Directed IEP Studies and Synthesis

Directed Studies

Directed studies are near-term priority activities that the IEP Agency Directors have funded. Directed studies typically address specific scientific questions and areas of critical uncertainty regarding species of interest, natural communities, and landscape‐scale processes to inform management actions. They may be field studies, laboratory experiments, model development, or synthesis projects.

For a full list of this year's directed special studies, see the current Annual Work Plan.

Synthesis

Synthesis is the integration of existing data and information to achieve new insights and enhance our understanding of the Bay-Delta system. With decades of ecological data (see our Seasonal Monitoring Report for a summary) and scores of research projects in the history of IEP, synthesis work is a critical activity for making the most of existing data and providing science-based direction for management. Further information on how IEP conducts synthesis is available in our Guiding Framework for Conducting IEP Synthesis (PDF).

Selected Recent Synthesis Reports

• Stompe DK, Moyle PB, Oken KL, Hobbs JA, Durand JR. 2023. A Spatiotemporal History of Key Pelagic Fish Species in the San Francisco Estuary, CA. Estuaries and Coasts. 46(4):1067-1082.
• Bashevkin SM, Burdi CE, Hartman R, Barros A. 2023. Long-Term Trends in Seasonality and Abundance of Three Key Zooplankters in the Upper San Francisco Estuary. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science. 21(3)
• Khanna S, Gaeta JW, Conrad JL, Gross ES. 2023. Multi-year landscape-scale efficacy analysis of fluridone treatment of invasive submerged aquatic vegetation in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Biological Invasions. 25:1827–1843.
• IEP Drought Synthesis Team. 2023. Ecological Impacts of Drought on Suisun Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with special attention to the extreme drought of 2020-2022. IEP Technical Report #100. Sacramento, CA: Interagency Ecological Program for the San Francisco Estuary.
• Herbold, B., E. Bush, G. Castillo, D. Colombano, R. Hartman, P. Lehman, B. Mahardja, and T. Sommer. 2022. Climate Change Impacts on San Francisco Estuary Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science 20.
• Bashevkin, S. M., and B. Mahardja. 2022. Seasonally variable relationships between surface water temperature and inflow in the upper San Francisco Estuary. Limnology and Oceanography 67:684-702.
• FLOAT-MAST (Flow Alteration - Management Analysis and Synthesis Team). 2022. White papers providing a synthesis of knowledge relating to Delta Smelt biology in the San Francisco Estuary, emphasizing effects of flow. IEP Technical Report 98 (PDF). Interagency Ecological Program, Sacramento, CA.: 191 pp.
• FLOAT-MAST (Flow Alteration - Management Analysis and Synthesis Team). 2021. Synthesis of data and studies relating to Delta Smelt biology in the San Francisco Estuary, emphasizing water year 2017. IEP Technical Report 95. Interagency Ecological Program, Sacramento, CA. 156 pp.
• IEP Long-term Survey Review Team. 2021. Interagency Ecological Program Long-term Monitoring Element Review: Pilot approach and methods development (2020). IEP Technical Report 96. Interagency Ecological Program. Sacramento, CA. 214 pp.
• Mahardja, B., V. Tobias, S. Khanna, L. Mitchell, P. Lehman, T. Sommer, L. Brown, S. Culberson, and J. L. Conrad. 2021. Resistance and resilience of pelagic and littoral fishes to drought in the San Francisco Estuary. Ecological Applications 31:e02243, 02216 p.
• Hartman, R., S. M. Bashevkin, A. Barros, C. E. Burdi, C. Patel, and T. Sommer. 2021. Food for Thought: Connecting Zooplankton Science to Management in the San Francisco Estuary. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science 19:art1.