News & Special Events!

• 2025 IEP Annual Workshop

The recordings from the 2025 IEP Annual Workshop are now posted to the CDFW YouTube channel under the IEP Workshops 2025 Playlist. The Poster Forum, which houses most of the posters presented at the workshop is also live. Other workshop materials can be found on the IEP Annual Workshop page.

We would like to acknowledge the winners of the Best Early Career Talk and Poster Awards.

• Awards for Best Early Career Talk
  • Sienna White (UC Berkeley) Session 14: Phytoplankton & HABs (Part II)
    • Title: "Vertical Mixing in Dead-End Channels of the Delta"
  • Kim Luke (Delta Stewardship Council) Session 12: Management & Policy
    • Title: "Science Action Agenda Progress Summary"
  • Delia Carpenter (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) Session 8: Fish Modeling
    • Title: "Recovering High-Frequency Plankton Dynamics from Low-Frequency Samples"
• Awards for Best Early Career Poster
  • Brandy Smith (DWR) Poster Category: Habitat
    • Title: "Creating and reconnecting floodplain habitat in the Yolo Bypass: an Overview of DWR restoration projects"
  • Katie Hostetler (CDFW) Poster Category: Methodology Assessment & Improvement
    • Title: "Evaluating Image-Based Deep Learning Methods for Zooplankton Sample Processing"
  • Emma Freedman (DWR) Poster Category: Methodology Assessment & Improvement
    • Title: "Old Clips, New Tricks: Dry Fin-Clip Preservation for High-Throughput Genetic Processing"

• Invasive Non-Native Golden Mussel Discovered in Sacramento - San Joaquin

• On October 17, 2024, Golden mussels (Limnoperna fortunei) were found attached on a float near the Port of Stockton. Golden mussels are native to rivers and creeks of China and Southeast Asia. They are similar in appearance, biology, and impacts to quagga and zebra mussel, and pose a significant threat to water conveyance systems, infrastructure, and water quality. On October 31, 2024 a press release on Golden mussel detection in the California Delta was distributed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This release can be shared with water managers across the state to inform them of this discovery. More information on Golden Mussels is available on the CDFW’s Invasives web page, and questions can be directed to invasives@wildlife.ca.gov.

• Got something new to share? Contact us at iep@wildlife.ca.gov.

IEP Calendar

Check out the IEP Calendar for upcoming Project Work Team, Stakeholder Group meetings and other IEP related events!

• April 17 Estuarine Ecology Team Project Work Team Meeting 9:00 a.m. to Noon
• April 30 Tidal Wetland Project Work Team Meeting 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

IEP Blogs and Videos

Make sure to subscribe to receive the latest posts!

• Views from the Water - A blog by our IEP survey field crew members
• Science Stories: Adventures in Bay-Delta Data - A blog by Rosemary Hartman (DWR), one of IEP's Synthesis Team members
• IEP Playlist on YouTube - collection of videos from IEP activities (e.g. Annual Workshop, Monitoring and Synthesis, DS Model Workshop)

Featured Survey

• Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM)

The Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM) program started its 2024 Phase 3 sampling program for juvenile and sub-adult Delta Smelt on July 1, 2024. In order to improve our ability to make inferences about the population, sampling effort is being focused on geographic areas where Delta Smelt are likely to be caught based on historical data. Sampling locations are generated using a generalized random-tessellation stratified (GRTS) design (Stevens 2004) with stratification and equal probability sampling. Trawling gear similar to that used in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Spring Kodiak Trawl Survey is used to conduct multiple tows per site. More information regarding this survey and past reports can be found at website maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Featured Publications

• Mahardja and 6 co-authors share a publication found in the San Francisco Estuary & Watershed Science titled Heatwaves and Rising Temperatures in the Upper San Francisco Estuary: Trends and Effects on Ecosystems and Humans. The goal of the paper is "...to identify key effects and uncertainties that surround heatwaves and rising temperatures in the upper estuary, which can subsequently be used to develop adaptation strategies and tools to manage such effects."

Featured Dataset Publications

• The UC Davis Suisun Marsh Fish Study (1980-2024) data package was published on EDI.
  • The main purpose of the study has been to determine natural and human-caused factors affecting fish and invertebrate distribution and abundance.
• Got something new to share? Contact us at iep@wildlife.ca.gov.

Featured Websites

• Seasonal Monitoring Report(opens in new tab)
  The seasonal monitoring report was created to provide managers with an overview of the trends associated with different environmental ad biological parameters in the system. The IEP Seasonal Monitoring Report presents the full time series for selected water quality, plankton, and fisheries surveys conducted by IEP in a single graphical report. Time series are presented separately for 3 major regions: Delta, Suisun, and San Pablo Bay. The report is developed by the IEP Synthesis Team, and reviewed by the Science Management Team and Coordinators before publication.
• Frontiers for Young Minds(opens in new tab)
  Where the river meets the ocean - Stories from San Francisco Estuary