Data Collection Protocol

This ecotone has been severely impacted by the conversion of tidal wetlands into agricultural lands and commercial salt ponds, and by the filling of marshes for residential and industrial development (Collins and Grossinger 2004). Bayshore development has encroached into or through the ecotone in many areas. Hundreds of miles of levees have been constructed atop the ecotone to protect adjacent land development from extreme high tides. Railroads, pipelines, and transmission corridors commonly trace the ecotone along the bayshore and have disrupted the ecotone to varying degrees. Much of the existing ecotone is now confined to the bayward facing slopes of earthen levees and road grades. The few relatively intact remnants of the historical ecotone have been subject to decades of farming or ranching.