PMEP partners  are lead authors on a newly published collaborative study that maps the historical extent of West Coast estuaries and estimates losses of vegetated tidal wetlands  since European settlement.  It is the first time researchers have applied consistent methods across all 450 estuaries of the contiguous U.S. West Coast. Their results show that more than a century of development has erased roughly 85 percent of original vegetated estuarine wetlands, especially around major river deltas.

The project was coordinated by the Pacific Marine and Estuarine Fish Habitat Partnership (PMEP). Read the full press release here. The report, published August 14 in PLOS ONE, can be accessed here.