In science news this week:
It’s Spawning Season for Salmon, Scientists Trying to Revive Extinct Central Valley Salmon Run: “Fresno County may seem an unlikely setting for salmon restoration and research, but some of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) most ambitious work with salmon anywhere is taking place in the heart of the parched Central Valley. Since September, CDFW fisheries biologists have been spawning spring-run Chinook Salmon broodstock in the shadow of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River. So far this season, CDFW staffers have spawned 87 out of an approximate 100 mature females that range in age from 3 to 6 years old and anticipate producing about 300,000 eggs. ... ” Read more from the Department of Fish and Wildlife here: It’s Spawning Season for Salmon, Scientists Trying to Revive Extinct Central Valley Salmon Run
The Delta’s most wanted: “Invasive species are not only a nuisance to managers and landowners, they also cause serious problems for native plants and animals. These tenacious trespassers can severely alter habitats, carry dangerous diseases, and compete with or prey upon native organisms. Invasion may come by land, air, or sea, but aquatic invaders can be particularly destructive. In fact, invasive species are one of the top two threats to freshwater fish, along with habitat degradation (Jelks et al. 2008). As the most modified estuary in the world, the San Francisco Bay-Delta has been highly susceptible to invasion over the past several centuries. Some of these species were purposefully introduced (such as striped bass), and others have snuck in, often by using large ships like floating Trojan horses (such as mitten crabs). ... ” Read more from FishBio here: The Delta’s most wanted
Cleaning up toxic sites shouldn’t clean out the neighbors: “San Francisco has embarked on a project to transform its industrial southeast waterfront into a bike-friendly destination called the Blue Greenway. When completed, the Blue Greenway will be a 13-mile network of parks, bike lanes and trails along the southeastern edge of the city. Among its many benefits, the project creates green space and waterfront access in the low-income Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. The Blue Greenway is part of a larger transformation of Bayview Hunters Point. This older, neglected neighborhood is still full of vacant lots and a large, abandoned naval base, but it is becoming a landscape of hip townhomes and new coffee shops. Its transformation includes the complicated cleanup of many toxic waste sites – most notoriously, a military radiation lab on the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. ... ” Read more from FishBio here: Cleaning up toxic sites shouldn’t clean out the neighbors
Monarch madness: Tagged monarch butterfly identified as first Pacific Northwest migrant to reproduce in Southern California: “When Akimi King found monarch butterfly eggs in her garden near Klamath Falls, Oregon, in August 2017, she had no idea one would make western monarch history as the first Pacific Northwest migrant observed reproducing in California. Since monarch survival in the wild is less than two percent, King, a biologist in the Klamath Falls Fish and Wildlife Office, raised the larvae indoors for the next month. On September 3, 2017, two adult monarchs emerged from the many pupating caterpillars King was nurturing. Within hours, the male and female were ready to fly. King affixed a small coded tag on the lower wing of each and set them free to migrate to the central California coast. ... ” Read more from the US FWS here: Monarch madness: Tagged monarch butterfly identified as first Pacific Northwest migrant to reproduce in Southern California
Underwater Cameras Capture the Value of Shellfish Habitat: “In a collaborative research project between NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center, The Nature Conservancy, Washington Sea Grant, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, and seven shellfish growers, researchers and growers placed remote, underwater cameras around shellfish aquaculture beds to document the diversity of species that use this nearshore habitat. Lissa Monberg would love to learn more about what goes on in the tidal flats in Puget Sound where her family has grown oysters since the 1950s. The twice-daily tides bring species that benefit from the shellfish growing areas in different ways. What species are they, and how do they use the habitat? ... ” Read more from NOAA here: Underwater Cameras Capture the Value of Shellfish Habitat
Climate change: US desert areas to become drier: “Beneath the Amargosa desert of the southwest United States lies a hidden gem for climate research. The Devils Hole cave system, named after its bottomless depths, provides a window into the vast desert aquifer below. The cave system is home to a peculiar type of calcite deposit. As groundwater slowly passes through the cave, calcite precipitates layer by layer on the rock walls. “These thin layers have been accumulating on the walls for nearly one million years,” explains Kathleen Wendt from the Quaternary Research Group in the Department of Geology at the University of Innsbruck. “The height of ancient deposits in Devils Hole cave tell us how high the water table was in the past.” ... ” Read more from Science Daily here: Climate change: US desert areas to become drier
Redrawing the Map: How the World’s Climate Zones Are Shifting: “As human-caused emissions change the planet’s atmosphere, and people reshape the landscape, things are changing fast. The receding line of Arctic ice has made headlines for years, as the white patch at the top of our planet shrinks dramatically. The ocean is rising, gobbling up coastlines. Plants, animals, and diseases are on the move as their patches of suitable climate move too. Sometimes, the lines on the map can literally be redrawn: the line of where wheat will grow, or where tornadoes tend to form, where deserts end, where the frozen ground thaws, and even where the boundaries of the tropics lie. ... ” Read more from Yale 360 here: Redrawing the Map: How the World’s Climate Zones Are Shifting
Maven’s XKCD Comic Pick of the Week …
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About Science News and Reports: This weekly feature, posted every Thursday, is a collection of the latest scientific research and reports with a focus on relevant issues to the Delta and to California water, although other issues such as climate change are sometimes included. Do you have an item to be included here? Submissions of relevant research and other materials is welcome. Email Maven
