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Maureen Downing-Kunz (Former Employee)

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Invasive Aquatic Vegetation

Ecosystem Engineers: Impacts of Invasive Aquatic Vegetation on the Delta’s Critical Ecosystems

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is home to a diverse community of plants and animals and is the hub of California’s freshwater delivery system. The Delta supplies water for over 25 million Californians and supports millions of acres of farming, commercial and sport fishing, shipping and ports, and recreational boating.
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California Water Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Ecosystem Engineers: Impacts of Invasive Aquatic Vegetation on the Delta’s Critical Ecosystems

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is home to a diverse community of plants and animals and is the hub of California’s freshwater delivery system. The Delta supplies water for over 25 million Californians and supports millions of acres of farming, commercial and sport fishing, shipping and ports, and recreational boating.
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Estuary and bird

Variability of Salinity and Temperature In San Francisco Bay

The USGS has been collecting specific conductance (salinity) and water temperature data in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay) since 1990. Data are typically collected at 5-10 fixed locations throughout the bay, every fifteen minutes, every minute of the day.
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California Water Science Center
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Variability of Salinity and Temperature In San Francisco Bay

The USGS has been collecting specific conductance (salinity) and water temperature data in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay) since 1990. Data are typically collected at 5-10 fixed locations throughout the bay, every fifteen minutes, every minute of the day.
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USGS research vessel mapping in Alviso Slough in south San Francisco Bay

Improved Lower South Bay suspended-sediment flux measurements

Tidal marshes provide animal habitats and prevent erosion. Expanding towns and cities have claimed major parts of San Francisco Bay’s marshland. Sediment deposits are essential to rebuilding tidal marshes and keeping existing marshes intact. In the southern part of the Bay, the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the west coast is underway. Sediment flux measurements are key in deciding...
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California Water Science Center
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Improved Lower South Bay suspended-sediment flux measurements

Tidal marshes provide animal habitats and prevent erosion. Expanding towns and cities have claimed major parts of San Francisco Bay’s marshland. Sediment deposits are essential to rebuilding tidal marshes and keeping existing marshes intact. In the southern part of the Bay, the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the west coast is underway. Sediment flux measurements are key in deciding...
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Tule Perch

Understanding Influences on Habitat Quality for Delta Smelt and Other Imperiled Fish Populations

USGS scientists work to provide information needed to evaluate the efficacy of ongoing U.S. Burueau of Reclamation water management efforts in Bay-Delta.
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California Water Science Center
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Understanding Influences on Habitat Quality for Delta Smelt and Other Imperiled Fish Populations

USGS scientists work to provide information needed to evaluate the efficacy of ongoing U.S. Burueau of Reclamation water management efforts in Bay-Delta.
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Suspended-sediment Flux in the San Francisco Estuary; Part II: the Impact of the 2013–2016 California Drought and Controls on Sediment Flux

Recent modeling has demonstrated that sediment supply is one of the primary environmental variables that will determine the sustainability of San Francisco Estuary tidal marshes over the next century as sea level rises. Therefore, understanding the environmental controls on sediment flux within the San Francisco Estuary is crucial for optimal planning and management of tidal marsh restoration. Her
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Trapping of suspended sediment by submerged aquatic vegetation in a tidal freshwater region: Field observations and long-term trends

Widespread invasion by non-native, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) may modify the sediment budget of an estuary, reducing the availability of inorganic sediment required by marshes to maintain their position in the tidal frame. The instantaneous trapping rate of suspended sediment in SAV patches in an estuary has not previously been quantified via field observations. In this study, flows of wat
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

A summary of water-quality monitoring in San Francisco Bay in water year 2017

This report summarizes the activities of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) San Francisco Bay Water-Quality Monitoring and Sediment Transport Project during water year 2017, including an explanation of methods employed, stations operated, and a graphical summary of data for the period of record for stations operational in water year 2017. In cooperation with partner agencies, the USGS maintains a n
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

State of the network: Long-term, high-frequency flow and water quality data in the San Francisco Estuary, California

The USGS California Water Science Center is heavily involved in the measurement of flow and water quality parameters in the San Francisco Estuary, with support from many partner agencies. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR), through the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) is one of those agencies. This article describes the resulting efforts and methodologies and provides examples
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Continuous water-quality and suspended-sediment transport monitoring in the San Francisco Bay, California, water years 2016–17

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors water quality and suspended-sediment transport in the San Francisco Bay (Bay) as part of a multi-agency effort to address estuary management, water supply, and ecological concerns. The San Francisco Bay area is home to millions of people, and the Bay teems with plants and both resident and migratory wildlife, and fish. Freshwater mixes with salt water in
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Stratigraphic analysis of Corte Madera Creek flood control channel deposits

Sedimentation in a channel can reduce flood conveyance capability and potentially place nearby property and life at risk from flooding. In 1998, Marin County Public Works dredged the concrete-lined segment of Corte Madera Creek, which drains a hilly and largely urbanized watershed that terminates in San Francisco Bay, California. From then through 2015, approximately 4,100 cubic meters of sand and
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Continuous water-quality and suspended-sediment transport monitoring in the San Francisco Bay, California, water years 2014–15

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitors water quality and suspended-sediment transport in the San Francisco Bay (bay) as part of a multi-agency effort to address management, water supply, and ecological concerns. The San Francisco Bay area is home to millions of people, and the bay teems both with resident and with migratory wildlife, plants, and fish. Freshwater mixes with salt water in the ba
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Review of suspended sediment in lower South Bay relevant to light attenuation and phytoplankton blooms

Lower South Bay (LSB), a shallow subembayment of San Francisco Bay (SFB), is situated south of the Dumbarton Bridge, and is surrounded by, and interconnected with, a network of sloughs, marshes, and former salt ponds undergoing restoration (Figure ES.1). LSB receives 120 million gallons per day of treated wastewater effluent from three publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) that service San Jose a
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Record-high specific conductance and water temperature in San Francisco Bay during water year 2015

The San Francisco estuary is commonly defined to include San Francisco Bay (bay) and the adjacent Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta (delta). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated a high-frequency (15-minute sampling interval) water-quality monitoring network in San Francisco Bay since the late 1980s (Buchanan and others, 2014). This network includes 19 stations at which sustained measure
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Dissolved oxygen: Chapter 6

Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration serves as an important indicator of estuarine habitat condition, because all aquatic macro-organisms require some minimum DO level to survive and prosper. The instantaneous DO concentration, measured at a specific location in the water column, results from a balance between multiple processes that add or remove oxygen (Figure 6.1): primary production produces O2
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Record-high specific conductance and temperature in San Francisco Bay during water year 2014

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated a water-quality monitoring network in San Francisco Bay since the late 1980s (Buchanan and others, 2015). This network includes 19 stations in the bay; currently, 8 stations are in operation (fig. 1). All eight stations are equipped with specific conductance (which can be related to salinity) and water-temperature sensors that record measurements at 1
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Suspended-sediment dynamics in the tidal reach of a San Francisco Bay tributary

To better understand suspended-sediment transport in a tidal slough adjacent to a large wetland restoration project, we deployed continuously measuring temperature, salinity, depth, turbidity, and velocity sensors in 2010 at a near-bottom location in Alviso Slough (Alviso, California, USA). Alviso Slough is the downstream reach of the Guadalupe River and flows into the far southern end of San Fran
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center
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USGS Science at Work in the San Francisco Bay Estuary

In an article written for the Interagency Ecological Program for the San Francisco Estuary, Dr. Paul Work and Dr. Maureen Downing-Kunz, of the...

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