The goal of this study was to quantify the relationship between landscape features and mercury in sport fish. We hypothesized that spatial variation in sport fish mercury would most strongly relate to major point sources associated with mining activity, habitat features (e.g., abundance of wetlands), and watershed-scale patterns in mercury deposition from the atmosphere. Geographic … Continue reading “California Bay – Delta Authority Fish Mercury Project: The Relationship between Landscape Features and Sport Fish Mercury in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Watershed”
This summary report presents results from a 2014 survey of contaminants in San Francisco Bay sport fish, as well as an additional 2015 sampling of sport fish in Artesian Slough in Lower South Bay. This monitoring effort represents the seventh round of sport fish contaminant monitoring conducted by the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality … Continue reading “Contaminant Concentrations in Sport Fish from San Francisco Bay: 2014”
Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) has become a water management standard throughout most of California following passage of the 2002 IRWM Planning Act (SB 1672). The dedicated efforts of regional water management groups and the support of state bond funds have resulted in 48 IRWM regions identifying and implementing integrated regional water management solutions to … Continue reading “Strategic Plan for the Future of Integrated Regional Water Management in California: Review of IRWM Planning and Implementation in California”
Fresno County is located centrally within the State of California. The central portion of the county makes up part of the state’s breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley, known for its vast agricultural productivity, whereas the Sierra Nevada Mountains make up the eastern portion of the county providing water from snowmelt and varied opportunities for recreation. … Continue reading “Toward a Vibrant, Prosperous, and Sustainable Fresno County: Vulnerability and Adaptation in the Midst of Rapid Change”
This paper reviews recent research findings on food web processes since 2008. It also highlights the idea of a changing baseline with respect to food web function. New research indicates that interactions between habitat-specific food webs vary across the current landscape. For example, based on early work in the south Delta, the food web associated … Continue reading “Food Webs of the Delta, Suisun Bay, and Suisun Marsh: An Update on Current Understanding and Possibilities for Management”
As juvenile salmon enter the Delta, they disperse among its complex channel network where they are subject to channel-specific processes that affect their rate of migration, vulnerability to predation, feeding success, growth rates, and ultimately, survival. In the decades before 2006, tools available to quantify growth, dispersal, and survival of juvenile salmon in this channel … Continue reading “Anadromous Salmonids in the Delta: New Science 2006-2016”
This report provides a brief description of Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) and Native American Indian Tribes (Tribes) located in or near the Santa Ana River Watershed (SARW), and a summary of water and related resource opportunities and challenges facing these entities. The information was gathered from several sources including personal interviews, web research, documentation review, and … Continue reading “Overview of Disadvantaged Communities and Native American Tribes in the Santa Ana River Watershed”
The Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) has been in existence in some form for almost 50 years. As the San Francisco Estuary evolved due to natural and man-caused perturbations, the IEP has responded by creating and re-creating itself to ensure the best understanding of the Estuary as it was influenced by water project implementation. The goal … Continue reading “A Historical Perspective of the Interagency Ecological Program: Bridging Multi-Agency Studies into Ecological Understanding of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Estuary for 40 Years”
In 1992 Congress directed the Department of Interior to develop and implement a program that makes “all reasonable efforts” to ensure and sustain on a long-term basis a doubling of the number of naturally produced anadromous fish in Central Valley rivers and streams by 2002. Doubling did not happen by the legislative goal of 2002, … Continue reading “Listen to the River: An Independent Review of the CVPIA Fisheries Program”
Engineers in the Bureau of Reclamation’s Sedimentation and River Hydraulics Group provide technical assistance and conduct studies to meet the needs of other Reclamation offices and of domestic and international water resources agencies. In addition to using the latest state-of-the art technology, engineers in the Sedimentation and River Hydraulics Group often have to develop new … Continue reading “Erosion and Sediment Manual”