Ten essential Bay-Delta articles

Abstract

For newcomers and veteran scientists alike, Bay- Delta science is daunting. The number of research and management issues is exceptional, and the scientific literature is well developed but fragmented. There is a substantial history of periodic reviews of Bay-Delta science and policy issues. Between 1979 and 1986 the first widely circulated reviews were published, focused on Bay processes (Conomos 1979) and issues (Kockelman et al 1982; Nichols et al 1986). Similar publications in the mid- to late- 1990s built substantially on this body of knowledge (e.g., Hollibaugh 1996; van Geen and Luoma 1999). The CALFED Bay-Delta program shifted much of the focus to the Delta, resulting in sponsored white papers on major issues in the mid-2000s (e.g., Brown 2003; Kimmerer 2004; Bennett 2005; Williams 2006). The first "State of Bay-Delta Science" was published in 2008 (Healey et al. 2008). The most recent update of the State of Bay-Delta Science (Healey et al. 2016a, 2016b, and accompanying articles) considered species of concern (Delta Smelt, Chinook Salmon), processes (fish predation, nutrient dynamics, food webs, flow and transport), stressors (contaminant effects, climate change), tools (multidimensional models), and human uses and effects on the Delta (Delta landscapes, climate change, agricultural and urban water supply, and the levee system). Other comprehensive overviews are also available; for example, IEP (2015), Johnson et al. (2017), and Sherman et al. (2017). Together, these reviews and the studies they cite give a sense of the historical development of scientific understanding in the Bay-Delta, and provide conceptual models for species' or system ecology. Many of the papers are themselves scientific milestones, and provided a science foundation for current Bay-Delta current management actions (e.g., Delta Smelt Resiliency Strategy, CNRA 2016; and Sacramento Valley Salmon Resiliency Strategy, CNRA 2017).