Print PageCoastal and nearshore areas of the Gulf of California are diverse and dynamic social ecological systems that are both unique and reflective of coastal systems throughout the world. Recent conservation efforts in the Gulf have been localized, but increasingly inclusive of local resource users in order to develop effective long-term conservation strategies. Nonetheless, like many ecological systems, basic long term ecological data are lacking, forcing us to rely on historical sources such as personal interviews, museum collections, and literary records to document patterns of change in the Gulf. Here I review the historical ecological approaches to studying change in Gulf, including results from re-surveying the author John Steinbeck and the marine biologist Edward Rickett’s trip to the Gulf in 1940.
Results/Conclusions
We found numerous changes to Gulf faunas through historical analysis including loss of top predators in both the pelagic and rocky intertidal realms, evidence of catastrophic disease declines, habitat alterations, shifts in species dominance and declines in population size structures of key organisms. Whereas Steinbeck and Ricketts lamented at the end of their journey that they “could not yet relate the microcosm of the Gulf to the macrocosm of the sea,” with the passage of time we can see that the Gulf of California represents a microcosm of the wider problems facing coastal seas everywhere. This work demonstrates the vital importance to ecological science of basic observation, archived museum collections, local ecological knowledge and a holistic perspective that explicitly includes humans as a dynamic component of ecological systems.
