The Habitat Heartbeats project is developing a monitoring system to integrate living organisms such as oysters and mussels ("biosentinels”) with existing monitoring efforts.

The Habitat Heartbeats project was featured during the 2023 virtual symposium showcasing recent scientific studies related to the restoration and health of San Diego estuaries including the Tijuana River Estuary, San Diego Bay, and Los Peñasquitos Lagoon.

This five-minute video shows the January 5, 2023 flooding on North San Pedro Road in China Camp State Park, San Rafael California during an atmospheric river event. The road also floods during winter king tides that raise water levels in San Francisco Bay.

A multi-Reserve study explored the feasibility of including high frequency, in situ chlorophyll a monitoring in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program (NERR SWMP).

With funding from the NERRS Science Collaborative, scientists from 12 biogeographically diverse Reserves compared fluorescence measurements taken by the YSI EXO TAL sensor to extracted chlorophyll concentrations processed in the lab.

Standardized protocols for sensor-based chlorophyll monitoring are now available for use by staff around the system to implement high frequency chlorophyll monitoring at their reserves.

Recommendations for the NERRS SWMP, summarizing outputs in an archivable format deemed useful by end users (NERRS research staff).