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Introduction

Join with us in discovering San Francisco Bay Ecosystem............

• The San Francisco Bay and Delta - An Estuary Undergoing Change

  This paper for the USGS Yearbook explains how the bay and delta have been impacted over time and how the San Francisco Bay Ecosystem Program will help policymakers maintain these precious resources.

• USGS Provides Long-Term Perspective for Integrated Science

  The unique value USGS brings to study of an ecosystem like San Francisco Bay comes in its long-term perspective and integrated science. This spectacular image shows the region in 50 year time slices starting just after the Gold Rush. Each map shows urban extent, tidal wetlands, and major earthquakes.

WHAT'S NEW

USGS geophysist John Boatwright is the co-author of a report by the Association of Bay Area Governments called On Shaky Ground. This report and the accompanying earthquake shaking hazard maps have been visited by 100,000 Netsurfers in its first week (May 4-11, 1995)! See what all the excitement is about.

In mid-March, floodwaters from the Central Valley of California entered San Francisco Bay at Mallard Island and carried large quantities of suspended sediment. Data from the USGS California District suspended-sediment monitoring site at Mallard Island is now available for both the January and March floods. The magnitude and duration of the mid-March event was less than observed in January. An acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) has been deployed at Mallard Island since late January and, upon successful recovery, should provide velocity data that can be used with the measured suspended-sediment concentrations to estimate suspended-sediment fluxes.

Context

• Landsat imagery
• animations of tidal currents and salt transport in the bay,
• hydroclimatic movies,
• documentation of how high runoff periods result in increased concentration of diazinon,
• recent earthquake activity updated daily,
• a paper on the Role of Climate in Estuarine Variability,
• our extensive Bibliography.

• Measurement of Delta Flows(Oltmann)
• Salt transport and entrapment mechanisms in Suisun Bay (Burau)
• Freshwater inflow variability- hydroclimatic forcings and salinity responses (Cayan)
• Suspended-sediment dynamics in Suisun Bay (Schoellhamer)
• Near-bottom particulate transport in San Francisco Bay (Cacchione)
• How should we allocate spatial sampling to describe critical habitat
• Transport of dissolved and sediment-bound pesticides (Kuivila)
• In situ ecosystem effects of trace contaminants in the San Francisco Bay Estuary: The necessary link to establishing water quality standards (Thompson)
• Wetlands change detection in the San Francisco Bay ecosystem from remotely sensed images (Chavez)
• Historical bay-floor and shoreline changes in the San Francisco Bay ecosystem (Jaffe)
• Meteorological and flow variability at wetlands sites in the S. F. Bay ecosystem (Dingler)
• Geochemical studies of anthropogenic and biogenic indicators at the Sonoma
• Access USGS -- San Francisco Bay (Gaydos)

Other Resources

General Disclaimer

Please note that some U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) information accessed through this page may be preliminary in nature and presented prior to final review and approval by the Director of the USGS. This information is provided with the understanding that it is not guaranteed to be correct or complete and conclusions drawn from such information are the sole responsibility of the user.

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