The University of California, Santa Cruz is awarded a grant to enhance marine research and safety infrastructure at the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve (Big Creek). Big Creek is one of only four University of California Natural Reserves that provide access to sub-tidal research, and is the only UC Natural Reserve that is situated within a completely protected watershed with a perennial creek that flows into a marine protected area. Marine facilities will be upgraded through the provision of a vessel and other critical diving and marine safety equipment. Enhanced marine infrastructure will provide support for research and education by upgrading diving facilities, essential equipment, and broadening marine access and safety measures. The equipment will be used to facilitate ongoing marine research and education programs. In recent years, the reserve has facilitated marine studies on a variety of sub-tidal research projects and supports ongoing training of scientific divers. These activities have increased our knowledge of the kelp forest ecosystems, basic biology, and trained students in sub-tidal research.
Broader Impact: Big Creek provides one of the only sub-tidal access points for vessels along the rugged Big Sur coast and is an important field station for this remote area of Coastal California. Marine researchers use Big Creek because of it's access to a wide spectrum of marine environments, diverse populations of marine organisms, and near-shore kelp forests. Increasing equipment and safety measures at Big Creek will provide critical support for sub-tidal and marine research. These improvements will augment and enhance marine teaching and research opportunities at Big Creek as well as provide a stronger incentive for collaborative studies focused on questions examining the marine/terrestrial interface. Big Creek Reserve advances science through supporting research and provides an undergraduate and graduate outdoor classroom for teaching and training students. Although remote, Big Creek (because of research facilities, equipment, and access to protected habitats) supports a diverse user base and fulfills an important niche for supporting scientific studies along the Big Sur Coast of Central California.
The Big Creek FSML proposal was used to support marine research and training at Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve, a remote field station on the Big Sur coast. Common difficulties in working in Big Sur involve; boat access, communications, safety equipment and scuba support. Our goal for supporting marine research is to provide the equipment and infrastructure for safe and effective study of the Big Creek State Marine Protected Area and adjacent areas. Combined, these objectives help enhance marine research on the Big Sur Coast. Our grant was used to purchase an inflatable research vessel, outboard motor and support equipment for that vessel and related scuba diving activities. In addition we were able to purchase emergency equipment in the form of marine radios, a remote emergency messenger device and an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). We now are able to support and communicate with both surface and scuba researchers working in the ocean for up to 2 miles along the coast. We also have more emergency response equipment at the reserve than ever before. As a direct result of the new equipment purchased through this grant we have supported research efforts that would otherwise not have occurred. These included: retrieval of California sea otters that were part of a USGS study staged at Big Creek. Our inflatable boat has provided the means for retrieving California sea otters and provided a safer and wider range vehicle than the kayaks we were using previously. The grant also supported marine research efforts studying California sea otters as part of a long-term population trend study. Additionally, scientific diving training courses use the new equipment in to support diver training and subtidal research in the Marine Protected Area of off of Big Creek. In summary, these resources have supported and will continue to support, marine based research and conservation efforts along the Big Sur coast as well as provide essential equipment for training future scientific divers.
