Salinity Trends, Variability, and Control in the Northern Reach of the San Francisco Estuary

Enright, C.A. Madramootoo And P.; Culberson, Steven D.

doi:10.15447/sfews.2009v7iss2art3

Cited by 34 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Trend analyses were performed over the entire period of record (WYs 1922–2015) and over two sub‐intervals: WYs 1922–1967 and 1968–2015. These intervals were defined to coincide with Enright and Culberson's () “pre” and “post” water project periods, corresponding to the completion of the CVP and the SWP by the late 1960s. These intervals segregate the record into two periods of near‐equal duration: the earlier period representing a time of rapid watershed change and the later period representing a time of more limited change.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Freshwater flow to the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary over nine decades (Part 1): Trend evaluation

Hutton¹,

Rath

Roy

2017

Hydrological Processes

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The San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and its upstream watershed have been highly modified since exploration and settlement by Europeans in the mid-18th century. Although these hydrologic alterations supported the growth of California's economy to the eighth largest in the world, they have been accompanied by significant declines in native aquatic species and subsequent efforts to reverse these declines through flow management. To inform ongoing deliberations on management of freshwater flows to the estuary, we examined a recent nine-decade hydrologic record to evaluate seasonal and annual trends in reported Delta outflow. Statistically significant trends were observed in seasonal outflows, with decreasing trends observed in 4 months (February, April, May, and November) and increasing trends observed in 2 months (July and August). Trend significance in early-to-mid autumn (September and October) is ambiguous due to uncertainty associated with in-Delta agricultural water use. In spite of increasing water use over the period examined, we found no statistically significant annual trend in Delta outflow, a result likely due to large interannual variability. Linkages between outflow trends and changes in upstream flows and coincident developments such as reservoir construction and operation, out-of-basin imports and exports, and expansion of irrigated agriculture are discussed. To eliminate inter-annual variability as a factor, change attribution is explored using modelled flows and fixed climatology in a companion paper. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Enright and Culberson () explored changes in Delta outflow over the period WYs 1930–2006. They found, in a manner similar to Knowles (), that the effect of natural variability was much greater than that of water project operations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freshwater flow to the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary over nine decades (Part 1): Trend evaluation

Hutton¹,

Rath

Roy

2017

Hydrological Processes

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“…2, Table 2). One of the largest water development projects in the world annually withdraws as much as 70% of the freshwater flows of the rivers of the Bay-Delta (Holmes 2012), which has altered the hydrologic gradient, pulling saltwater into previously freshwater areas (Williams 1989, CCW District 2010, Enright and Culberson 2010. The catchment is also projected to receive lower overall precipitation, and a lower proportion as snowfall, resulting in high winter flows and reduced spring and summer flows, allowing further seawater intrusion at ecologically important times of the year (Parker et al 2012).…”

Section: Salinization Of Coastal Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global perspective on wetland salinization: ecological consequences of a growing threat to freshwater wetlands

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Salinization, a widespread threat to the structure and ecological functioning of inland and coastal wetlands, is currently occurring at an unprecedented rate and geographic scale. The causes of salinization are diverse and include alterations to freshwater flows, land-clearance, irrigation, disposal of wastewater effluent, sea level rise, storm surges, and applications of de-icing salts. Climate change and anthropogenic modifications to the hydrologic cycle are expected to further increase the extent and severity of wetland salinization. Salinization alters the fundamental physicochemical nature of the soil-water environment, increasing ionic concentrations and altering chemical equilibria and mineral solubility. Increased concentrations of solutes, especially sulfate, alter the biogeochemical cycling of major elements including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, iron, and silica. The effects of salinization on wetland biogeochemistry typically include decreased inorganic nitrogen removal (with implications for water quality and climate regulation), decreased carbon storage (with implications for climate regulation and wetland accretion), and increased generation of toxic sulfides (with implications for nutrient cycling and the health/functioning of wetland biota). Indeed, increased salt and sulfide concentrations induce physiological stress in wetland biota and ultimately can result in large shifts in wetland communities and their associated ecosystem functions. The productivity and composition of freshwater species assemblages will be highly altered, and there is a high potential for the disruption of existing interspecific interactions. Although there is a wealth of information on how salinization impacts individual ecosystem components, relatively few studies have addressed the complex and often non-linear feedbacks that determine ecosystem-scale responses or considered how wetland salinization will affect landscape-level processes. Although the salinization of wetlands may be unavoidable in many cases, these systems may also prove to be a fertile testing ground for broader ecological theories including (but not limited to): investigations into alternative stable states and tipping points, trophic cascades, disturbance-recovery processes, and the role of historical events and landscape context in driving community response to disturbance.

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“…Structure at intermediate scales includes floodplains, wetlands, and ponds, which may have local effects on salinity, turbidity, stratification, residence time, temperature, productivity and dissolved oxygen (Enright and Culberson 2009;Lehman et al 2009;Enright et al 2013). For example, emergent wetlands influence local water quality and food production (Simenstad et al 1999;Simenstad 2007, 2011).…”

Section: Structure and Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Conceptual Model of the Aquatic Food Web of the Upper San Francisco Estuary

Durand¹

2015

SFEWS

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Salinity Trends, Variability, and Control in the Northern Reach of the San Francisco Estuary

Cited by 34 publications

References 19 publications

Freshwater flow to the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary over nine decades (Part 1): Trend evaluation

Freshwater flow to the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary over nine decades (Part 1): Trend evaluation

A global perspective on wetland salinization: ecological consequences of a growing threat to freshwater wetlands

A Conceptual Model of the Aquatic Food Web of the Upper San Francisco Estuary

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