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| value | Extreme events on the coast of California include storm surges and prolong drought which are projected to increase in severity and frequency with climate change. When coupled with sea-level rise the consequences to ecosystems could be severe. We propose 3 objectives to meet this goal: (1) Assess data on weather, water levels, salinity, and water quality to examine drought and storm conditions in estuaries, (2) Examine the relationship between physical and wetland biological data, and (3) Develop a systems model to help inform how tidal wetland processes are impacted during these types of climatic events, a key management question identified by resource managers. Combined climate stressors can drastically change the current estuarine ecosystem composition and function, impacting the ecosystem services they provide to people and wildlife. This project will build upon work funded by the SW CSC and others to inform this emerging management concern. This project will also partner with an ongoing project led by the PI for the NW CSC assessing ecological drought in estuaries by extending the methodology to northern and central CA. We will leverage existing physical and biological datasets of weather, river discharge rates, salinity, water quality, water levels, wetland accretion, plant productivity, and habitat for the 2014/2015 El Niño, 2016/2017 Atmospheric River storms, and drought conditions since 2012.Products will include a final report, manager updates, and at least 3 peer-reviewed publications. Results will be presented at local and regional conferences (e.g., Bay Delta Conference) and via a LCC webinar. All data and products will be made available on ScienceBase.gov. This project will partner with Universities (UCLA, OSU), USGS (WERC, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center) and will leverage existing relationships with land managers including federal, state, local agencies (CA Dep. of Fish & Wildlife, USFWS, NOAA NERR, State Parks,Navy, SWIA). This project will partially support a PI, two early career scientists and a GIS and data specialist. |
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