Cruise Plan: 2016 Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Bivalve Deployment Cruise

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | June 2nd, 2016

This report details plans associated with the biennial Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) bivalve deployment cruise. This Cr

This report details plans associated with the biennial Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) bivalve deployment cruise. This Cruise Plan was developed based upon the decisions of the RMP Technical Review Committee in 2002 to reduce the number of bivalve transplant stations from twelve to nine, utilize deployment cages rather than bags at all stations, and deploy only Mytilus californianus. These changes went into effect with the 2003 program and continued through the 2012 deployments. In 2014, the RMP Technical Review Committee reduced bivalve deployment transplant stations from 9 to 7 stations, 3 of which are back-up deployment sites. In addition, as instituted initially with the 2006 deployments, there is no mid-deployment maintenance cruise, as previous analyses showed no difference in bivalve growth or survival between maintained and unmaintained deployments. 

Cruise Plan: 2016 Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Bivalve Retrieval Cruise

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | September 27th, 2016

This report details plans associated with the biennial Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) bivalve retrieval cruise. This Cruise Plan

This report details plans associated with the biennial Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) bivalve retrieval cruise. This Cruise Plan was developed based upon the decisions of the RMP Technical Review Committee in 2002 to reduce the number of bivalve transplant stations from twelve to nine, utilize deployment cages rather than bags at all stations, and deploy only Mytilus californianus. These changes went into effect with the 2003 program and continued through the 2012 deployments. In 2014, the RMP Technical Review Committee reduced bivalve deployment transplant stations from 9 to 7 stations, 3 of which are back-up deployment sites. In addition, as instituted initially with the 2006 deployments, there is no mid-deployment maintenance cruise, as previous analyses showed no difference in bivalve growth or survival between maintained and unmaintained deployments. 

Cruise Report 2016 Regional Monitoring Plan (RMP) Bivalve Deployment Cruise, June 28 – July 1, 2016

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | July 7th, 2016

This report describes activities associated with the 2016 bivalve deployment cruise of the Regional Monitoring Program (RMP). Measurement of contaminant concentrations in

This report describes activities associated with the 2016 bivalve deployment cruise of the Regional Monitoring Program (RMP). Measurement of contaminant concentrations in transplanted bivalves accumulated during dry season deployment is designed to provide long-term data on the bioaccumulation of select trace elements and trace organic compounds in tissue throughout the Estuary. 

Cruise Report: 2016 Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Bivalve Retrieval Cruise, September 30 – October 13, 2016

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | November 3rd, 2016

This report describes activities associated with the 2016 bivalve retrieval cruise of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP)

This report describes activities associated with the 2016 bivalve retrieval cruise of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP). Measurement of contaminant concentrations in transplanted bivalves accumulated during dry season deployment is designed to provide long-term data on the bioaccumulation of trace elements and trace organic compounds in tissue throughout the Estuary. 

Cultivating climate resilience in California agriculture: Adaptations to an increasingly volatile water future

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) | July 29th, 2024

Cultivating effective utility-regulator relationships around innovation: Lessons from four case studies in the U.S. municipal wastewater sector

PLOS | August 26th, 2022

Regulation is critical for protecting public and environmental health but is often perceived as a barrier to innovation in the U.S. municipal wastewater sector. Before a

Regulation is critical for protecting public and environmental health but is often perceived as a barrier to innovation in the U.S. municipal wastewater sector. Before a wastewater utility can implement a new technology, it must navigate applicable regulatory processes and obtain necessary approvals, often including obtaining an updated wastewater discharge permit. While all regulatory processes involve interactions between regulators and regulated entities, innovative projects may require them to engage in new ways, heightening the importance of the relationships between them. We investigated four case studies to examine how regulatory relationships affect municipal wastewater utilities’ efforts to adopt new technologies. Through cross-case analysis, we identified five interconnected characteristics of regulatory relationships that appear to facilitate innovation, and whose absence could impede it: clarity, capacity building, continuity, trust, and bounded flexibility. Appropriately applied bounded flexibility—such as using regulatory discretion to tailor permits to reflect the particular risks, benefits, and information needs of the technology at issue—may be key for enabling socially and environmentally beneficial innovation. Yet all five characteristics play important and mutually reinforcing roles in supporting innovation. By cultivating these characteristics in their relationships, both utilities and regulators can take responsibility for enabling appropriate implementation of innovative technologies. However, some parties, particularly small and under-resourced utilities, may find cultivating these characteristics difficult. Therefore, sector-wide support for effective utility-regulator relationships, including coordinated regulatory and funding programs targeted to meet small utilities’ needs, may be needed to bring beneficial innovation within reach for many wastewater utilities and the communities they serve.

Culture Card: A Guide to Build Cultural Awareness of American Indian and Alaska Native

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | April 18th, 2009

The purpose of this guide is to provide basic information for Federal disaster responders and other service providers who may be deployed or otherwise assigned to provide

The purpose of this guide is to provide basic information for Federal disaster responders and other service providers who may be deployed or otherwise assigned to provide or coordinate services in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. This guide is intended to serve as a general briefing to enhance cultural competence while providing services to AI/AN communities. (Cultural competence is defined as the ability to function effectively in the context of cultural differences.) A more specific orientation or training should be provided by a member of the particular AI/AN community. Service providers should use this guide to ensure the following Five Elements of Cultural Competence* are being addressed: 1. Awareness, acceptance and valuing of cultural differences 2. Awareness of one’s own culture and values 3. Understanding the range of dynamics that result from the interaction between people of different cultures 4. Developing cultural knowledge of the particular community served or to access cultural brokers who may have that knowledge 5. Ability to adapt individual interventions, programs, and policies to fit the cultural context of the individual, family, or community

Cumulative effects of fire and drought in Mediterranean ecosystems

Ecological Society of America (ESA) | August 18th, 2017

The occurrence of multiple disturbances can jointly affect the recovery capacity of ecosystems, potentially leading to changes in vegetation dynamics or loss of resilien

The occurrence of multiple disturbances can jointly affect the recovery capacity of ecosystems, potentially leading to changes in vegetation dynamics or loss of resilience. The effects of interacting disturbances on ecosystems are, however, not well understood. We use a model system based on Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) to examine how the interplay between vegetation regeneration traits andcompound, stochastic disturbances modulate ecosystem dynamics. We developed a state-and-transition simulation model including two tree species with contrasting regeneration strategies (seeder vs. resprouter) and a shrub-land formation. We aim to assess potential compositional switches under contrasted scenarios of compound fire–drought regimes, and to characterize the cumulative effects of fire–drought(synergism vs. antagonism) relative to the effects of individual disturbance regimes. Our simulation results indicate that interaction between moderate fire and sporadic drought recurrence—as opposed to chronic dryness—can act as a strong mechanism generating highly heterogeneous landscapes in which different regeneration types coexist, as observed in MTEs. Resprouters dominated under individual, moderate disturbance regimes of fire or drought, whereas the interaction of the two disturbances promoted the long-term coexistence of both tree regeneration strategies. However, shrub-land expansion and persistence at the expanse of forests was favored by increases in drought recurrence and associated fire–drought interactions, highlighting the potential for important vegetation changes in MTEs under climate change. Overall, the cumulative effects of fire and drought can lead to distinct landscape configurations under moderate disturbance regimes that are otherwise only attained under high frequency of individual disturbances. At the ecosystem level, however, we suggest that disturbance-induced vegetation dynamics can modify vegetation sensitivity and resilience to further disturbances precluding the prevalence of synergistic effects of the two disturbances.

Curbing the Colorado

Scientific American | April 1st, 1922

Already, the electrical engineer has shown how the snows of the high Sierras can be transformed into energizing current distributable for hundreds of miles through a S

Already, the electrical engineer has shown how the snows of the high Sierras can be transformed into energizing current distributable for hundreds of miles through a State which i s notably deficient in deposits of power-producing coal. Similarly, this same technicist is busy planning ways by which the widely diversified flow of the second largest of our rivers, the Colorado, may be stabilized and utilized to operate a number of immense, hydroelectric stations. The Colorado River drains a watershed covering fully 250,000 square miles, and in the course of a twelvemonth its run-off  amounts to 16,000,000 acre-feet of water. The States affected by the movement of the Colorado are Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. Normally, the Colorado runs to extremes : in dry seasons it is low and its speed of travel comparatively sluggish, but when the melting snows and rains of the wet months pour their fullness into the far-flung basin the river becomes a raging, torrential stream capable of doing an enormous amount of damage. Uncontrolled, this great waterway is a continual menace to the lives and the property of dwellers in the Imperial Valley and in the adjacent lands, lying below the level of the sea and situated both in the United States and in Mexico.

Current Knowledge and Data Needs for Dioxins in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | January 2nd, 2019

San Francisco Bay was placed on the State of California’s 303(d) list of impaired waters in 1998 as a result of elevated concentrations of dioxins in fish. In 2008 the

San Francisco Bay was placed on the State of California’s 303(d) list of impaired waters in 1998 as a result of elevated concentrations of dioxins in fish. In 2008 the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) Dioxins Workgroup developed a workplan for reducing information gaps that were identified in a 2004 Conceptual Model/Impairment Assessment (CMIA) report on dioxins. Special studies in that workplan were largely completed by 2012, but continued monitoring of biota provided evidence of impairment and an opportunity for evaluating trends. Fish tissue concentrations indicate that the beneficial use of commercial and sport fishing is impaired by dioxins. Although there are dioxin-like PCBs also contributing to impairment, this report only directly addresses polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans (here collectively called “dioxins”).