The goal of this research is to better understand how climate change will affect fishes with different life histories and habitat associations across the San Francisco Estuary. Existing datasets will be incorporated in synthetic analyses and cutting-edge statistical models to identify fish community responses to climate, flows, and habitats along the estuarine salinity gradient. This synthesis-science project will use rich long-term datasets that have been collected by Bay-Delta researchers for decades that will then be analyzed in a reproducible and open science framework. It will also support efforts by the Interagency Ecological Program’s Climate Change Project Work Team.
The Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) began in 1975 to conduct baseline and compliance monitoring of water quality, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and benthic invertebrates in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. This monitoring program was designed to track the impact of water diversions to the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) on the Bay-Delta. In the decades since, EMP scientists have monitored these constituents at fixed and floating stations throughout the estuary and ensured compliance with state and federal mandates such as Water Right Decision 1641 (D-1641). In the years and decades since its inception, EMP has become one of the cornerstones for scientists' and managers' understanding of the pace and pattern of change in this critical ecosystem. By sampling water quality and biological communities concurrently, EMP has created a dataset that is uniquely useful in better understanding causal connections between physical, biological, and biogeochemical processes.
The Delta Juvenile Fish Monitoring Program was established in the 1970s to monitor juvenile salmon abundance in the San Francisco Bay-Delta using trawling and beach seine nets. Since then the DJFMP has expanded its objective and sampling efforts, most significantly in 2016, when the Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring Program was initiated as part of DJFMP. Today, the DJFMP continues to document the relative abundance, distribution and survival of juvenile salmonids and other fishes in the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, Delta and San Francisco Bay for the protection, recovery and management of naturally produced salmonids and other native species in the Central Valley of California. Monitoring Data All monitoring data are collected by the Lodi Fish and Wildlife Office. Daily and weekly summary reports are available in the Lodi FWO Monitoring Data collection. Raw preliminary data files are also available. Some of the more common data requests, such as Chinook salmon, steelhead and pelagic organism decline species (e.g., Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and striped bass) catch data — by survey as well as the Chipps Island survival calculations — have also been compiled. If you would like additional information or want to request specific data or a specific format, please contact fish biologist Jonathan Speegle at jonathan_speegle@fws.gov. Custom data requests will be handled as soon as possible; however, response times may be delayed under certain circumstances. We encourage users to contact the data managers to discuss which dataset is best suited to your needs. Complete data files that have undergone final quality checks are available on the Environmental Data Initiative Data Portal. Type DJFMP or EDSM into the search bar to access the data sets and accompanying program metadata. These files are updated periodically as final quality-assurance and quality-control measures are completed.
