Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR) is in the planning process of Phase II of its Tijuana Estuary Tidal Restoration Program, which incorporates adaptive management strategies. As a result of the first phase, vegetation monitoring sites were set up throughout the salt marshes at the TRNERR for long-term data collection. This paper is an initial exploratory look into the data collected so far at both the vegetation community and individual species level. The elevation distribution of selected species was calculated in order to inform their inclusion in future restoration efforts. Furthermore, indicator species were chosen to monitor into the future to track shifts in marsh distribution due to sea level rise.