This project aims to quantify the impacts of common reed (Phragmites) invasion on community structure and ecosystem function during early stages of tidal restoration in wetlands. The study will focus on the Tule Red Tidal Restoration site in Suisun Marsh. The research aims to produce a conceptual model that will describe habitat structure, invertebrate communities, and predator use of wetlands affected by Phragmites invasion. The conceptual model resulting from this study will guide future predictions of wetland response to invasion and to develop mitigation strategies. Data collected will also support food web models and the understanding of invasive plants as stressors, as well as foster translational science to the management community.
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.
Invasive aquatic vegetation (IAV) is widespread in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) and its change in coverage has been mapped at the species level using spectroscopy data collected once a year, from 2004 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2019. There was no funding to conduct a similar mapping campaign in 2020. This work aims to collect and analyze imagery in summer of 2020 to fulfill two main objectives. First is to inform the monitoring framework for aquatic vegetation put forth for the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP). Comparing spring and fall imagery of 2019 and the summer imagery of 2020, the project will evaluate which time period is ideal for optimal mapping of aquatic vegetation considering the logistical challenges of airborne imagery acquisition and the phenology of the species being mapped. The project will also contrast the pros and cons of the 3 proposed scenarios in the IEP monitoring framework: 1) two hyperspectral acquisitions a year (2019; “best case” scenario), 2) one acquisition a year (2020, “moderate” scenario) and 3) satellite data based monitoring (the Sentinel-2 study, “bare bones” scenario). The second objective of the project is to determine if the new treatment framework (new herbicide formulations and application schedules) is effective in controlling the old (Brazilian waterweed, water hyacinth) and newly added target weed species (water primrose, alligator weed) in the Delta ecosystem.
