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Thursday, March 15, 2018. 2:00 PM. Webinar: Testing a Novel Adaptation Strategy in a California Salt Marsh.  Karen Thorne, USGS and Evyan Sloane, California Coastal Conservancy. Sponsored by US. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA. More information here.  

Abstract: Speakers will discuss the Seal Beach Sediment Augmentation Project’s novel sea-level rise adaptation strategy in a subsiding salt marsh by spraying clean dredge material on the vegetated marsh and monitoring the physical and biological effects. About the Speakers: Karen Thorne is a Principle Investigator with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center, where her research focus is in climate change impacts to ecosystems. In particular, her work has included assessing sea-level rise and storms impacts to nearshore ecosystems, wetland ecology and wildife. She received her Ph.D. and MS from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Thorne's interests lie in conservation issues surrounding climate-related research that assess changes to ecosystems and wildlife. Her current focus is assessing how sea-level rise and storms impact salt marsh ecosystems and local wildlife populations. In particular, Dr. Thorne is interested in how wildlife respond to high water events and how this relates to predation and breeding success. Her research is based on field data collection methods that can be developed into climate change impact models using ArcGIS and other remote sensing tools. Evyan Borgnis Sloane is a Project Manager for the California State Coastal Conservancy. Her restoration projects span many coastal and estuarine habitat-types across southern California. She obtained her M.S. in Biology and Systematic Ecology from San Francisco State University in 2013. Now with the Coastal Conservancy, she specializes in developing and managing innovative coastal restoration projects founded in science and resilient to global climate change. She also works with the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project striving to develop successful, sustainable, and coordinated wetland restoration projects.