Unique Opportunities For Field Study
Elkhorn Slough is one of the few relatively undisturbed coastal wetlands remaining in California. The main channel of the slough, which winds inland seven miles, is flanked by a broad salt marsh second in size only to that at San Francisco Bay. Over 400 species of invertebrates, 80 species of fish, and 260 species of birds have been identified from Elkhorn Slough.
Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve encompasses about 1400 acres on the south and east side of the slough. A range of habitats is represented, from grasslands and oak woodlands to saltmarsh, tidal mudflats, and open water. An additional 1500 acres are under management of the non-profit Elkhorn Slough Foundation.
The protected Reserve and Foundation lands make ideal field laboratories for descriptive and experimental studies. Researchers with permits (see below) may work during closed hours and have access to areas unavailable to the general public, and therefore are able to carry out controlled experiments without human interference.
Facilities, Equipment and Data Available
The Reserve has a small research laboratory on site with microscopes, basic labware, and computers. Equipment available for check-out to permitted researchers includes spotting scopes, digital camera and videorecorder, refractometers, soil compaction meter, water quality sondes, transect tapes, minnow traps, plankton nets, GPS unit, mudwalking shoes, and much more. Small boats are available for some approved research projects. A modest reference library is available for use on site. Access to aerial photographs dating back to 1931 and to a GIS database of the Elkhorn Slough watershed is available (GIS files available for download). Data from continuous water quality and weather monitoring at stations around the Slough is also available.
Opportunities For Mentoring and Collaboration
The on-site staff of the Reserve and Foundation includes botanists and invertebrate zoologists (and amateur birders and marine plankton watchers), with training in ecology, evolution, restoration, geographic information systems, and land management. Staff members are always willing to advise with on-site field research at the Slough (they do not, however, generally have time to help students with off-site term papers or short reports; the library remains the best resource for such projects). In particular, the research coordinator, Dr. Kerstin Wasson, is available to facilitate, mentor, or collaborate with researchers, according to their needs.
Researchers from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, University of California Santa Cruz, California State University Monterey Bay, San Jose State University, and Stanford University, as well as from other local institutions and agencies have a tradition of doing research at Elkhorn Slough. There are frequently opportunities for mentoring from or collaboration with investigators at these institutions.
Volunteer Assistance for Researchers
Elkhorn Slough has an active team of over 100 trained volunteers that donate their time to the Reserve and Foundation. These volunteers participate in and indeed are the backbone of many research and monitoring activities at the Slough. Researchers who need extra assistance (e.g., carrying out large-scale surveys or setting up extensive experiments) may request help from this volunteer core, and are almost certain to receive it.
One of the missions of the Elkhorn Slough Reserve is education and outreach. At a minimum, researchers with current use permits are requested to supply annual updates of their findings for dissemination in the quarterly newsletter, on the research bulletin board at the visitor center, and on the research website. We request copies of all publications and theses resulting from work done at Elkhorn Slough. Researchers willing to do more are encouraged to give seminars to volunteers at the Slough, or to present their findings in posters donated to the Slough, in newsletter articles, or in their own webpages linked to the Slough's research site.
Results of scientific research at Elkhorn Slough also serve as sources of information to support coastal zone management and decision-making. Protection of our dwindling estuarine resources and continuation of research focused on them are essential to understanding these systems and to keeping our nation's estuaries healthy and productive.
There are many funding sources for research in estuarine systems, ranging from small local grants such as the Earl and Ethel Myers Trust to National Science Foundation grants. We would like to highlight two special opportunities for researchers working at Elkhorn Slough.
1) Graduate Research Fellowships
Two graduate research fellows receive about $17,000 per year for research at Elkhorn Slough, in a program funded by NOAA and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (see relevant webpage). This is a wonderful opportunity for complete funding for 1-3 years for qualified graduate students who have already completed their first year(s) of graduate study and have a focused project planned. Since two graduate students have just begun two-year fellowships, our next available openings will be in 2002.
2) CICEET Grants
Principal investigators may apply for these grants for projects using innovative technology to address questions of relevance to estuarine management and conservation. Pre-proposals are due in December, and full proposals are due in March. The research must take place, at least in part, at a National Estuarine Research Reserve (such as Elkhorn Slough), and contacts between researchers and reserve staff are encouraged. So far, the success rate for those invited to submit full proposals has been much higher than for a typical NSF granting program.
Research at the Slough includes studies of ecology, behavior, geology, hydrology, and restoration.
Priorities For Future Research
We facilitate and encourage research in all areas. Four areas of research are particularly important for the Reserve and Foundation: 1) baseline characterization of natural resources, as necessary to design better management or conservation strategies or monitoring programs; 2) design and implementation of long-term monitoring; 3) understanding threats to the Slough's natural resources and evaluating measures for minimizing them; 4) restoration ecology of degraded Slough habitats.
For those interested in doing research at the Slough but without specific projects in mind, we are currently developing a list of topics for projects at the Slough, ranging from those appropriate for directed internships to undergraduate theses to graduate dissertations. This will soon be available on the web, but for now, contact us to obtain more information.
Those interested in conducting research at Elkhorn Slough are encouraged to contact the research coordinator (email preferred):
Dr. Kerstin Wasson
fax: 831 728 1056
tel: 831 728 2822
mail: ESNERR, 1700 Elkhorn Road, Watsonville, CA 95076
Anyone who wishes to do research on the Reserve must apply for a use permit. A use permit gives the researcher access to the Reserve on closed days, permission to walk off trails, and permission to drive on the trails. Collection permits must be separately obtained from the Department of Fish and Game.
Researchers doing work at Elkhorn Slough but not on the Reserve do not need a use permit, but are encouraged to contact the research coordinator anyways. It is useful to the Reserve to maintain an updated database of current research at the Slough, and in return the coordinator can provide useful information about previous research, appropriate study sites, etc.