Predicting the Impact of Large-Scale Tidal Wetland Restoration on Morphodynamics and Habitat Evolution in South San Francisco Bay, California

Brew, David S.; Williams, Philip B.

doi:10.2112/08-1174.1

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Within the estuary, tidal marsh ecosystems are well recognized for their significance as fish and wildlife habitat (Skinner 1962;Warnock and Takekawa 1995;Meng and Matern 2001;Matern et al 2002;Brew and Williams 2010;Demers et al 2010;Gewant and Bollens 2011;Athearn et al 2012;Thorne et al 2012), but much less consideration has been directed toward the potential for these ecosystems to serve as a pillar of food web support for the greater estuary (Sobczak et al 2005;Stepanauskas et al 2005;Howe and Simenstad 2007;Cohen and Bollens 2008;Grimaldo et al 2009;Howe and Simenstad 2011). Food limitation has been suggested as a contributing driver of the POD, but conceptual models focus on food web linkages among fish, zooplankton and phytoplankton, rather than the trophic role of detritus-based food webs associated with emergent tidal marsh wetlands (Sommer et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroinvertebrate Prey Availability and Fish Diet Selectivity in Relation to Environmental Variables in Natural and Restoring North San Francisco Bay Tidal Marsh Channels

Howe¹,

Simenstad²,

Toft³

et al. 2014

SFEWS

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Tidal marsh wetlands provide important foraging habitat for a variety of estuarine fishes. Prey organisms include benthic/epibenthic macroinvertebrates, neustonic arthropods, and zooplankton. Little is known about the abundance and distribution of interior marsh macroinvertebrate communities in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary). We describe seasonal, regional, and site variation in the composition and abundance of neuston and benthic/epibenthic macroinvertebrates that inhabit tidal marsh channels, and relate these patterns to environmental conditions. We also describe spatial and temporal variation in diets of marsh-associated inland silverside, yellowfin goby, and western mosquitofish. Fish and invertebrates were sampled quarterly from October 2003 to June 2005 at six marsh sites located in three river systems of the northern estuary: Petaluma River, Napa River, and the west Delta. Benthic/epibenthic macroinvertebrates and neuston responded to environmental variables related to seasonal changes (i.e., temperature, salinity), as well as those related to marsh structure (i.e., vegetation, channel edge). The greatest variation in abundance occurred seasonally for neuston and spatially for benthic/epibenthic organisms, suggesting that each community responds to different environmental drivers. Benthic/epibenthic invertebrate abundance and diversity was lowest in the west Delta, and increased with increasing salinity. Insect abundance increased during the spring and summer, while Collembolan (springtail) abundance increased during the winter. Benthic/epibenthic macroinvertebrates dominated fish diets, supplemented by insects, with zooplankton playing a minor role. Diet compositions of the three fish species overlapped considerably, with strong selection indicated for epibenthic crustaceans-a surprising result given the typical classification of Menidia beryllina as a planktivore, Acanthogobius flavimanus as a benthic predator, and Gambusia affinis as a larvivorous surface-feeder. Fish diets were influenced by position along the estuarine gradient and season. Overall, our data show that local-scale site effects and marsh position within the estuary influence invertebrate community composition and abundance. Additionally, we show that restoring marsh ecosystems can subsidize fishes similarly to reference marshes. We thus recommend that managers focus on the ability of restoring marshes to produce food subsidies for target species when planning and designing tidal marsh restoration projects, especially those targeted for food web support.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroinvertebrate Prey Availability and Fish Diet Selectivity in Relation to Environmental Variables in Natural and Restoring North San Francisco Bay Tidal Marsh Channels

Howe¹,

Simenstad²,

Toft³

et al. 2014

SFEWS

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“…Nevertheless, cohesive mud is more difficult to erode than sand when it consolidates, so that on the estuary-scale mud leads to narrower systems with reduced bar dynamics through mudflat accumulation . The logical hypothesis is that the added effect of vegetation leads to even more accretion at the flanks of the estuary (Brew and Williams, 2010).…”

Section: Problem Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological effects of vegetation on the tidal–fluvial transition in Holocene estuaries

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Vegetation enhances bank stability and sedimentation to such an extent that it can modify river patterns, but how these processes manifest themselves in full-scale estuarine settings is poorly understood. On the one hand, tidal flats accrete faster in the presence of vegetation, reducing the flood storage and ebb dominance over time. On the other hand flow-focusing effects of a tidal floodplain elevated by mud and vegetation could lead to channel concentration and incision. Here we study isolated and combined effects of mud and tidal marsh vegetation on estuary dimensions. A 2-D hydromorphodynamic estuary model was developed, which was coupled to a vegetation model and used to simulate 100 years of morphological development. Vegetation settlement, growth and mortality were determined by the hydromorphodynamics. Eco-engineering effects of vegetation on the physical system are here limited to hydraulic resistance, which affects erosion and sedimentation pattern through the flow field. We investigated how vegetation, combined with mud, affects the average elevation of tidal flats and controls the system-scale planform. Modelling with vegetation only results in a pattern with the largest vegetation extent in the mixed-energy zone of the estuary, which is generally shallower. Here vegetation can cover more than 50 % of the estuary width while it remains below 10 %–20 % in the outer, tide-dominated zone. This modelled distribution of vegetation along the estuary shows general agreement with trends in natural estuaries observed by aerial image analysis. Without mud, the modelled vegetation has a limited effect on morphology, again peaking in the mixed-energy zone. Numerical modelling with mud only shows that the presence of mud leads to stabilisation and accretion of the intertidal area and a slight infill of the mixed-energy zone. Combined modelling of mud and vegetation leads to mutual enhancement with mud causing new colonisation areas and vegetation stabilising the mud. This occurs in particular in a zone previously described as the bedload convergence zone. While vegetation focusses the flow into the channels such that mud sedimentation in intertidal side channels is prevented on a timescale of decades, the filling of intertidal area and the resulting reduction in tidal prism may cause the infilling of estuaries over centuries.

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“…Tidal influence was returned to the area by breaching a levee at the southern end of the site. The restoration process is driven by tidal transport of sediment building the marsh plain to the appropriate level (Brew and Williams, 2010), then seed dispersal via tidal hydrochory driving the development of vegetation (Diggory and Parker, 2011). In addition to the passive restoration process via seed dispersal, the Invasive Spartina Project actively planted selected portions of the site with the native cordgrass Spartina foliosa, Distichlis spicata (saltgrass), and Grindelia stricta (marsh gumplant) (Hammond, 2016).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation Development in a Tidal Marsh Restoration Project during a Historic Drought: A Remote Sensing Approach

Chapple

Dronova

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Tidal wetland restoration efforts can be challenging to monitor in the field due to unstable local conditions and poor site access. However, understanding how restored systems evolve over time is essential for future management of their ecological benefits, many of which are related to vegetation dynamics. Physical attributes, such as elevation and distance to channel play important roles in governing vegetation expansion in developing tidal wetlands. However, in Mediterranean ecosystems, drought years, wet years, and their resulting influence on salinity levels may also play a crucial role in determining the trajectory of restoration projects, but the influence of weather variability on restoration outcomes is not well-understood. Here, we use object-based image analysis (OBIA) and change analysis of high-resolution IKONOS and WorldView-2 satellite imagery to explore whether mean annual rates of change from mudflat to vegetation are lower during drought years with higher salinity (2011-2015) compared to years with lower salinity (2009-2011) at a developing restoration site in California's San Francisco Bay. We found that vegetation increased at a mean rate of 1,979 m 2 /year during California's historic drought, 10.4 times slower than the rate of 20,580 m 2 /year between 2009 and 2011 when the state was not in drought. Vegetation was significantly concentrated in areas closer to channel edges, where salinity stress is ameliorated, and the magnitude of the effect increased in the 2015 image. In our image analysis, we found that different distributions of water, mud, and algae between years led to different segmentation settings for each set of images, highlighting the need for more robust and reproducible OBIA strategies in complex wetlands. Our results demonstrate that adaptive monitoring efforts in variable climates should take into account the influence of weather on tidal wetland ecosystems, and that high-resolution remote sensing can be an effective means of assessing these dynamics.

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Predicting the Impact of Large-Scale Tidal Wetland Restoration on Morphodynamics and Habitat Evolution in South San Francisco Bay, California

Cited by 22 publications

References 20 publications

Macroinvertebrate Prey Availability and Fish Diet Selectivity in Relation to Environmental Variables in Natural and Restoring North San Francisco Bay Tidal Marsh Channels

Macroinvertebrate Prey Availability and Fish Diet Selectivity in Relation to Environmental Variables in Natural and Restoring North San Francisco Bay Tidal Marsh Channels

Morphological effects of vegetation on the tidal–fluvial transition in Holocene estuaries

Vegetation Development in a Tidal Marsh Restoration Project during a Historic Drought: A Remote Sensing Approach

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