IEP Stakeholders News

Greetings IEP Community members,

Please see the announcement below from the Delta Science Program regarding the opening of registration for their May 31, 2024 Food Web Dynamics Symposium.

Please share this announcement with others who may be interested.

Registration Open: Understanding Food Web Dynamics from the San Francisco Estuary to the Pacific Ocean

RESERVE YOUR TICKET

The University of California Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute and the Delta Science Program are hosting a one-day symposium exploring food webs research from the San Francisco Estuary to the Pacific Ocean in the International Center Multipurpose Room at UC Davis on May 31, 2024, beginning at 9:00 AM.

This symposium will bring together food web experts from the United States Geological Survey, California State Water Resources Control Board, UC Berkeley, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and more to discuss three major topic areas.

• Modeling will address ways of using data to capture complexity, uncover hidden relationships, and generate predictions across large scales.
• Empirical Studies will feature recent site-specific research that provide generalizable insights and inform modeling.
• Management Strategies will feature applied research that offers novel solutions to food web management.

The symposium is free to attend, both in person and virtually, but attendees must reserve their tickets.

What exactly is a food web?

Food webs describe the feeding relationships and flows of energy and nutrients among species. They are long recognized as affecting ecosystem functions, dynamics, and more. Understanding food webs in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – part of one of the largest estuaries on the west coast – is critical to successful ecosystem-based management.

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

Please see the announcements below concerning several items of interest.

2024 IEP Annual Workshop

The 2024 IEP Annual Workshop will be April 23-25, 2024. The workshop is a hybrid event with the in-person event held in the auditorium of the California Natural Resources Agency Headquarters building. Registration to attend in-person will be closing April 8, so don't forget to reserve your in-person tickets today. Visit our EventBrite registration page.

For remote attendees, make sure to register on the Zoom 2024 IEP Workshop registration page. The remote registration page will remain open until the end of the workshop. Visit the IEP Annual Workshop web page for more information.

2024 Bay Delta Science Conference - Save the Date

Delta Stewardship Council and U.S. Geological Survey are pleased to announce that the 12th Biennial Bay-Delta Science Conference will be held in person at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento, CA September 30 - October 2, 2024.
 
The theme will be “Cultivating Connections for a Dynamically Changing Environment”. Just as cultivation can nurture the development of a sapling into a tree and the growth of many trees into a resilient forest, connection and cultivation will magnify our positive impact as practitioners, inhabitants, and stewards of the Bay-Delta facing the multiple challenges inherent in rapid change. Embracing connections across ways of knowing, disciplines, and geographies will be the key to fruitful adaptation.
 
A call for abstracts for oral and poster presentations will be released soon, with registration opening shortly after.

Delta Science Program's Call for Proposals: 2025 Delta Research Awards

The Delta Science Program, in partnership with California Sea Grant, has released its call for proposals for the 2025 Research Awards.

With $6 million available for research funding, the Delta Science Program is looking for projects integrated with natural resource managers, community groups, or Tribes and directly addressing the priority science actions identified in the 2022-2026 Science Action Agenda. Proposals with a substantial social science component will be eligible for additional points during the review process.

Letters of Intent are due May 14, 2024. Full proposals are due August 26, 2024.

Visit the solicitation web page for application instructions and more information about the Delta Science Program’s research awards.

Greetings IEP Community members,

Aspecial issue of SFEWS(SFEWS Volume 22, Issue 1 | March 2024) was recently published that includes 5 articles from the Drought Synthesis Team.

Special Issue on Effects of Drought on the Ecology of the Upper San Francisco Estuary

Droughts have major effects on estuaries because freshwater entry is one of the defining features of an estuary, and freshwater flow is an important variable that determines the interannual change in the environment. In the upper San Francisco Estuary (the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, Suisun Bay, and Suisun Marsh), the Mediterranean climate includes frequent multi-year droughts. In addition, aquatic invasive species have drastically changed how the San Francisco Estuary functions. During the past 2 decades, the effects of invasive species in the estuary may have increased in response to frequent and severe drought conditions. With increased frequency of droughts in the future, this increasingly low-outflow, warming, clearing estuary—which is invaded by non-native species and has low pelagic fish production—is rapidly becoming the new “normal.”

Research

• The Anatomy of a Drought in the Upper San Francisco Estuary: Water Quality and Lower-Trophic Responses to Multi-Year Droughts Over a Long-Term Record (1975–2021)
  David H. Bosworth, Samuel M. Bashevkin, Keith Bouma-Gregson, Rosemary Hartman, Elizabeth B. Stumpner
• Delta Blue(green)s: The Effects of Drought and Drought Management Actions on Microcystis in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta
  Keith Bouma-Gregson, David H. Bosworth, Theodore M. Flynn, Amanda Maguire, Jenna Rinde, Rosemary Hartman
• Years of Drought and Salt: Decreasing Flows Determine the Distribution of Zooplankton Resources in the San Francisco Estuary
  Arthur Barros, Rosemary Hartman, Samuel M. Bashevkin, Christina E. Burdi
• Amazing Graze: Shifts in Jellyfish and Clam Distributions During Dry Years in the San Francisco Estuary
  Rosemary Hartman, Laura Twardochleb, Christina E. Burdi, Elizabeth H. Wells
• Dry Me a River: Ecological Effects of Drought in the Upper San Francisco Estuary
  Rosemary Hartman, Elizabeth B. Stumpner, Christina E. Burdi, David H. Bosworth, Amanda Maguire, Interagency Ecological Program Drought Synthesis Team

A huge thank you to the entire Drought Synthesis team that made it happen!

Team members

Rosemary Hartman, Elizabeth Stumpner, David H. Bosworth, Amanda Maguire, Christina E. Burdi, Arthur Barros, Samuel M. Bashevkin, Keith Bouma-Gregson, Ted Flynn, Jared Frantzich, Jereme Gaeta, Brett Harvey, April Hennessy, Elizabeth Keller, Peter Nelson, Sarah Perry, Nick Rasmussen, Jenna Rinde, Tyler Salman, Evan Sawyer, Steven Slater, Laura Twardochleb, Elizabeth Wells

Greetings IEP Community Members,

Please see the announcement below from the Kevin Clark of the Department of Water Resources regarding an upcoming hands-on training on the Ecological Particle Tracking Model of DSM2.
Please share this announcement with others who may be interested.

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

DWR Modeling Support Office and USGS Western Fisheries Research Center will hold a hands-on training on the Ecological Particle Tracking Model (ECO-PTM) of DSM2 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in-person in Sacramento and online via Teams.

ECO-PTM is an individual-based particle tracking model that can track the movement of three types of particles: neutrally buoyant particles, position-oriented particles (commonly used to evaluate the impacts on Longfin smelt larvae), and juvenile salmon (in terms of migration and survival through the Delta). The model has been used for various water resources management projects. In the training session, we will provide an overview of the model and hands-on exercises. Attending the training in person is strongly recommended if you want to participate in hands-on exercises (the attendees will need to bring their own laptops).

If you are interested in attending the training, please fill out the RSVP survey by Friday, April 12, 2024.

We will share the Teams link for the training with those who RSVPed. Due to the limited amount of time during the training for the hands-on exercises, we request that all participants have their laptops set up prior to the training. We will schedule a virtual Teams meeting at 12pm Monday, April 15 with those who RSVPed to provide guidance on setting up your laptop to run ECO-PTM during the training. For those who cannot attend the April 15 setup meeting, limited laptop setup support will be provided on-site right before the training starts.

The prerequisite for this training is the DSM2 Quick Start Training. View the Videos from the Quick Start training. The presentation documents are available on the CADWR Delta Modeling/DSM2 Learning Series GitHub page.

Cheers:
Kevin

Kevin Clark | Environmental Program Manager I
ITP/BiOP Coordination | Division of Integrated Science and Engineering

Greetings IEP Community,

DWR plans to honor Dr. Jan Thompson for her leadership in aquatic ecology and collaborative science in a virtual event at noon on Monday, March 25th and you are invited to join the event!

This will be the second annual presentation of the Sierra Nevada Phillips Award for Women in Water Resource Sciences, which DWR presents to recognize women that are leaders in advancing knowledge, capacity, and community engagement in the sciences for stewarding our water resources. The award is presented in March in recognition of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

In case you don’t already know Dr. Thompson and her accomplishments: this award will recognize her leadership at the US Geological Survey in aquatic ecology, and her exemplary mentorship. Her leadership has paved the way for the next generation of scientists in her field, including many women scientists that now hold their own careers in aquatic ecology or leadership positions for the applied sciences.

See the Save the Date flyer (pdf) for the registration link!

Louise Conrad, PhD
Lead Scientist
Department of Water Resources
Executive Division

Greetings IEP Community Members,

Everyone has been waiting in anticipation for the 2024 IEP Annual Workshop. Registration opens this Friday, March 15, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. PDT.

Registration Links

The registration links are posted on the IEP Annual Workshop web page. The workshop is a free, hybrid event that will be hosted April 23-25, 2024 at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) building (715 P Street, Sacramento).

In-Person Registration

Want to attend the workshop in-person? Register on our EventBrite 2024 IEP Annual Workshop Registration page. Registration opens March 15 at 7:00 a.m. PDT.

Live presentations will be given in the CNRA auditorium (1st floor), and posters will be showcased on the 2nd floor (rooms 2-221B+C). Seating is limited in the auditorium for the live presentations, so reservations are required. Tickets for the in-person event will be distributed on a first come, first served basis. Once seating capacity in the auditorium is reached for each day, then only remote attendance will be available for that day.

The building is open to the public, so no reservations are required to see the posters on the 2nd floor. An overflow seating area is located in room 2-221 A next to the poster session, where ~30 participants can watch the live stream of the presentations in the auditorium.

Remote Attendance Registration

For those who cannot come in-person, they can watch the live stream of the presentations on Zoom. Registration for Zoom remote attendance is also posted on the IEP Annual Workshop web page.

April 18 Remote Data Training Course & Registration

A remote Data Training Course is being offered on April 18. Check out the Data Training Course flyer (pdf) for more information.

Complete the IEP Data Training Course Registration Form to secure your spot!

Workshop Program, Abstract Booklet, and Area Guide

• Workshop Program (pdf)
• Abstract Booklet (pdf)
• Area Guide (pdf)

Transportation & Parking

The California Natural Resources Building (CNRA) is in downtown Sacramento. Parking is available on the street, in parking garages and lots located nearby. The Sacramento Regional Transit has bus and light rail stations also located near the CNRA building. Review the Area Guide for information on parking and transportation options.

Food

The California Natural Resources Building does not allow any food or drink inside the auditorium.

A food vendor (Jesse’s Getaway Café) is located inside the building on the first floor and there are additional food establishments within walking distance of the building. Review the Area Guide for information on available food options nearby.

Accommodation Needs

Do you have an accommodation need while in-person at the workshop? For example, the need of a hearing assistive device in the auditorium, elevator access to the 2nd floor poster session, or the use of a lactation room at the CNRA Building? If so, send an email to iep@wildlife.ca.gov prior to the workshop.

Workshop Posters and Workshop Recordings

Poster abstracts and images will be shared later on the IEP online Poster Discussion Forum after the workshop. The presentations in the auditorium will be recorded and made available after the workshop under the IEP Workshops Playlist on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife YouTube channel.

Any other questions on the workshop and registration can be sent to iep@wildlife.ca.gov.

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

Just some general announcements to share on the IEP Workshop and a new Food Web paper that was recently published.

IEP Workshop Early Career Scientist Luncheon - Registration Now Open!

This year, the IEP workshop is offering both in-person and virtual mentoring luncheons! Both the in-person and virtual luncheons will be held on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, as part of this year's IEP workshop. The luncheon is aimed at connecting early career and new professionals working on the Bay-Delta with professionals who are more familiar with the community of researchers, managers, and conservation/natural resource practitioners who are more familiar with the issues, priorities, and professional opportunities. We encourage attendance by mentors and mentees with a wide range of interests, expertise, and experiences.

Luncheon Registration

If you are interested in attending the luncheon as either a mentor or mentee, please complete this Registration Questionnaire by Monday, March 4. Both the virtual and in-person luncheon will be limited to 25-30 people (mentees and mentors), with participation based on the order in which people sign up.

The in-person luncheon will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. on the 2nd floor of the California Natural Resources Building in Room 2-301. Lunch will be provided by the building's Getaway Café. The virtual luncheon will be held from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. via MS Teams. Mentors and mentees will be placed in separate breakout rooms to facilitate conversation, with mentees having the opportunity to move to other rooms.

Thank you to the State Water Contractors for sponsoring the in-person luncheon!

Please contact Kristi Arend (karend@usbr.gov) with any questions.

Please share this email with others who may be interested. This information has also been sent to the IEP Workshop listserv and posted on the IEP Workshop web page.

New Food Web Paper

A new article titled “Evaluating top‐down, bottom‐up, and environmental drivers of pelagic food web dynamics along an estuarine gradient” is out in Ecology. This work was part of the NCEAS workshops which started in 2021 and utilized structural equation modeling with four decades of long-term monitoring data to evaluate drivers of the SFE food web. The integrated dataset has also been published on EDI.

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

We were kindly requested to share the information below with the IEP community.

Register Now!
Review of the Long-Term Operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project
Meeting 2, In-person & Virtual

February 28, 2024 | 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST
February 29, 2024 | 9:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. PST
Hyatt Place UC Davis
173 Old Davis Rd
Davis, CA 95616

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Along with the State Water Project, the Central Valley Project (CVP)  moves millions of acre-feet of water south from Northern California to a wide variety of water users throughout the state. Join the National Academies Water Science and Technology Board and Ocean Studies Board for the second meeting of the committee reviewing the long-term operations of the CVP on February 28 and 29.

This information-gathering meeting will feature presentations on the operations, monitoring, and modeling relevant to the Delta smelt summer/fall habitat action and Old and Middle River management, a panel of interested stakeholders, and an open mic session. Registrants can join virtually or in-person. To learn more about attending in-person and to obtain the meeting agenda, visit the event page.

Learn More
Learn more about this study by visiting the project page.
If you have a question about this event, email Maya Frey at mfrey@nas.edu.

Greetings IEP Community Members,

The Delta Stewardship Council's Delta Lead Scientist Interview Panel would like for us to share their announcement regarding their upcoming seminars and meet and greet opportunities with the candidates for the Lead Scientist.

The Delta Stewardship Council in partnership with the United States Geological Survey and in with consultation from the Delta Independent Science Board (ISB) is recruiting the next Lead Scientist for the Delta Science Program whose term will begin in the summer 2024. Two candidates are currently under consideration for the appointment: Dr. Gary Lamberti (University of Notre Dame) and Dr. Lisamarie Windham-Myers (United States Geological Survey). As part of the selection process, the Delta Lead Scientist Interview Panel (an advisory committee of the Delta ISB) is hosting seminars, and meet and greets with each of the candidates. This will provide an opportunity for the community at large to learn about each of the candidate’s research and experience and how it applies to the position during the seminar, and to ask general questions related to their interest in the position during the meet and greet.

We would like to invite you to attend these seminars and meet and greet opportunities.

• The first seminar will occur on February 22, 2024, at 10:00 AM, at the California Natural Resources Agency where Dr. Lamberti will present a seminar titled “The Past, Present, and Future of Water Science (see agenda for details). If you can’t make it in-person, you can also participate via Zoom.(Zoom registration)
• The second seminar will occur on March 11, 2024, at 10:00 AM, at the California Natural Resources Agency where Dr. Windam-Myers will present a seminar titled “eMerging perspectives of the Land Ocean Aquatic Continuum (LOAC).” (Agenda will be distributed closer to meeting date). If you can't make it in-person, you can participate via Zoom. (Zoom registration)

The seminars/meet and greets will occur on the second floor, and there is no need to check in with security if you use the stairs. The seminar will be webcast and recorded. Additional information about these seminars and meet and greet opportunities, including webcast links and recordings, can be found on the Delta lead scientist webpage.

Please email the Delta Independent Science Board if you have any questions or feedback on the candidates after their seminar/meet and greet.

Happy 2024 IEP Stakeholders!

Here is information on our upcoming February 14, 2024 PWT Chair & Stakeholder Group meeting as well as some other announcements on new publications and datasets and the IEP Annual Workshop.

February 14 IEP PWT Chair & Stakeholder Meeting

• February 14 meeting agenda (PDF)

New Publications and Updated Datasets

Several new publications and updates of datasets came out in 2023 along with some recent publications in 2024. Below is a subset of the information. To find more recent publications of interest, check out the monthly refresh of the IEP Home page to see our featured surveys, publications and datasets. If you have any to share with the IEP community, send us an email at iep@wildlife.ca.gov.

• USFWS paper on seventy years of Central Valley hatchery steelhead data
  • Huber, E. R., Ryan, R. E., Johnson, R. C., Sturrock, A. M., Lusardi, R. A., & Carlson, S. M. (2024). Seventy years of diminishing biocomplexity of California Central Valley hatchery steelhead, Oncorhynchus mykiss (PDF). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
• USGS paper "Physics to Fish: Understanding the Factors that Create and Sustain Native Fish Habitat in the San Francisco Estuary"
  • Brown, L.R., Ayers, D.E., Bergamaschi, B., Burau, J.R., Dailey, E.T., Downing, B., Downing-Kunz, M., Feyrer, F.V., Huntsman, B.M., Kraus, T., Morgan, T., Lacy, J.R., Parchaso, F., Ruhl, C.A., Stumpner, E., Stumpner, P., Thompson, J., and Young, M.J., 2024, Physics to fish—Understanding the factors that create and sustain native fish habitat in the San Francisco Estuary: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2023–1087, 150 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20231087.
• USFWS Delta Juvenile Fish Monitoring Program (DJFMP) dataset update on EDI
  • Interagency Ecological Program (IEP), J. Stagg, R. McKenzie, J. Speegle, A. Nanninga, E. Holcombe, A. Arrambide, E. Huber, D. Marcetti, and G. Steinhart. 2023. Interagency Ecological Program: Over four decades of juvenile fish monitoring data from the San Francisco Estuary, collected by the Delta Juvenile Fish Monitoring Program, 1976-2023 ver 12. Environmental Data Initiative.
• USFWS Delta Juvenile Fish Monitoring Program (DJFMP) electrofishing dataset update on EDI
  • Interagency Ecological Program (IEP), J. Stagg, R. McKenzie, J. Speegle, A. Nanninga, E. Holcombe, E. Huber, D. Marcetti, G. Steinhart, and A. Arrambide. 2023. Interagency Ecological Program: USFWS Delta Boat Electrofishing Survey, 2018-2023 ver 4. Environmental Data Initiative.
• NCEAS dataset from the previous year's group study of the links between floodplain connectivity and productivity. The companion analysis and report are in preparation and should be completed later in 2024.
  • Pien, C., E. Stumpner, P. Goertler, R. Peek, D. Chapple, L. Yamane, M. Berglund, and S. Khanna. 2023. Discrete water temperature, flow, solar radiation, chlorophyll-a and inundation, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, CA, 1999-2019 ver 4. Environmental Data Initiative.
• The Adult Striped Bass Survey ended in 2023. The data is now publicly available on EDI.
  • Stompe, D.K. and J.A. Hobbs. 2024. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Adult Striped Bass Study, Sacramento-San Joaquin Watershed, California, 1969-2022 ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative.
• USGS dataset on the harmful algal blooms in Franks Tract.
  • Bouma-Gregson, K., O'Donnell, K., Uebner, M. Q., Sturgeon, C. L., Cone, Katrina (Kat) M, Jaegge, A. C., Brinkman, J. D., Bergamaschi, B., & Kraus, T. (2023). Water quality, nutrient, and phytoplankton data from Franks Tract, Mildred Island, and neighboring channels in the California Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: 2022 and 2023 High-resolution mapping surveys [Data set]. U.S. Geological Survey.
• New paper on the multi-year landscape efficacy of fluridone treatment on SAV in the Delta
  • Khanna, S., J. W. Gaeta, J. L. Conrad, & E. S. Gross, Multi-year landscape-scale efficacy analysis of fluridone treatment of invasive submerged aquatic vegetation in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta. Biological Invasions, 25(6): 1827-1843. 
• New paper on the harmful algal blooms in Stockton.
  • Preece, E. P., J. Cooke, H. Plaas, A. Sabo, L. Nelson, and H. W. Paerl. 2024. Managing a cyanobacteria harmful algae bloom “hotspot” in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta, California. Journal of Environmental Management 351:119606.

IEP Annual Workshop

Save the Dates April 18 and April 23-25, 2024 for the IEP Annual Workshop!

On April 18, IEP will be hosting a remote data training course as part of the IEP Workshop. Then, on April 23-25 the workshop will be held at the California Natural Resources Agency building (715 P Street, Sacramento). The workshop is a free, hybrid event (in-person + virtual). More information on registration and the program can be found on the IEP Annual Workshop page. Updates will be sent to our list subscribers, so make sure to subscribe to get updated information!

Registration for the workshop opens March 15!

Virtual Early Career Luncheon at the IEP Workshop - Looking for Volunteers!

This year we would like to expand the reach of the early career luncheon to our virtual attendees of the annual workshop. Generally, we have an in-person luncheon for a small group of participants during the workshop. We'd like to offer the luncheon to our virtual participants as well this year, but we need volunteers to help run the virtual event. The event will be held on Tuesday, April 23 from 12:25 p.m. to 1:55 p.m. As a volunteer, your participation will primarily involve hosting a Teams or a Zoom meeting with breakout rooms and helping people move between the rooms, as needed.

If interested in volunteering, please contact Kristi Arend at karend@usbr.gov.