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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

Phytoplankton spatial distribution in south San Francisco Bay: mesoscale and small-scale variability

Horizontal transects of surface salinity and in-vivo fluorescence indicate the existence of three distinct spatial regimes in South San Francisco Bay. A mid-Bay region of low phytoplankton biomass with little small-scale variance is bounded to the north and south by water masses having higher in-vivo fluorescence and enhanced small-scale variability. Autocorrelation analyses demonstrate that the l
Authors
Thomas M. Powell, James E. Cloern, Roy A. Walters

Persistence of an introduced mud flat community in south San Francisco Bay, California

The benthic invertebrate community inhabiting the extensive and sedimentologically homogeneous mudflats of South San Francisco Bay has demonstrated a high degree of constancy in both species composition and relative abundance among species throughout 10 yr of observation. The community, composed predominantly of introduced species with opportunistic lifestyles, is dominated numerically by Gemma ge
Authors
Frederic H. Nichols, Janet K. Thompson

Subtidal sea level and current variations in the northern reach of San Francisco Bay

Analyses of sea level and current-meter data using digital filters and a variety of statistical methods show a variety of phenomena related to non-local coastal forcing and local tidal forcing in the northern reach of San Francisco Bay, a partially mixed estuary. Low-frequency variations in sea level are dominated by non-local variations in coastal sea level and also show a smaller influence from
Authors
R. A. Walters, J. W. Gartner

Denitrification in San Francisco Bay intertidal sediments

The acetylene block technique was employed to study denitrification in intertidal estuarine sediments. Addition of nitrate to sediment slurries stimulated denitrification. During the dry season, sediment-slurry denitrification rates displayed Michaelis-Menten kinetics, and ambient NO3− + NO2− concentrations (≤26 μM) were below the apparent Km (50 μM) for nitrate. During the rainy season, when ambi
Authors
Ronald S. Oremland, Cindy Umberger, Charles W. Culbertson, Richard L. Smith

On Lagrangian residual currents with applications in south San Francisco Bay, California

The Lagrangian residual circulation has often been introduced as the sum of the Eulerian residual circulation and the Stokes' drift. Unfortunately, this definition of the Lagrangian residual circulation is conceptually incorrect because both the Eulerian residual circulation and the Stokes' drift are Eulerian variables. In this paper a classification of various residual variables are reviewed and
Authors
Ralph T. Cheng, Vincenzo Casulli

Simulation model of Skeletonema costatum population dynamics in northern San Francisco Bay, California

A pseudo-two-dimensional model is developed to simulate population dynamics of one dominant phytoplankton species (Skeletonema costatum) in northern San Francisco Bay. The model is formulated around a conceptualization of this estuary as two distinct but coupled subsystems—a deep (10–20 m) central channel and lateral areas with shallow (<2 m) water and slow circulation. Algal growth rates are gove
Authors
J. E. Cloern, R. T. Cheng

High frequency radar measurements of tidal currents flowing through San Pablo Strait, San Francisco Bay

High frequency (HF) radar measurements of the surface current averaged over the upper 0.5 m in San Pablo Strait were compared with current meter measurements of the subsurface current made at 9.4 m below mean lower low water (MLLW) over two 12.4-h tidal cycles. After averaging the radar and current meter data over two tidal cycles, a southerly (ebbing direction) surface current of 32 cm·s−1 was de
Authors
Joseph W. Maresca, Robin R. Padden, Ralph T. Cheng, Erwin Seibel

Hydrographic properties and primary productivity of San Francisco Bay waters, March 1976-July 1977

Data are presented on the quantitative relations between water chemistry and phytoplankton productivity in San Francisco Bay between March 1976 and July 1977. Spatial distributions are listed for: salinity, temperature, transmission, chlorophyll-a, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen, orthophosphate, nitrate + nitrite, nitrite, ammonia, particulate organic carbon, alkalinity, pH, pCO2, suspended sedime
Authors
Brian E. Cole, Raynol E. Herndon

Field and modeling studies of San Francisco Bay

No abstract available.
Authors
T. J. Conomos, F.H. Nichols, R. T. Cheng, D.H. Peterson