In science news this week: NOAA Fisheries adopts new plan for West Coast ecosystem science and management; CDFW Documents Statewide Impact of Recent Drought on Fish and Aquatic Species; Wildlife and Way of Life in the North Delta?; A Helping Hand for Coho in Scott Creek; Artifishal: New Film Asks, Have We Reached the End of Wild?; Habitats are a work of art: habitat mosaics and fish production; and more …
NOAA Fisheries adopts new plan for West Coast ecosystem science and management: “When an unusually strong marine heat wave warmed the ocean off the West Coast from late 2014 to 2016, the effects reverberated through the marine ecosystem. One of the telltale changes was in copepods, tiny crustaceans that provide essential food for juvenile salmon as they first enter the ocean. Instead of energy-rich copepods that help the fish grow quickly, leaner copepods with less energy began to dominate. That left young salmon facing tougher odds in the ocean. In the following years, salmon returns fell to some of their lowest levels in a decade. Deciphering, and even anticipating such ecosystem-level effects is a goal of a new plan produced by NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region. … ” Read more from the NOAA here: NOAA Fisheries adopts new plan for West Coast ecosystem science and management
CDFW Documents Statewide Impact of Recent Drought on Fish and Aquatic Species: “One silver lining to emerge from the severe drought that impacted California earlier this decade was that it whetted an appetite to study the event and compile data designed to help fish and aquatic species better weather future droughts. The state experienced one of the warmest, driest periods in recorded history during this five-year drought (2012 to 2016). In Jan. 2014, then-Governor Jerry Brown declared the drought a state of emergency. His proclamation directed all state agencies to act to prepare for and mitigate drought-related effects on water supply and aquatic species. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) responded by enacting “drought stressor monitoring” on a statewide level, and recently released a summary report on that effort entitled 
Statewide Drought Response: Stressor Monitoring (PDF). … ” Read more from the Department of Fish and Wildlife here: CDFW Documents Statewide Impact of Recent Drought on Fish and Aquatic Species
Wildlife and Way of Life in the North Delta? “Californians ask a lot of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where the state’s longest rivers meet and deliver snowmelt from the mountains. Water suppliers want to reconfigure the Delta’s plumbing via the ever-contentious Water Fix project, which Governor Gavin Newsom just sent back to the drawing board. State wildlife officials want to boost restoration in the region, and the 2019 Delta Conservation Framework outlines their latest plan. And people in the Delta want to live and farm there as they have for generations. There may not be a way to give everyone what they want from the Delta. But there are ways to restore ecosystems while preserving local communities. … ” Read more from Estuary News here: Wildlife and Way of Life in the North Delta?
Bay Area: Clock Ticking for Cities to Commit to Greening: “Managing stormwater is a physics problem, and not a very glamorous one. In decades past, the main objective of managing stormwater was figuring out how fast it could be directed through the Bay Area’s built landscape via storm drains, culverts, and channels, and into the Bay. In decades future, however, the object will be to slow down the runoff, and sink it into greener, spongier surfaces sprinkled throughout our cities and counties, or to run it through more meandering, more natural channels and drainages. Such measures fall under the classification of green stormwater infrastructure. And building more green infrastructure isn’t just some kind of concept or vision. Instead, the region’s water quality regulators want to see more of it from local municipalities – enough to make it a requirement of another five-year federally-mandated permit to discharge stormwater. … ” Read more from Estuary News here: Bay Area: Clock Ticking for Cities to Commit to Greening
Contra Costa County: Super-Shore: A Multi-Habitat Experiment at Giant Marsh: “Interview anyone of any stripe about the Giant Marsh living shorelines project and the same two words will be in every other sentence: high tide. Each construction step of this California Coastal Conservancy-led effort to build new native oyster reefs interspersed with eelgrass off the Contra Costa County shore must consider the timing of tides. High enough to float a barge or Boston whaler into the shallows, do a day’s work, and get back out again on the next cycle. Three feet at least of draft – the amount of boat below the surface which varies depending on its weight — and preferably not in the middle of the night. … ” Read more from Estuary News here: Contra Costa County: Super-Shore: A Multi-Habitat Experiment at Giant Marsh
A Helping Hand for Coho in Scott Creek: “Coho salmon (Onchorynchus kisutch) may be the overshadowed cousin of “king” Chinook in California, but are certainly deserving of some time in the spotlight. Like Chinook, coho face an array of challenges in the form of habitat loss and human-caused changes to their home rivers. However, unlike Chinook, which have had their populations boosted by billions of hatchery-produced fish, coho have not been stocked en masse, and their populations have experienced precipitous declines. As a result, the group of Central California Coast coho known as an Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) were listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1996, and this listing was upgraded to Endangered in 2005. Fortunately, there are efforts underway in Scott Creek, located just north of the city of Santa Cruz, to help restore a critical population of this coho ESU with the help of a conservation hatchery. … ” Read more from FishBio here: A Helping Hand for Coho in Scott Creek
Field Station Planned for UC Merced’s Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve: “At the northern tip of the UC Merced campus, an unremarkable aluminum gate leads into a field that extends, seemingly, into infinity. Perpendicular to the gate, the LeGrand Canal, drawn from Lake Yosemite, snakes around campus into the emerald pastures, through farm rows and almond orchards across the highway. It’s the rainy season and bulbous cumuli foreground the rippled line of the Sierra Nevada that slices across the open sky. This is no ordinary field or pasture. The UC Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve, or MVPGR, is the 39th of the 41 reserves in the University of California Natural Reserve System. NRS reserves serve as living laboratories and outdoor classrooms for students and researchers at UC and beyond. ... ” Read more from UC Merced here: Field Station Planned for UC Merced’s Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve
Encintas: Living Shoreline Project holds ocean at bay: “The locals in Encinitas, California know Cardiff Beach as a great spot for recreation, relaxation and a spectacular view of the ocean. What they may not know, though, is that all of that beauty and serenity has been under constant threat of chaotic wave action, high tides and erosion from the Pacific Ocean, according to former Coastal Program manager Katherine Weldon. “These tidal impacts have long been an issue for Cardiff State Beach even before Encinitas became a city. We have records of ocean water flooding Highway 101 at least 42 times since the ‘80s,” she said. … ” Read more from the US FWS here: Living Shoreline Project holds ocean at bay
How Ice A Half A World Away Affects Southern California Sea Levels: “San Diego researchers are among many scientists around the world trying to understand how a warming climate is affecting the world’s major ice sheets. Two Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers are studying the changes in different parts of the world about the change that could affect local oceans. As part of our reporting from the Climate Change Desk, KPBS Environment Reporter Erik Anderson discussed the issue with glaciologist Helen Fricker and physical oceanographer Fiamma Straneo. … ” Read more from KPBS here: How Ice A Half A World Away Affects Southern California Sea Levels
Artifishal: New Film Asks, Have We Reached the End of Wild? “That salmon sitting in your neighborhood grocery store’s fish counter won’t look the same to you after watching Artifishal, a new film from Patagonia. The project, which got its start when Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard wanted to make a film about the arrogance of humankind, turned out to be a film about salmon… and what we’re doing to them. The film uses salmon as a lens to tell a larger story about wilderness. “It’s about how we keep trying to control nature rather than allowing it to do what it does,” says the film’s director, Josh Murphy. … ” Read more from The Revelator here: Artifishal: New Film Asks, Have We Reached the End of Wild?
OSU researchers study ways to help rivers amid climate change: “New strategies for river management are needed to maintain water supplies and avoid big crashes in populations of aquatic life, researchers argue in a perspective piece published Tuesday in Nature. The scientists say a fresh approach is necessary as the climate warms, which has led to historic die-offs like the January event in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia that saw severe water shortages bring hardship to residents and kill millions of fish. “The world’s rivers are facing tough times,” said the editorial’s lead author, Jonathan Tonkin, who just completed a post-doctoral appointment in Oregon State University’s College of Science. … ” Read more from News Channel 21 here: OSU researchers study ways to help rivers amid climate change
Habitats are a work of art: habitat mosaics and fish production: “Biodiversity is continually being threatened by human activities, and it is vital that we protect it. Conserving biodiversity means conserving species and the habitats they live in. We know that habitats vary through space and time, but does this variation impact fish production in the long term? Brennen et al. explores this question using Pacific salmon species in an Alaskan watershed. When you hear the word “mosaic,” you might think of a beautiful piece of artwork (small pieces arranged together to make something different and new). Habitats, natural homes to organisms, can also be put together to create mosaics on a landscape (much like a piece of art): one minute you might be walking through a forest and the next minute a lake! Together, the mosaic breeds biodiversity (many different forms of life). However, unlike a mosaic hanging in a museum, habitat mosaics can shift over time. … ” Read more from EnviroBites here: Habitats are a work of art: habitat mosaics and fish production
Unexpected culprit: Wetlands as source of methane: “Wetlands are an important part of the Earth’s natural water management system. The complex system of plants, soil, and aquatic life serves as a reservoir that captures and cleans water. However, as cities have expanded, many wetlands were drained for construction. In addition, many areas of land in the Midwest were drained to increase uses for agriculture to feed a growing world. Draining wetlands disconnected the natural flow and retention of water, a system that had worked well for millennia. One solution to wetland draining was to rebuild these wetlands in another area (more convenient to humans). These are referred to as “constructed wetlands.” In other cases, constructed wetlands are built to rebuild an area no longer used for agriculture. … ” Read more from Science Daily here: Unexpected culprit: Wetlands as source of methane
Boaty McBoatface, Internet-Adored Sub, Makes Deep-Sea Discovery On Climate Change: “Remember Boaty McBoatface? In the years since the naming snafu over a research vessel grabbed international headlines, Boaty has been off gathering crucial deep-sea data on the effects of climate change. Now, the findings from Boaty’s first mission are out — and they shed light on how Antarctic winds that are strengthening due to climate change are impacting sea levels. But before we dive into what Boaty found, let’s remember how it got here. ... ” Read more from KALW here: Boaty McBoatface, Internet-Adored Sub, Makes Deep-Sea Discovery On Climate Change
Earth’s Freshwater Future: Extremes of Flood and Drought: “NASA satellites are a prominent tool for accounting for water, as it constantly cycles from water vapor to rain and snow falling onto soils, and across and beneath the landscape. As Earth’s atmosphere warms due to greenhouse gases and the satellite data record continues to get longer and more detailed, scientists are studying how climate change is affecting the distribution of water. Trends are beginning to emerge, especially at the extremes in the frequency and magnitude of floods and droughts. These trends affect everything from local weather to where crops can grow, and have consequences that will ripple through communities today and in the coming century. … ” Read more from NASA here: Earth’s Freshwater Future: Extremes of Flood and Drought
How Scientists Use the Color of the Ocean to Determine the Impacts of Climate Change: “The Caribbean Sea bordering Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach is a startling aquamarine color. Over 1,500 miles away, the Atlantic Ocean next to Coney Island is a dark bluish-green. And Bondi blue, the color of the original iMac computer, was named after the teal hue of the Tasman Sea off the coast of the eponymous Sydney beach. Pollution isn’t to blame for these stark differences. As light bounces off and passes through water, it reflects the color blue back to our eyes, but microscopic algae and tiny sediments known as colored dissolved organic matter muddy the metaphorical waters and cause oceans to appear green, red, or brown. Now, scientists are trying to use these microscopic sediments to help them better predict climate change. … ” Read more from Pacific Standard here: How Scientists Use the Color of the Ocean to Determine the Impacts of Climate Change
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
