Point Blue Conservation Science    

Future San Francisco Bay Tidal Marshes
a Climate–Smart Planning Tool

 
 

What’s New? New map interface, updated projections, site report downloads.
Watch the ‘Get started’ video.

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Explore the Modeling Results by Clicking the "Explore Map" button
 

Why use this tool for Conservation Planning?


  • The models generating these maps are the first to take into account the ability of marshes to accrete, or keep up with, rising sea levels, in the San Francisco Bay Estuary.
  • Point Blue has generated a series of scenarios to provide a range of projections to address the uncertainty in future rates of sea-level rise and suspended sediment availability.
  • Our maps cover the entire Estuary allowing for analyses at multiple spatial scales.
  • This tool displays maps created at a high spatial resolution using the best available elevation data.
  • The tool is the first to provide spatially explicit projections of marsh elevation and bird distributions throughout the Estuary

The Future Marshes Tool will help you:


  • View and query maps to understand how sea level rise may change the extent of tidal marsh habitat and bird species distribution over the next 100 years
  • Make informed decisions about adaptation planning, restoration potential, and land acquisition given various sea-level rise and sedimentation scenarios.
  • Identify areas both vulnerable and resilient to future sea-level rise.

Publications


We have published the results of our initial marsh accretion modeling in PLoS ONE. A demonstration of the use of our initial bird models and conservation prioritization maps to select high quality restoration projects that are robust to our uncertainty in future conditions has been published in Ecosphere.

We presented the methods and results of our initial conservation prioritization and modeling of tidal marsh bird and vegetation response to sea level rise in a technical report to the CA State Coastal Conservancy (updating an earlier report to the CA Landscape Conservation Cooperative).

We completed a demographic analysis of four San Francisco Bay marsh species. A technical report was completed for the California Landscape Conservation Cooperative that includes a modeling tool to evaluate management actions, and a stochastic and spatially-implicit population model of a salt-marsh species that incorporates climate change and sea-level rise effects.

Tidal Marsh

Photo by Peter Baye

This material is based upon work supported by several grants and charitable donations listed here. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or Point Blue Conservation Science.