Using Community Science and eDNA to Inform a State-Designed Marine Protected Area Monitoring Program: A Case Study from Malibu, California

Abstract Management of marine protected areas (MPAs) require long-term monitoring and evaluation that is often limited by the cost and effort of conventional visual based surveys. We evaluated a community science-based eDNA approach to MPA monitoring over two years in the Point Dume State Marine Reserve, the Point Dume State Marine Conservation Area, and two paired unprotected reference sites. Across the sampling period, we detected 119 species of fish and marine mammals, including 19 of the 22 regional management-priority species for Southern CA MPAs. Protected and unprotected comparison sites were broadly similar in overall assemblage with 93 species shared across all sites. Multivariate analyses revealed site-level differences, although season and year explained more variation than protection status. Species presence also shifted during a La-Niña transition, highlighting the importance of long-term monitoring under different climatological contexts. Community scientists greatly expanded the temporal and spatial scope of eDNA sampling and generated high-quality data. Subsampling analysis showed that quarterly sampling, with three sample replicates and sequencing depths between 700k-990k, recovered 95% of observed biodiversity of the full time series. These results demonstrate that a community science-based eDNA program could provide a standardized, scalable, low-cost, and management-relevant approach for long-term monitoring across California’s MPA network.