Younger Lagoon Reserve is a 72-acre (28-hectare)

University of California Natural Reserve System The University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) is a system of protected areas throughout California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents acros ...

reserve on the northern shore of

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by ...

Santa Cruz County, California Santa Cruz County (), officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the San ...

. The site is owned by the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

and managed for teaching and research. It is adjacent to Long Marine Laboratory. The reserve encompasses a pocket beach, seasonal

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

, wetlands, and coastal prairie on the western edge of the city of Santa Cruz. Other features include a

sea stack A stack or sea stack is a geology, geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by Coastal_erosion#Wave_action, wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and wate ...

, sea caves, and tidepools.

History

Donald and Marion Younger, whose family had owned a ranch in the area for over a century, donated the reserve to the University of California in 1972 to enable development of Long Marine Laboratory and protect the lagoon. The reserve was made part of the UC Natural Reserve System in 1987. The University added 47 acres of adjacent farm fields, an area known as Terrace Point, to the 25-acre reserve in 2008 as part of the establishment of its Coastal Science Campus.

Geography

The reserve sits on the lowest and southernmost of the series of marine terraces that make up the Santa Cruz coastline. The lagoon was formed by a coastal stream when ocean waves eroded the sea caves beneath the coastal bluffs. The Y-shaped lagoon is seasonal, filling with winter and spring rains until winter storms erode the sandy berm at its mouth. At this point, the entire lagoon drains over the course of a few hours. Ocean waters fill the lagoon until waves reform the berm, enabling rain and runoff to freshen the waters again.

Ecology

The federally endangered tidewater goby (''

Eucyclogobius newberryi ''Eucyclogobius newberryi'', the Northern tidewater goby, is a species of goby native to lagoons of streams, marshes, and creeks along the coast of California, United States. The Northern tidewater goby is one of six native goby species to Califo ...

'') is the most abundant fish species in the lagoon. Surrounding terrestrial habitats feature willow thickets, dune plants, and pickleweed marsh. Common animals range from brush rabbits and striped skunks to coyote and bobcat. Shorebirds such as

willet The willet (''Tringa semipalmata'') is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper, and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus ''Tringa''. Its closest relative is the lesser yel ...

s and

sanderling The sanderling (''Calidris alba'') is a small wading bird. The name derives from Old English ''sand-yrðling'', "sand-ploughman". The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-colou ...

s forage on the beach.

Restoration efforts

Younger Lagoon deploys interns and students to restore native vegetation around the lagoon and along the coastal prairie. Their experiments revegetating bluffs covered with non-native iceplant and remnants of

brussels sprout The Brussels sprout is a member of the Gemmifera cultivar group of cabbages (''Brassica oleracea''), grown for its edible buds. The leaf vegetables are typically 1.5–4.0 cm (0.6–1.6 in) in diameter and resemble miniature cabbages ...

fields inform research on habitat restoration. Cape Ivy has spread throughout some areas. Other experiments include understanding the effects of extreme drought on coastal prairie restoration across time. These studies were set up in collaboration with a global network of drought researchers called the International Drought Experiment. Published work from the reserve indicates that certain traits such as slow growth rates and high leaf lobedness can decrease mortality risk when plants experience drought. Studies at the International Drought Experiment plots also indicate that nonperiodic restoration activities, such as one-off planting or weeding events, can facilitate coyote bush invasion in restored coastal grasslands.

References

External links

UC Santa Cruz Natural Reserve System: Younger Lagoon Reserve

{{Protected areas of California, UCNRS University of California Natural Reserve System Protected areas of Santa Cruz County, California Lagoons of California Bodies of water of Santa Cruz County, California University of California, Santa Cruz