A demonstration project to define possible future land use scenarios for Staten island ("visions") and leverage existing tools/resources to analyze and compare these scenarios.
In June 2004, a 350-foot levee section gave way west of Stockton, flooding crops and more than a dozen homes, and challenging state officials to protect the state's water supply. What is the risk of that happening again somewhere in the Delta? In light of agricultural fields sinking, the sea level rising, more frequent and severe floods occurring, and earthquakes looming, improvements are estimated to cost $3.8 - $4.3 billion over the next few decades. This study combines 3-D representations with information on the levee's structure to analyze how different levees respond to floods, sea level rise, and earthquakes. State officials released the last Delta Risk Management Strategy a decade ago. Since then, scientists have collected significant amounts of data and have developed new procedures to compute the risk of failure. This work will produce new Delta-wide data sets important for characterizing the hazards coming from floods and earthquakes. It will also develop the best method to conduct levee hazard assessments. Applying this new method will ensure wise investments and effective threat mitigation Delta-wide.
To support management planning in Suisun Marsh, this project is developing a body of science and tools to understand past, present, and potential future changes to the Marsh’s ecological patterns, processes, and functions. This project builds on SFEI’s prior work in the Delta, extending historical ecology mapping, landscape change studies, and the Landscape Scenario Planning Tool to cover Suisun's historical and present-day landscapes. Through spatially explicit representations of the historical function and condition of the marsh and analyses of landscape metrics, this project is evaluating changes over time in landscape support for ecosystem functions and services in Suisun. In order to incorporate diverse perspectives into planning resources, project activities include engagement with local tribes and community members to understand community interests, priorities, and uses of the Marsh. Findings will be shared through a report and article for both technical and general audiences, and spatial analyses and data layers will be made available through the Landscape Scenario Planning Tool.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) faces a serious threat from the recent proliferation of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs), particularly due to the production of high levels of cyanobacterial toxins. These blooms jeopardize water quality and pose a significant risk to air quality when toxins are released as particles in a process known as aerosolization. When people inhale these aerosols, it can trigger an inflammatory response, yet the specific form in which toxins are aerosolized remains unknown. Thus, an improved understanding of cyanobacterial toxin aerosolization mechanisms has significant human health implications. To assess the public health risks associated with airborne cyanobacterial toxins, the project examined the size distribution of cyanoHAB aerosols and the factors influencing their aerosolization. They also investigated the role of nutrient enrichment in cyanoHAB growth, cyanobacterial toxin production, and cyanotoxin aerosolization through a combination of laboratory and field experiments.
Project Objectives
1. Investigate and quantify the production of primary spray aerosols during cyanoHABs
2. Assess the linkage of nutrient enrichment, phytoplankton community composition, toxin production, and cyanoHAB aerosol formation
This project addresses a pressing environmental and public health concern. The data can be used to protect vulnerable communities living near affected bodies of water and inform ways to mitigate the adverse impacts of cyanoHABs on the Delta’s environmental and public health.
This research improves Delta-specific human exposure guidelines to cyanoHAB aerosols by providing data essential for implementing effective public health measures, including recommendations on mask usage and understanding the expected way aerosols travel through the air from the shoreline. Their investigation into the relationship between nutrient availability, cyanoHABs growth dynamics, toxin production, and aerosol formation will offer valuable insights for management efforts aimed at regulating algal blooms to improve both water and air quality outcomes. Ultimately, this research will strengthen state agency responses to human illness associated with cyanoHABs and toxin exposure.
Cyanobacteria are the most common plankton causing harmful algal blooms in freshwater. The variety of cyanotoxins produced by cyanobacteria can impact the nervous system, liver, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory system, and skin of humans and other animals. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta), cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) have become more prevalent since the late 1990s. Even with the welldocumented occurrence of cyanoHABs in the Delta over the last 15 years, there is no consistent monitoring program in the region, making it challenging to identify management actions to mitigate their occurrence and effects.
To fill this knowledge gap, this project focused on measuring cyanotoxins and cyanoHABs in the Delta, organizing relevant data for stakeholders, and synthesizing data about cyanoHAB extent and drivers. In addition to the generation of new data, this project developed tools to integrate existing and future data collection efforts. Synthesis of these data will help assess the status and trends of cyanoHABs in the Delta, elucidate factors contributing to bloom formation, cyanotoxin production, and transport, and ultimately better understand the effects of cyanoHABs on humans, other animals, and the ecosystem.
Tidal wetlands that ring the Delta have great potential to remove carbon dioxide— the greenhouse gas responsible for climate change and sea-level rise—from the atmosphere and to protect shorelines from rising sea levels. This study set out to understand how effectively and quickly restored wetlands bury carbon in soils and the degree to which flooded wetlands may produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The project team measured carbon dioxide and methane fluxes into and out of the wetlands to assess carbon sequestration across a network of tidal and non-tidal wetlands differing in age and salinity. They examined variability across the Delta using this information and remote sensing products.
Salmon of California’s Central Valley are culturally and ecologically valuable but are subject to numerous stressors.
This project used sociological and ecological methods to address salmonid recovery in the Central Valley in an inclusive and collaborative way. The research team identified a suite of implementable and impactful actions that will advance the recovery of Central Valley salmon and steelhead. The approach promoted broad buy-in for these preferred actions by making trade-offs transparent and balancing participants’ diverse values, perspectives, and priorities.
