Lagoon

Belted Kingfisher
Megaceryle alcyon
Belted Kingfisher
Quailbush
Atriplex lentiformis
Great Egret
Ardea alba
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
Yerba Mansa
Anemopsis californica
Double-crested Cormorant
Phalacrocorax auritus
Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
Brown Pelican
Poison Oak
Toxicodendron diversilobium
Poison Oak
Coast Live Oak
Quercus agrifolia
Black-necked Stilt
Himantopus mexicanus
Black-necked Stilt
American Coot
Fulica americana
Basket Rush
Juncus textilis
Pied-billed Grebe
Podilymbus podiceps

 

The 31 acre Campus Lagoon is one of three coastal lagoons in the area, however each has a different hydrology. The Campus Lagoon receives a constant influx of sea water from the seawater pumping facility of approximately 700 gallons per minute (about 1cfs), but has no tidal influence. The Lagoon also receives runoff from 151 of the 300 acres of main campus which makes the Lagoon brackish during the winter and early spring (17 ppt). Devereux Slough has a watershed of about 2000 acres and is closed to tidal influence by a naturally forming sandbar at the mouth of the slough for most of the year. Goleta Slough mouth is open about 50% of the time and regularly receives tidal influx. The Campus Lagoon shoreline is primarily dominated by salt marsh species, but where there are surface freshwater flows other riparian and freshwater wetlands are formed. Fish such as Top smelt, Longjaw mudsucker and Killifish are common in the Lagoon.