| SS9.01 Ecosystem Science Practiced in an Urbanized Estuary: South San Francisco Bay |
| Shellenbarger, G, G, U.S. Geological Survey, Sacramento, USA, gshellen@usgs.gov |
| Schoellhamer, D, H, U.S. Geological Survey, Sacramento, USA, dschoell@usgs.gov |
| Lionberger, M, A, U.S. Geological Survey, Sacramento, USA, mlionber@usgs.gov |
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| A SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO BAY SEDIMENT BUDGET: WETLAND RESTORATION AND POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON PHYTOPLANKTON BLOOMS |
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| Evaporative salt pond restoration has the potential to alter the sediment budget and phytoplankton dynamics of South San Francisco Bay (SSFB). The USGS used a bay-wide, calibrated, 2-dimensional sediment box model to develop a sediment budget specific to SSFB. The sediment input in the model comes from tributary inflows, sediment removal is from wetland deposition, and suspended sediment exchanges with the bed and the rest of San Francisco Bay. The model results indicate that the addition of 9.4 km2 of Alviso salt evaporation ponds A9-A16 as a 50 percent efficient sediment sink decreases SSFB suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC) an average of 7 percent for water years 1995-2001. The additional pond area increases the vertical and horizontal SSC clearing rates described in the conceptual framework for phytoplankton growth response to water column clearing developed by Christine May and colleagues in 2003. Thus, restoring salt ponds to wetlands can affect phytoplankton population dynamics, although inter-annual variability of benthic grazing rates on the shoals can have a greater influence on controlling phytoplankton populations than the increase in SSC clearing rates. |
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