ARCHIVE
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Approaches to Water Planning
by Jay Lund “Structured decision-making” and “decision biases” are all the rage, but methods to structure and make better decisions have been common for centuries. A recent paper reviews structured approaches to water planning and policy discussions (Lund 2021). This blog post summarizes these approaches for practical water planning problems. Rational Planning “Rational” planning is…
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FEMA’s Community Rating System: Worth the Effort?
by Jesse Gourevitch and Nicholas Pinter In response to growing threats of climate change, the US federal government is increasingly supporting community-level investments in resilience to natural hazards (Executive Order 14008, 2021; Lempert et al., 2018). As such federal programs become more widespread, evaluating their efficiency and effectiveness becomes essential. The Community Rating System (CRS),…
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Rice & salmon, what a match!
By: Andrew L. Rypel, Derrick J. Alcott, Paul Buttner, Alex Wampler, Jordan Colby, Parsa Saffarinia, Nann Fangue and Carson A. Jeffres Long-time followers of this blog may have tracked the evolution of our salmon-rice work for some time. The work originated most strongly with the “The Nigiri Project” in the early 2000s, building from important…
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California’s 2022 Water Year – Both Wet and Dry
by Jay Lund After two years of solid drought, and four months into California’s “wet” season, we don’t know if this year will be wet or dry. This is normal for California. But this year’s monthly precipitation “whiplash” is unusual. For northern California, October was the 2nd wettest October in 102 years of record…
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The Journey to Science Friday
by Miranda Bell Tilcock I published my first manuscript in January 2021, titled “Advancing diet reconstruction in fish eye lenses” in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Publication and the subsequent press release led to quite the whirlwind of attention and interviews. The most notable was being featured on Science Friday. This was unexpected and the…
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Who governs California’s drinking water systems?
By Kristin Dobbin and Amanda Fencl A key feature of California’s drinking water system is the large number of individual water systems. There are approximately 3,000 Community Water Systems (CWSs) in the state, meaning systems that serve a residential population year-round (the remaining 5,000 of the state’s 8,000 Public Water Systems are non-community systems serve…
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From buckets to umbrellas: fish conservation before the storm
By Alyssa Obester, Rob Lusardi, Sarah Yarnell, Ryan Peek, and Nick Santos Fish need water. While minimum flows and other emergency-response approaches might save some fishes during crises, such “bucket-based” approaches are insufficient in the long-term. For example, biologists in the Owens Valley saved the Owens pupfish from extinction by translocating individuals via buckets; however,…
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Continued drought early in a possibly wet year
by Jay Lund California’s 2021 calendar year is over, but its 2022 Water Year (which started October 2021) is already three months old and still early in its wet season. So far this wet season is actually wet. It is a good time to assess the condition of the present drought and whether it is…
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California Waterblog 2021 “Wrapped”
by Christine A. Parisek and Andrew L. Rypel “The wait is over. Your [California Waterblog 2021 Wrapped] is here.” As we embark on another new year, we reflect and earnestly thank all of our readers, partners, authors, and friends. Studying water management challenges is complex and requires vision, transdisciplinary thinking, team science, and motivated people.…
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A Fishmas Carol: Ghosts of Salmons’ Pasts
by Kelly Neal Here is a story not quite like the one you have heard before, but echoes a similar tune as traditional lore. California salmon are at a precipice with conservation attempting to mitigate threats of climate change, habitat loss, and genetic simplification. Yet today, we have the knowledge and tools to create a…
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Defending ‘Rough Fish’
by Andrew L. Rypel Have any of you ever reached a tipping point with some topic, issue, or bone-to-pick? Well, one benefit of being a tenured professor is the ability to speak up when you feel like the science or data call for it. And so, after many years of silent stewing, I finally decided…
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A Recorded Conversation with Dr. Peter B. Moyle
With John Durand Dr. Peter Moyle was the main reason that I came to UC Davis fifteen years ago to study the confusing ecology of the San Francisco Estuary. Peter is a Distinguished Professor of Fish Biology, Emeritus, and one of the first people back in the 1970s to seriously study the diversity of California…
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Science of an underdog: the improbable comeback of spring-run Chinook salmon in the San Joaquin River
By Andrew L. Rypel, Gabriel Singer, and Nann A. Fangue “You can’t design a worse evolutionary strategy for the Anthropocene” There are many variants on this quote, and we’ve heard them often in reference to the status of native fishes in California and other freshwater organisms worldwide. Indeed, the statement rings true for Pacific salmon,…
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How dry will 2022 be?
by Jay Lund Last year, Northern California had very little precipitation in October and November, and we wondered if California was entering into a multi-year drought. Today, we know – last year became the 3rd driest year on record for northern California, in terms of precipitation. This water year, so far This year, Northern California…
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Adjusting past hydrology for changes in climate
by Jay Lund Segal’s Law: “Someone with one watch knows what time it is. Someone with two watches is never sure.” Time is certain, but its estimation and measurement are uncertain, yet we are not in total ignorance. Many water management and regulation decisions require an understanding of current and future hydrology. These include regulatory…
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Which species will survive? Climate change enhances the vulnerability of California freshwater fishes to severe drought
By Peter Moyle As I write this on an October weekend, rain is falling steadily in Davis and has been for most of the day. This is the first real rain we have had in over seven months. But it is not the end of the drought. Multiple storms are needed. The landscape is a…
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Managing Water Stored for the Environment During Drought
By Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Michael Dettinger, Kristen Dybala, Gokce Sencan, Anna Sturrock, Barton “Buzz” Thompson, Harrison “HB” Zeff Introduction Storing water in reservoirs is important for maintaining freshwater ecosystem health and protecting native species. Stored water also is essential for adapting to the changing climate, especially warming and drought intensification. Yet, reservoir…
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Can one atmospheric river end California’s drought?
By Andrew L. Rypel and Jay Lund Given the quantity and intensity of last week’s rain, an obvious question is: ‘Is the drought over?’ Alas, the answer is a resounding no. But, the data are interesting and worth thinking about in more detail. As of now, the 8 station index in the northern Sierra registers…
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Fish eyes: the hidden diet journal
by Miranda Bell-Tilcock It is strange to think of an eye as a diet journal, but a fish’s eye can tell much about what it has been eating at each point in its life. If we know what a fish has been eating and when, then we can figure out where a fish has been.…
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Sometimes, studying the variation is the interesting thing
By Andrew L. Rypel As scientists, we’re trained to key in on ‘response variables’. In my case, fisheries scientists often examine how fish physiology, populations, communities or whole ecosystems react to various environmental drivers or human alteration. Unfortunately, variation in data is too frequently looked upon as a nuisance, an after thought, or worse –…