D3396: San Clemente Island Terrestrial Invertebrate Survey: Guiding biodiversity inventory, rare plan conservation, and habitat restoration

Globally, arthropods are the most speciose animal group, yet millions of species remain undescribed.  This remains true even in smaller scales, especially in areas that have experienced urbanization and/or habitat degradation. The Channel Islands are an archipelago comprised of eight islands off the coast of California. San Clemente Island is the southernmost and is currently managed by the United States Navy, and has in the past was used as ranching space during California’s ranching era. Knowledge of the diversity of insects on the islands is poorly understood, but San Clemente has the additional caveat of it actively being bombarded for weapon testing, which makes access to the island difficult. To gain a baseline dataset regarding terrestrial invertebrates on San Clemente Island that can be repeated in the future, The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden conducted multiple invertebrate surveys in 2019 designed around five rare plant species and five plant communities across eight sites. Main collection methods include beat sheeting, pan trapping, and litter sampling. The project was purposely designed to get plant-insect association data focused on rare plants and plants endemic to San Clemente Island. Over 50,000 specimens were collected on the trips to San Clemente Island and were identified using a mix of the morphospecies concept, high resolution imagery, and the use of online community science platforms. So far, this work has already revealed two new classes, six new orders, and more than 20 new family level records for the island, with at least five new species to science.