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Publications

For more than a century, USGS scientists have conducted research in California’s Bay-Delta region. Informing natural-resource management decisions on the region’s issues, this research has been published in thousands of documents, some highlighted below.

Filter Total Items: 308

Analysis of pelagic species decline in the upper San Francisco Estuary using multivariate autoregressive modeling (MAR)

Four species of pelagic fish of particular management concern in the upper San Francisco Estuary, California, USA, have declined precipitously since ca. 2002: delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus), longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys), striped bass (Morone saxatilis), and threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense). The estuary has been monitored since the late 1960s with extensive collection of data
Authors
Ralph Mac Nally, James R. Thomson, Wim J. Kimmerer, Frederick Feyrer, Ken B. Newman, Andy Sih, William A. Bennett, Larry R. Brown, Erica Fleishman, Steven D. Culberson, Gonzalo Castillo

Bayesian change point analysis of abundance trends for pelagic fishes in the upper San Francisco Estuary

We examined trends in abundance of four pelagic fish species (delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, and threadfin shad) in the upper San Francisco Estuary, California, USA, over 40 years using Bayesian change point models. Change point models identify times of abrupt or unusual changes in absolute abundance (step changes) or in rates of change in abundance (trend changes). We coupled Bayesian
Authors
James R. Thompson, Wim J. Kimmerer, Larry R. Brown, Ken B. Newman, Ralph Mac Nally, William A. Bennett, Frederick Feyrer, Erica Fleishman

Biogeochemical processes in an urban, restored wetland of San Francisco Bay, California, 2007-2009: Methods and data for plant, sediment and water parameters

The restoration of 18 acres of historic tidal marsh at Crissy Field has had great success in terms of public outreach and visibility, but less success in terms of revegetated marsh sustainability. Native cordgrass (Spartina foliosa) has experienced dieback and has failed to recolonize following extended flooding events during unintended periodic closures of its inlet channel, which inhibits daily
Authors
Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Mark C. Marvin-DiPasquale, Jennifer L. Agee, Le H. Kieu, Evangelos Kakouros, Li H. Erikson, Kristen Ward

Temporal and spatial distributions of sediment mercury at salt pond wetland restoration sites, San Francisco Bay, CA, USA

Decommissioned agricultural salt ponds within south San Francisco Bay, California, are in the process of being converted to habitat for the benefit of wildlife as well as water management needs and recreation. Little is known of baseline levels of contaminants in these ponds, particularly mercury (Hg), which has a well established legacy in the Bay. In this study we described spatial and short-ter
Authors
A. Keith Miles, M.A. Ricca

Anthropogenic influence on recent bathymetric change in west-central San Francisco Bay

Two multibeam sonar surveys of west-central San Francisco Bay, California, were conducted in 1997 and 2008. Bathymetric change analysis between the two surveys indicates a loss of 14.1 million cubic meters (-3.1 cm/yr) of sediment during this time period, representing an approximately three-fold acceleration of the rate that was observed from prior depth change analysis from 1947 to 1979 for all o
Authors
Patrick L. Barnard, Rikk G. Kvitek

Wind-enhanced resuspension in the shallow waters of South San Francisco Bay: Mechanisms and potential implications for cohesive sediment transport

We investigated the driving forces of sediment dynamics at the shoals in South San Francisco Bay. Two stations were deployed along a line perpendicular to a 14 m deep channel, 1000 and 2000 m from the middle of the channel. Station depths were 2.59 and 2.19 m below mean lower low water, respectively. We used acoustic Doppler velocimeters for the simultaneous determination of current velocities, tu
Authors
Andreas Brand, Jessica R. Lacy, Kevin Hsu, Daniel Hoover, Steve Gladding, Mark T. Stacey

Selenium bioaccumulation and body condition in shorebirds and terns breeding in San Francisco Bay, California, USA

The present study evaluated Se bioaccumulation in four waterbird species (n = 206 birds) that breed within San Francisco Bay, California, USA: American avocets (Recurvirostra americana), black-necked stilts (Himantopus mexicanus), Forster's terns (Sterna forsteri), and Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia). Selenium concentrations were variable and influenced by several factors, including species, re
Authors
Joshua T. Ackerman, Collin A. Eagles-Smith

Benthic oxygen demand in three former salt ponds adjacent to south San Francisco Bay, California

Sampling trips were coordinated in the second half of 2008 to examine the interstitial water in the sediment and the overlying bottom waters of three shallow (average depth 2 meters). The water column at all deployment sites was monitored with dataloggers for ancillary water-quality parameters (including dissolved oxygen, salinity, specific conductance, temperature, and pH) to facilitate the inte
Authors
Brent R. Topping, James S. Kuwabara, Nicole D. Athearn, John Y. Takekawa, Francis Parcheso, Kathleen D. Henderson, Sara Piotter

Distribution and Joint Fish-Tag Survival of Juvenile Chinook Salmon Migrating through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, California, 2008

Acoustic telemetry was used to obtain the movement histories of 915 juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) through the lower San Joaquin River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, in 2008. Data were analyzed within a release-recapture framework to estimate survival, route distribution, and detection probabilities among three migration pathways through the Delta. The p
Authors
Christopher M. Holbrook, Russell W. Perry, Noah S. Adams

A Tidally Averaged Sediment-Transport Model for San Francisco Bay, California

A tidally averaged sediment-transport model of San Francisco Bay was incorporated into a tidally averaged salinity box model previously developed and calibrated using salinity, a conservative tracer (Uncles and Peterson, 1995; Knowles, 1996). The Bay is represented in the model by 50 segments composed of two layers: one representing the channel (>5-meter depth) and the other the shallows (0- to 5-
Authors
Megan A. Lionberger, David H. Schoellhamer

Summary of Suspended-Sediment Concentration Data, San Francisco Bay, California, Water Year 2006

Suspended-sediment concentration data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in San Francisco Bay during water-year 2006 (October 1, 2005-September 30, 2006). Optical sensors and water samples were used to monitor suspended-sediment concentration at two sites in Suisun Bay, one site in San Pablo Bay, two sites in Central San Francisco Bay, and one site in South San Francisco Bay. Sensors wer
Authors
Paul A. Buchanan, Megan A. Lionberger