Annual IEP Workshop

save the dates for the 2026 workshop - March 16-18

The annual workshop is an informal event held each spring for sharing new research results that advance science important to IEP and the larger Delta science community. The workshop features invited speakers, interactive sessions with principal investigators, a poster session, and a mentor luncheon for early career professionals.

2026 IEP Annual Workshop

March 16 - 18, 2026 at California Natural Resources Headquarters (715 P Street, Sacramento)

Call for Abstracts is now open!

Abstract Submission Form

We are now accepting abstract submissions for the 2026 IEP Annual Workshop.

Submissions are due by midnight on October 10, 2025. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Participants wishing to present an oral presentation, poster, or lightning talk, must submit an abstract (300 words or less) summarizing their contribution.
We welcome submissions from all IEP member agencies, affiliates, and stakeholders at all career levels.
Preliminary work is welcome!
Participants are limited to one abstract as presenting author but may be a contributing author on any number of others.
If you are interested in putting a session together based on a series of selected talks make sure to include that information in the submission form. Include the names of all the presenting authors and their talk titles.
Space is limited and selection is not guaranteed.
All presenters (both oral and poster) must attend the workshop in person.
Registration to attend is free.
All oral presentations will be live streamed for remote viewers.

Questions?

Contact the workshop organizers Adam Nanninga (Adam_Nanninga@fws.gov) or Christine Joab (iep@wildlife.ca.gov) for questions concerning abstract submission or the workshop in general.

Past Workshops

2025 Annual Workshop

The 2025 Annual IEP Workshop was held at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) headquarters building (715 P Street, Sacramento) from March 4 - 6, 2025. Below are materials from the workshop.

Congratulations to the award winners of the Best Early Career Talk and the Best Early Career Poster.

Awards for Best Early Career Talk

Sienna White (U.C. Berkeley) - Vertical Mixing in Dead-End Channels of the Delta (Session 14: Phytoplankton and HABs Part II)
Kim Luke (Delta Stewardship Council) - Science Action Agenda Progress Summary (Session 12: Management and Policy)
Delia Carpenter (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) - Recovering High-Frequency Plankton Dynamics from Low-Frequency Samples (Session 8: Fish Modeling)

Awards for Best Early Career Poster

Workshop Recordings

Recordings of the 3-day workshop are housed under the IEP Master List on the CDFW YouTube Channel.

2024 Annual Workshop

The 2024 Annual IEP Workshop took place at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) headquarters building (715 P Street, Sacramento) from April 23-25. Below are materials from the workshop:

Recordings of the Data Management Training Course and the 3-day IEP Workshop will be housed on the CDFW YouTube channel under the IEP Playlist.

2023 Annual Workshop

The 2023 Annual IEP Workshop took place at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Headquarters building (715 P Street, Sacramento, CA) from March 21-24. Below are materials from the workshop:

Recordings of the 3-day IEP Workshop are housed on the CDFW YouTube channel under the IEP Workshops 2023 Playlist (videos).

2022 Annual Workshop

The 2022 IEP Annual Workshop took place as a virtual Zoom Webinar event that was held from March 22 - 24.

The workshop was recorded and the session videos were posted on YouTube for viewing until June 30, 2022.

2021 Annual Workshop

The 2021 IEP Annual Workshop was a track within the Delta Stewardship Council's 11th Biennial Bay-Delta Science Conference. The theme of the conference was "Building Resilience through Diversity in Science". The presentations given during the IEP track are shown below.

April 6, 2021 (Tuesday)
IEP Special Session: The Value of Long-Term Biological Monitoring in the San Francisco Estuary
Moderator: Jim Hobbs, CDFW

The Value of Long-Term Monitoring of the San Francisco Estuary for Delta Smelt and Longfin Smelt - Trishelle Tempel, CDFW
The Influence of Environmental Conditions in Long Term Fish Abundance Data - James White, CDFW
Invasion of the Water Board Snatchers: Tridentiger Trends from the San Francisco Bay Study and Summer Townet Survey - Timothy Davis Malinich, CDFW
Fish Food, Outflow, and Management Implications: The Values of Long-term Zooplankton Monitoring in the SFE - Arthur Barros, CDFW
The Value of Long-Term Zooplankton Monitoring for Detecting Impacts of the Suisun Marsh Salinity Control Gate Managed Flow Action - Christina Burdi, CDFW

April 7, 2021 (Wednesday)
IEP Special Session: Success at Different Trophic Levels: Gaining Insight from Nutrients to Otoliths
Moderator: Stephanie Fong, CDFW

A View from the Landscape Scale: Using Spatial Variation of Nutrients and Phytoplankton Across the Delta to Identify Underlying Biogeochemical Processes - Brian Bergamaschi, USGS
Nine Years of Flow Pulses: A Synthesis of Water Quality, Plankton Subsidies and Fish Communities in the North Delta - Brittany Davis, DWR and Laura Twardochleb, DWR
I'm Not That Shallow - Surprising Similarity in Zooplankton Communities Collected at Different Depths Near Wetland Restoration Sites - Rosemary Hartman, DWR
Every Cog and Wheel: Understanding the Importance of Genomic Diversity in Central Valley Chinook Salmon - Mariah Meek, Michigan State University
Years in Their Ears: What Can Fish Earbones Tell Us About Spring-run Chinook Salmon Success in an Increasingly Volatile Climate? - Flora Cordoleani, UC Santa Cruz/NOAA

April 8, 2021 (Thursday)
IEP Special Session: Fish Habitat Spatial Arrangements: Experience from Across the Estuary and Beyond
Moderator: Christine Joab, CDFW

Four Decades of Juvenile Fish Responses to Hydroclimate: Advancing a State-Space Modeling Approach in the San Francisco Estuary - Denise Colombano, UC Berkeley
Space Jam: A Spatially Explicit History of Estuary Fish Species - Dylan Stompe, UC Davis
Suisun Marsh on the Edge of Resilience in an Era of Rapid Change - John Durand, UC Davis
Differences Between Surface and Bottom Temperatures in the Upper San Francisco Estuary: Implications for Temperature Refugia - Brian Mahardja, US Bureau of Reclamation
Investigating Longfin Smelt Utilization of Coastal Estuaries North of the San Francisco Estuary - Colin Brennan, ICF

April 9, 2021 (Friday)
IEP Special Session: Using Aquatic Surveys for Estimation and Communication: Bias, Quantification, and Display
Moderator: Steve Culberson, IEP Lead Scientist

Relative Catchability Bias Among Sampling Gears for Fish Species within the San Francisco Estuary - Speaker: Brock Huntsman, USGS
Let's Stop Guessing: Using Quantitative Tools Developed During Long-term Monitoring Review to Evaluate Survey Regime Alterations - Speaker: Jereme Gaeta, CDFW
Quantifying Changes in Gear Efficiency to Reduce Bias in Estimating Long-term Abundance Trends - Speaker: Bryan Matthias, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Real Time Tidal Excursion Mapping and Constituent Tracking, Fishery Surveys and Tools to Support Tidally Influenced Pelagic Habitat Identification - Speaker: David Osti, 34 North
Web Based Approaches to Fisheries Data Communication - Speaker: Tom Pham, UC Santa Cruz/NOAA