Long-term monitoring is crucial to understanding how ecosystems change over time at local, regional, and state-wide scales, which informs management strategies and actions aimed at conserving California’s biodiversity. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is working with several partners to establish a Climate-Biodiversity Sentinel Site Network to monitor ecosystems and wildlife on public lands and inform land management in the face of climate change and other stressors. As part of this ongoing and growing effort, CDFW sentinel sites are being established on select Wildlife Areas and Ecological Reserves across the state, reflecting a range of climate conditions and ecosystem types. Each sentinel site will host a series of weather and soil sensors for climate monitoring, suites of wildlife cameras and acoustic sensors at four survey points and permanent vegetation plots for biodiversity monitoring, and a Motus tower to monitor animal movement. Resulting data will be processed with multiple automated and machine learning tools and will allow scientists to evaluate links between climate change and effects on local species and ecosystems. Understanding the effects of climate change at multiple spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales can support adaptive land-management decisions and inform long-term goals and strategies for conserving California’s biodiversity.

Dr. Christina Sloop is a Conservation Geneticist and Ecologist and since 2018 directs the Science Institute at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. There, she leads statewide initiatives on science support and partnerships, climate change and biodiversity. Her team also conducts the 2025 Update of the California State Wildlife Action Plan. Whitney Albright is a Climate Change Specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). She develops climate change-related tools and resources to support CDFW’s conservation and land management efforts and participates in various state-wide climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Dr. Lindsey Rich is a Senior Environmental Scientist in the Wildlife Diversity and Cannabis Programs at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. She is helping to develop a new statewide monitoring effort and tools for centralizing, organizing, and processing camera trap and acoustic recorder data.