Table 1. Listing of terrestrial biological research performed on the Hollister Ranch property.

Table 2. Listing of marine biological research performed on tidal lands adjoining the Hollister Ranch property.

Table 3. Listing of recent geological research performed on the Hollister Ranch property.

Studies In Progress

Partnership for Interdisciplinary
Studies of Coastal Ocean (PISCO)

Research Background and Goals

PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans) is a consortium of four universities (Oregon State University, UC Santa Cruz, Stanford University, and UC Santa Barbara) who have joined together to investigate the physical and biological processes of the near shore region along Oregon and California coasts. PISCO was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Near shore marine ecosystems are the focus of many current conservation efforts, yet we lack the basic knowledge necessary for proper management. Ecological and evolutionary principles that were derived from studies in terrestrial environments are not easily applied to marine systems. The young of most marine organisms are water-borne for extensive periods of time, so that the connections between distant communities are potentially great, and local production may not correspond to local recruitment. Seawater carries plankton and nutrients as well as young, and these essentials flow into a local marine community at many levels. Thus recruitment, growth, and mortality of many organisms in a coastal marine community are intimately tied to the characteristics of the water bathing the site, and communities even short distances apart can have fundamentally different structures.

Ocean waters, in turn, are variable over immense spatial and temporal scales, and coastal dynamics are the least understood area of physical oceanography. The primary PISCOs goal is to understand the interaction of the near shore oceanographic environment with coastal marine communities over 12OOkm of the West Coast of North America. This includes quantifying patterns of distribution, abundance and diversity of the biota in near shore ecosystems, and determining how ecological, evolutionary and oceanographic processes influence these patterns. We believe that this understanding of both local and biogeographic patterns and processes must span small-to-large spatial scales and short-to-long temporal scales.

Strong evidence suggests that variation among near shore benthic communities can depend on recruitment and such bottom-up oceanic influences as phytoplankton productivity and nutrient concentration, all of which vary significantly with currents, upwelling, and other physical oceanographic processes. We are attacking this question with intensive biological sampling of larvae, recruits, and post-settlement individuals in both subtidal and intertidal communities, combined with simultaneous monitoring of near shore waters using a mooring array, benthically mounted Acoustic-Doppler Current Profilers, coastal radar units, and remote sensing. We will also directly measure key ecological processes in each intensive study area with a series of experiments and measurements monitoring predation intensity, growth rates, and condition for selected species. Initially, these intensely studied sites are located in coastal regions of particular ecological significance. Pt. Conception and the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, and The central, Oregon Coast. They will be linked through yearly comprehensive community surveys that cover the entire study area.

PISCO is approaching the study of coast wide patterns of community structure using a nested sampling scheme. At the largest scale, we have chosen stretches of rocky habitat that are spaced across the U.S. West Coast to represent the major areas that are relatively similar in physical factors. Nested within each of these major areas are three sites, and nested within each of these sites are three sets of sampled areas. In each sampled area, we place a 50 m transect tape at Mean Lower Low Water, Mean Sea Level, and Mean Higher High Water and measure the abundance of all macro algae and invertebrates in 1 0 quadrats along each transect. At each site we also collect a suite of physical data including aspect and slope of the shore, degree of sandiness, water temperature and wave force.

Much of the PISCO research at UCSB is focused around the biogeographic boundary at Point Conception. This region is biologically interesting as a major boundary between marine biogeographic provinces and is distinguished by the confluence of the cold California Current and the warmer Southern California Gyre. One of the goals of our research at UCSB is to examine the extent of this biogeographic boundary around Point Conception. We are exploring the importance of physical factors (e.g. temperature, wave action, water column nutrients) and dispersal as causes of the distribution of several marine intertidal species. To address spatial and temporal variation in recruitment, we have been continually monitoring the recruitment of several species of marine invertebrates at eight sites north and south of Pt. Conception, and five rocky, intertidal sites on Santa Cruz Island. We visit each of these sites every 2 months and will continue to do so for the next several years so that we can identify seasonal patterns. In addition to monitoring recruitment, we are also monitoring temperature, nutrient levels and water motion at all these sites. We have transplanted several invertebrate and algal species to examine the importance of local, physical factors on growth and survival. Combining our mainland data with those from the Channel Islands will help to provide us with a large-scale picture of how physical and oceanographic features may influence recruitment and growth of marine species.

We measure the settlement of invertebrate species by placing collectors (tufty kitchen scrubbers and Plexiglas plates) on stainless steel bolts screwed into the rock in the intertidal. These collectors are deployed and retrieved every two months. We are also interested in examining the strength of ecological processes such as predation, and have set-up small-scale experiments using mussels exposed and protected from whelk and seastar predators by cages to evaluate the strength of predation within the larger biogeographic region.

Hollister Ranch is a very important and interesting site from a biogeographical perspective due to its close proximity to Pt. Conception. It represents a transition zone where we find species from both north and south of Pt. Conception. We have access to sites north of Pt. Conception, but south of the point our options are more limited. The restricted access of the shoreline in this region is also critical for monitoring experiments that may be affected by inadvertent or intentional public tampering.

Our data so far suggest that settlement of many marine invertebrate species is extremely low at Alegria and at all of our sites in the vicinity of Pt. Conception. There seems to be a zone of low settlement around this area due in part to the divergence of currents at Pt. Conception, tending to sweep larvae offshore. We have also been monitoring the occurrence of internal wave phenomena at many of our sites by looking at temperature records from depth-stratified dataloggers. Internal waves have been implicated in many studies as a mechanism for inshore larval transport. We have noticed that internal waves are more prevalent at many of our southern sites where recruitment levels are high', than at sites around Pt. Conception and to the north, where recruitment is much lower., We are pursuing this idea by installing temperature dataloggers in the subtidal at many subtidal sites spanning the Pt. Conception area.

We are very pleased that Hollister Ranch is so supportive of our research, and we appreciate the privileged access to the Alegria Beach site. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Primary Study Location
Rocky zone just west of Alegria Beach

Proposed Additional Sites:
We hope to also conduct an annual intertidal community survey at San Augustine and near the base of Canada del Cojo (to the east of Cojo Anchorage). The additional yearly sampling at these intertidal sites will preserve the nested sampling scheme and provide data comparable to our other West Coast sampling sites.

Expected Frequency of Sampling
We expect to visit the Alegria beach area one or two days per month during suitable low tide periods. We expect to conduct the annual surveys in three days during one of the low tide periods in winter (most preferably in February).

Expected Duration of Study:
Our current funding from the Packard Foundation is through 2004, although we anticipate renewing our funding from the Packard Foundation for many years beyond 2004. Long-term sampling is crucial to monitoring changes in response to annual variation in circulation and detecting responses of communities to changing climatic regimes.

All at Algeria Shoreline Preserve
1) Long term study--monthly access at low tide 1-5 researchers.
2) Muscle study- Nicole Philips monthly with long term researchers, almost complete.
3) Snail study- P. McConnell monthly with long term researchers, almost complete.
4) Hermit Crab study- Ben Halpern monthly with long term researcher's.
5) Nutrient/Sandy Beach study-Julie Kellner not yet begun.

Beach Tar Sampling

County of Santa Barbara
Planning and Development
John Patton, Director

May 21, 2002

Conservancy Scientific Coordinator
Hollister Ranch Owners' Association
Box 1000 - Bulito Canyon
Gaviota, CA 93117

RE: Sacate beach access for shoreline tar sampling study

Request
We are requesting access to approximately one mile of shoreline at Sacate on Hollister Ranch property to conduct beach tar sampling. Access is needed on 12 days, at monthly intervals, beginning in June, 2002, and ending in May, 2003. Sampling would be confined strictly to the beach zone, and would take about 2-3) hours on each day, timed to coincide with low tides. Sampling would be done by a team of two UCSB Geology students.

Purpose of Study
The proposed sampling is part of a study of tar deposition along Santa Barbara County's shoreline. The study is a collaborative effort by the Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Santa Barbara County Energy Division. The main objectives are to: 1) identify offshore natural oil seeps, 2) chemically "fingerprint" oil from natural seeps, oil produced at offshore platforms, and oil residues deposited on beaches, 3) create a database of the identifying characteristics of oil residues from different sources, 4) study the trajectories and fates of oil in Santa Barbara's coastal waters, and 5) document the baseline conditions of natural oil deposition on beaches within the County.

Benefits Both HROA and Santa Barbara County
Natural hydrocarbon seeps offshore Santa Barbara County's south coast cause substantial amounts of tar to be deposited along the shoreline. Tar deposition is intermittent due to variations in wind and currents. Oil spill trajectory modeling indicates that an oil spill from Santa Barbara's offshore platforms or pipelines or in the shipping lanes could reach beaches all along the south coast, including Hollister Ranch. Typical coastal oil spills leave heavy oiling on relatively short segments of the shore and light oiling on extensive stretches of the shore. The proposed beach tar sampling program will document 1) the amount of tar deposited on the beaches under non-spill conditions, and 2) the unique chemical fingerprint that can link the tar to its source(s). Establishing the baseline amount and chemical characteristics of natural tar deposition is important to both the County and to Hollister Ranch owners, because the baseline will facilitate distinguishing oil pollution of the beach caused by potential future offshore oil spills fi7om oiling that occurs naturally. If the baseline tar deposits are adequately documented. then. when an offshore oil spill occurs. there will be a sound basis to establish responsibility for beach oiling.

Study Location
We are requesting beach access at Sacate. Other accessible sandy beaches farther west might be suitable alternatives. We will be sampling tar on about 10 beaches distributed along the County's coast, including 3 beaches on Vandenberg property and the public beaches at Jalama, Tajiguas, and Coal Oil Point. We also hope to be granted permission to sample tar on the beach adjacent to Cojo Anchorage on Bixby Ranch property. To develop a good picture of the overall patterns of offshore seep oil movement and shoreline tar deposition, we would like to sample beaches located at roughly regular intervals along the coast. The Sacate beach is of interest for this study because of its location, roughly mid-way between Cojo and Tajiguas. It is also interesting because of its proximity to an area of potentially major natural oil seepage offshore of Cojo. The Cojo seeps may be the main source of tar at Cojo and Jalama beaches, and may be also a major source at Sacate. Chemical fingerprinting of beach tar from Jalama to Point Sal, and the Channel Islands, indicates that the majority of tar comes from one or two source areas, but it does not match tar from Coal Oil Point, the largest known source in the region. The most likely sources of tar with this chemical fingerprint are seeps near Cojo, Pt. Conception, and perhaps seeps offshore Santa Cruz and San Miguel Islands. U.S.G.S. has not yet sampled or fingerprinted tar deposited on the south coast between Gaviota and Point Conception. The ability to do so would contribute significantly to our understanding of beach tar deposition both northward and eastward of Point Conception.

Project organization and Personnel
During the past year, the U.S.G.S. has carried out quarterly beach tar sampling on 4 beaches north of Point Conception, and has developed a sampling protocol. Their beach sampling concludes this month, and their future efforts will concentrate on offshore seep mapping and characterization and chemical analysis of tar samples. The County has obtained a grant to double the number of beaches sampled, increase the sampling frequency, and extend sampling for an additional year. The County's role in the project is limited to this sampling, plus support of laboratory staff that will analyze the samples.  Principal Investigator for the County's part of the project will be Dr. John Day, a planner in the Energy Division, with substantial field research experience. Sampling will be done by a team of two U.C.S.B. geology students, who have been selected with help from Dr. Bruce Luyendyk, Chairman of U.C.S.B.'s Department of Geological Sciences, who is actively engaged in research on offshore oil seeps. The students will be employed part time by the County for this project and will drive a County car. To provide for possible illness or schedule conflicts, a third student will be employed and will be available as back-up. Dr. Day will accompany the students on the first sampling trip, and will serve as a further back-up, if the need arises. The names and contact information for the proposed sampling team are attached.

Sampling Frequency, Duration, and Method
With your approval. the sampling team would visit the Sacate beach at approximately the same time each month (e.2., in the first 7 days of the month) for 12 months, beginning in June, 2002. The trips will be timed to coincide with low tides. Some flexibility in timing is desirable in order to accommodate the students' schedules and in case of bad weather.

MMS
Information not yet completed