Theresa Fregoso
Science and Products
San Francisco Bay Bathymetry
Bathymetry of a dynamic tidal estuary, such as San Francisco Bay, provides the observable linkage between anthropogenic modifications of the landscape—such as evolving land use practices, flood control, and water diversions—and natural forces of climate-driven river flow, sea level change, tides, and wind. By examining our record of hydrographic surveys, spanning over 150 years, we can gain...
San Francisco Bay geomorphology
This research is part of the project “Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments”
High-resolution (1 m) digital elevation model (DEM) of San Francisco Bay, California, created using bathymetry data collected between 1999 and 2020 (ver. 2.0, July 2021)
A 1-m resolution bathymetric digital elevation model of San Francisco Bay was constructed from bathymetric surveys collected from 1999 to 2020. The DEM has been divided into northern, central, and southern sections due to file size, and is available in both MLLW and NAVD88 versions. Background: In 2014 and 2015 the California Ocean Protection Council contracted the collection of bathymetric...
Pilot study on bathymetric change analyses in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California
This pilot study explores historic bathymetric change in the Delta. The earliest comprehensive surveys that covered a large portion of the Delta were conducted in the 1930s. These historic surveys are compared to recent surveys to document how sedimentation and erosion have changed the Delta. We selected regions for the pilot study based on availability of data, critical habitats, and...
Bathymetry, topography, and acoustic backscatter data, and a digital elevation model (DEM) of the Cache Slough Complex and Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California
This data release presents bathymetric and topographic data from surveys performed between 2017 and 2018 in the Cache Slough Complex and the Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel (DWSC), northern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California. The shallow, highly vegetated aquatic habitats of this region necessitated a variety of survey platforms and techniques. In the deeper channels, swath...
Projected flood water depths on Roi-Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands
Dataset contains projected future wave-driven flooding depths on Roi-Namur Island on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands for a range of climate-change scenarios.
Bathymetry and acoustic backscatter data of the Sacramento River, from the Feather River to Knights Landing, California in February, 2011
On February 1, 2011, the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center team carried out a project using interferometric sidescan sonar to characterize the riverbed and channel banks of a 12 mile reach of the Sacramento River near the town of Knights Landing, California (River Mile 79 through River Mile 91). The project was developed in coordination with the US Army Corps of Engineers as part...
San Francisco Bay-Delta bathymetric/topographic digital elevation model (DEM)
A high-resolution (10-meter per pixel) digital elevation model (DEM) was created for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta using both bathymetry and topography data relative to current modern datum of North American Vertical Datum of 1988. This DEM is the result of collaborative efforts of the USGS and the California Department of Water Resources. The base of the DEM is from a 10-m DEM
Gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
This data release contains information on gravity cores that were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in the area of San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, California in 1990, 1991, and 2000. Ten (10) pdf files describe gravity cores that were split, photographed, and imaged by X-rays, and another pdf file contains a core-log legend. In addition, a shapefile provides sample col
A revised continuous surface elevation model for modeling
A digital elevation model (DEM) is an essential component of any hydrodynamic model. The Delta Modeling Section (Section) has maintained a database of bathymetry soundings and levee surveys for decades and published a 10-meter (10m) DEM for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) (California Department of Water Resources...
Wang, Rueen-Fang; Ateljevich, Eli; Fregoso, Theresa A.; Jaffe, Bruce E. Slough evolution and legacy mercury remobilization induced by wetland restoration in South San Francisco Bay
Coastal wetlands have a long history of degradation and destruction due to human development. Now recognized as one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, substantial efforts are being made to restore this critical habitat. While wetland restoration efforts are generally viewed as beneficial in terms of providing wildlife habitat and...
Foxgrover, Amy C.; Marvin-DiPasquale, Mark C.; Jaffe, Bruce E.; Fregoso, Theresa A.
Description of gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
Seventy-two gravity cores were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1990, 1991, and 2000 from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, California. The gravity cores collected within San Pablo Bay contain bioturbated laminated silts and sandy clays, whole and broken bivalve shells (mostly mussels), fossil tube structures, and fine-grained plant or...
Woodrow, Donald L.; John L. Chin; Wong, Florence L.; Fregoso, Theresa A.; Jaffe, Bruce E.
A new seamless, high-resolution digital elevation model of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, California
Climate change, sea-level rise, and human development have contributed to the changing geomorphology of the San Francisco Bay - Delta (Bay-Delta) Estuary system. The need to predict scenarios of change led to the development of a new seamless, high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the Bay – Delta that can be used by modelers attempting...
Fregoso, Theresa A.; Wang, Rueen-Fang; Ateljevich, Eli; Jaffe, Bruce E. San Francisco Bay-Delta bathymetric/topographic digital elevation model (DEM)
A high-resolution (10-meter per pixel) digital elevation model (DEM) was created for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta using both bathymetry and topography data. This DEM is the result of collaborative efforts of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). The base of the DEM is from a 10-m DEM released...
Fregoso, Theresa; Wang, Rueen-Fang; Ateljevich, Eli; Jaffe, Bruce E.
Late Holocene sedimentary environments of south San Francisco Bay, California, illustrated in gravity cores
Data are reported here from 51 gravity cores collected from the southern part of San Francisco Bay by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1990. The sedimentary record in the cores demonstrates a stable geographic distribution of facies and spans a few thousand years. Carbon-14 dating of the sediments suggests that sedimentation rates average about 1 mm/...
Woodrow, Donald L.; Fregoso, Theresa A.; Wong, Florence L.; Jaffe, Bruce E. Burial and exhumation of temperate bedrock reefs as elucidated by repetitive high-resolution sea floor sonar surveys: Spatial patterns and impacts to species' richness and diversity
To understand how chronic sediment burial and scour contribute to variation in the structure of algal and invertebrate communities on temperate bedrock reefs, the dynamics of the substrate and communities were monitored at locations that experience sand inundation and adjacent areas that do not. Co-located benthic scuba-transect surveys and high-...
Storlazzi, Curt D.; Fregoso, Theresa A.; Figurski, Jared D.; Freiwald, Jan; Lonhart, Steve I.; Finlayson, David P.
Bathymetry and digital elevation models of Coyote Creek and Alviso Slough, South San Francisco Bay, California
In 2010, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center completed three cruises to map the bathymetry of the main channel and shallow intertidal mudflats in the southernmost part of south San Francisco Bay. The three surveys were merged to generate comprehensive maps of Coyote Creek (from Calaveras Point east to the...
Foxgrover, Amy C.; Finlayson, David P.; Jaffe, Bruce E.; Fregoso, Theresa A.
Estuarine sedimentation, sediment character, and foraminiferal distribution in central San Francisco Bay, California
Central San Francisco Bay is the deepest subembayment in the San Francisco Bay estuary and hence has the largest water volume of any of the subembayments. It also has the strongest tidal currents and the coarsest sediment within the estuary. Tidal currents are strongest over the west-central part of central bay and, correspondingly, this area is...
Chin, John L.; Woodrow, Donald L.; McGann, Mary; Wong, Florence L.; Fregoso, Theresa A.; Jaffe, Bruce E.
Sediment Deposition, Erosion, and Bathymetric Change in Central San Francisco Bay: 1855-1979
Central San Francisco Bay is the hub of a dynamic estuarine system connecting the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Deltas, Suisun Bay, and San Pablo Bay to the Pacific Ocean and South San Francisco Bay. To understand the role that Central San Francisco Bay plays in sediment transport throughout the system, it is necessary to first determine...
Fregoso, Theresa A.; Foxgrover, Amy C.; Jaffe, Bruce E. Mapping South San Francisco Bay's seabed diversity for use in wetland restoration planning
In an effort to understand the role of sediment of South San Francisco Bay (South Bay) salt ponds, an acoustic seabed classification was performed with the condition of over two hundred sediment samples. The success of the large-scale tidal wetland restoration of up to 15,000 acres of South Bay partly depends on the ability of the...
Fregoso, Theresa A.; Jaffe, B.; Rathwell, G.; Collins, W.; Rhynas, K.; Tomlin, V.; Sullivan, S.