opportunities associated with siting solar energy facilities in the Western San Joaquin…
Butterfield, H.S., D. Cameron, E. Brand, M. Webb, E. Forsburg, M. Kramer, E. O’Donoghue, L. Crane
A Conservancy analysis of the western Mojave Desert identified where human activities had degraded the conservation value of lands making them potentially low impact locations for development of solar…