Tag: climate change
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Future Ancestors of Freshwater Fishes in California
By Peter B. Moyle . . . * This is a re-post of a blog originally published 09/17/2023. The Challenge We are living in the Anthropocene, an era being defined by global mass extinctions caused by humanity. While on-going and impending extinctions of birds and other terrestrial vertebrates gain the most attention, the situation with…
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Conserving California’s Freshwater Biodiversity Under Climate Change
By Ted Sommer and Jeffrey Mount Introduction The conservation of freshwater biodiversity has emerged as a global challenge. The loss of habitat and the changing climate are reducing the viability of native freshwater species worldwide—and California is no exception to this. For decades the state has struggled to protect its native species. Today, roughly half of California’s native…
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Future Ancestors of Freshwater Fishes in California
By Peter B. Moyle The Challenge We are living in the Anthropocene, an era being defined by global mass extinctions caused by humanity. While on-going and impending extinctions of birds and other terrestrial vertebrates gain the most attention, the situation with freshwater fishes (and other freshwater organisms) is as bad or worse, partly because many…
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A “Peak” into California’s Alpine Lakes and their Food Webs
By Christine A. Parisek “The Sierra Nevada is five hundred miles of rock put right. Granite freed by glaciers and lifted through clouds where water, frozen and fine, has scraped and washed it into a high country so brilliant it brings light into night.” – Willard Wyman Alpine lakes are fascinating ecosystems. They are recognized…
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Can Sacramento Valley reservoirs adapt to flooding with a warmer climate?
by Jay Lund and Ann Willis Editor’s note: This is a blog that was originally posted on 6/25/17. Since publication of the blog, there has been interesting newer research about running the San Joaquin rim dams for “functional flows” (Willis et al. 2022). This work also shows there is also an important component about…
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Endangered Freshwater Fishes: Does California Lead the World?
By Peter B. Moyle & Robert A. Leidy See Moyle and Leidy (2023) for much more detailed version of this essay. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108758826 Few things give the authors of this essay more pleasure than swimming in a California stream on a hot summer day, wearing a mask and snorkel, and observing diverse native fishes behaving naturally.…
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Is the Drought Over? Reflections on California’s Recent Flood-Drought Combo
By Andrew L. Rypel, Jay Lund, and Carson Jeffres Early January was an unusually wild ride of atmospheric rivers. Nine sizable systems produced a train of storms beginning about New Years and lasting for several weeks across almost all of California. After three years of drought, the storms reminded us that California has flood problems…
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Do largemouth bass like droughts?
By Andrew L. Rypel “The Delta is full of species that thrive in the lakes in southern Arkansas” ~Bill Bennett by Andrew Rypel As we rapidly enter another drought, long-standing questions on ecological impacts of increased temperatures, reduced water levels and flows re-emerge. This reality recently reminded me of some of my own previous work…
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Ten realities for managing the Delta
This article was originally published Feb. 26, 2013 By Peter Moyle I have been working on Delta fishes for nearly 40 years. Increasingly, I have curmudgeonly thoughts about what is needed to make the ecosystem work better. Here I present these thoughts as “Ten Realities” – statements of the obvious that are often overlooked in…
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Groundwater security, for the long term
By Lauren Adams Under recently enacted legislation, local agencies in California are required for the first time to manage groundwater pumping and recharge sustainably. The law empowers local groundwater agencies to manage and use groundwater “without causing undesirable results,” leaving it up to them to determine how to best achieve this goal. Within the next…
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Groundwater and climate change in California
By Andrew Fisher, Graham Fogg, Joshua Viers, Jay Lund, Ruth Langridge and Patricia Holden For all the talk of climate change adaptation, California has yet to comprehensively address the effects of warmer temperatures and changing weather patterns on the state’s limited groundwater resources. To start the process, several of the leading University of California faculty…
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The new ‘normal’ water year in a changing California climate
By Sarah Null and Joshua Viers For at least 20 years now, water scientists have impressed upon us the unavoidable effects of climate change already underway in California. The forecasts repeatedly call for reduced Sierra snowpack, earlier spring snowmelt, prolonged hot spells and droughts, warmer rivers stressing cold-water fish, wilder storms and sea level rise…
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Warmer water will kill off most of California’s native fishes
By Peter Moyle The peculiar pattern of rain California had this winter – virtually none in January and February – should remind us all that climate change is really happening now. “Abnormal” events will become increasingly frequent as our era of benign climate recedes. Dry winters are especially hard on native fishes that rely on…
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Ten realities for managing the Delta
By Peter Moyle I have been working on Delta fishes for about 40 years. Increasingly, I have curmudgeonly thoughts about what is needed to make the ecosystem work better. Here I present these thoughts as “Ten Realities” – statements of the obvious that are often overlooked in public debates about the system. Reality No. 1:…
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Climate change and California water – past, present and future
Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. – Charles Dudley Warner, 1897 By Jay R. Lund Talk of climate change and water in California is fraught with handwringing and delusions. Much discussion borders on alarmist or seems to presume magical abilities to precisely plan and prepare for a future climate. Here…
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An uncertain future for whitewater boating under climate change
Scott Ligare, Graduate Student Researcher, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Davis Joshua Viers, Associate Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, UC Davis Summer arrived belatedly in northern California and high snowmelt runoff is attracting adrenaline junkies seeking to raft and kayak Sierra Nevada rivers. With its many large rivers, the west slope…