PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #9: Success Criteria and Monitoring Restoration.
Monday, August 5. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Developing performance metrics to measure ecological functioning in California Foothill communities.

Kluse, Jennifer^*,1, Anderson, Sean¹, Carney, Karen², ¹ Center of Conservation Biology, Stanford, CA² Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford, CA

ABSTRACT- Oak woodlands, native grasslands, and wetlands throughout California are significantly reduced relative to their historic extent. Surviving communities are often degraded, but characterizing the extent of this degradation is non-trivial. A variety of functional-based indicators will likely aid in distinguishing between poor- and well-functioning sites. We are developing such indicators to assess the performance of a variety of restoration projects in foothills of the San Francisco Bay Area. Our suite of candidate metrics include functions of productivity, diversity, dispersal, and parasitism. Some productivity metrics we include are above- and below-ground plant productivity, accumulation rates of aerial and epigeal arthropods, and soil microbial activity. Diversity of soil seed banks, adult plants, birds, arthropods, and soil microbes are also used as metrics of ecological functioning. Dispersal metrics include recruitment rates of soil seed banks and rates of small mammal colonization. Finally, we discuss parasitism as a measure a parasitoid-induced gall formation on oak trees. Variability within and covariance between these metrics at reference sites in successive states of degradation determine the predictive value of each metric in isolation and in combination to describe the degree of site degradation and, in turn, our ability to discern success and failure of restoration efforts.

KEY WORDS: restoration success, performance criteria, oak savana, ecological functioning