NCEAS Working Groups
Interactions between the near-coastal ocean and the San Francisco Estuary
Project Description
The aim of this working group is to identify, analyze, and synthesize existing data on interactions between the near coastal ocean and the San Francisco Estuary with a non-exclusive focus on declining pelagic fishes. Substantial changes in the biological communities of San Francisco Bay may have occurred in response to a state change in the California Current system after 1998. The state change was characterized by increased upwelling, enhanced primary production, and strong southerly flow. These changes in the near coastal ocean were associated with increased biomass of phytoplankton, new seasonal phytoplankton blooms, declines in the distribution and abundance of bivalve mollusks, and high abundance of several predators of bivalves in San Francisco Bay. Processes in the near coastal ocean may have direct or indirect influences on abundance and survival of several fishes of management concern, including longfin smelt, striped bass, and possibly delta smelt. Changes in the near coastal ocean might also influence survival of outmigrating juvenile salmonids, including Chinook salmon and steelhead rainbow trout, as they enter the ocean. These results indicate that proper understanding and management of the San Francisco Estuary requires knowledge of ocean processes as well as riverine and internal estuarine processes. The working group will attempt to examine the relative influence of processes in the near coastal ocean on the fishes and other organisms in the San Francisco Estuary.
Principal Investigator(s)
Erica Fleishman
Project Dates
Start: December 8, 2008
End: January 11, 2010
completed
Participants
- Larry R. Brown
- US Geological Survey (USGS)
- James E. Cloern
- US Geological Survey (USGS)
- Erica Fleishman
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Paul Hershberger
- US Geological Survey (USGS) Marrowstone Marine Field Station
- Kathryn A. Hieb
- California Department of Fish and Game
- Teresa Jacobson
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- John L. Largier
- University of California, Davis
- Cynthia LeDoux-Bloom
- California Department of Water Resources
- Ricardo D. Lopez
- US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Jay Lund
- University of California, Davis
- Luis Francisco Madrinan
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Wendy Meiring
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Nadav Nur
- Point Blue Conservation Science (formally Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO))
- Christine Petersen
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- William T. Peterson
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Thomas M. Powell
- University of California, Berkeley
- Bruno Sanso
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- Ted Sommer
- California Department of Water Resources
- Mark T. Stacey
- University of California, Berkeley
- Jan Thompson
- US Geological Survey (USGS)
- Monika Winder
- University of California, Davis
Products
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Journal Article / 2010
Biological communities in San Francisco Bay track large-scale climate forcing over the North Pacific