The influence of Colorado River flows on the upper Gulf of California fisheries economy

Duval, Dari; Colby, Bonnie G.

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.05.017

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…[76]. Return flows satisfy the U.S. treaty obligation to supply Colorado River water to Mexico, providing agricultural, recreational, and fishing benefits to Mexico [65,96,105], and maintaining the health of the riparian habitat of Mexico's Colorado River Delta [93,94,100]. Again, circumstances are unique in the Yuma/Colorado Delta area, but there is evidence elsewhere that return flows, rather than a measure of wastefulness, provide valuable ecological services [7,62,63].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating Gravity-Flow Irrigation with Lessons from Yuma, Arizona, USA

et al. 2018

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Many consider gravity-flow irrigation inefficient and deride its use. Yet, there are cases where gravity-flow irrigation can play an important role in highly productive and profitable agriculture. This perspective article reviews the literature on the profitability and efficiency of gravity systems. It then reviews the history of water management in Yuma, Arizona, which is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the United States. Through extensive changes in irrigation technologies, changes in production practices, and investments in irrigation infrastructure, Yuma agriculture dramatically shifted from perennial and summer-centric crop production to winter-centric, multi-crop systems that are focused on high-value vegetable crops. These innovations have led to improvement in various irrigation efficiency measures and overall water conservation. Return flows from the system, which were once characterized as an indicator of inefficiency, provide valuable environmental services to the Colorado River Delta ecosystem. Yuma's history illustrates that innovative gravity-flow systems can be productive and water-conserving, and that a system-wide perspective is critical in evaluating irrigation systems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In short, what has been characterized as "inefficiencies" actually makes the ecosystem "better off" (p. 49) [104]. Ecosystem services, in turn, have attendant economic benefits [65,105].…”

Section: Return Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Gravity-Flow Irrigation with Lessons from Yuma, Arizona, USA

et al. 2018

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“…These diversions have led to reductions of freshwater inflows to coastal zones and degradation of estuaries and on very large scales [2], [3]. Reduced inflows to coastal zones have also caused harm to living marine resources such as fisheries [4]- [6], shellfish [7]- [10], and benthic infauna [11]- [15]. Recognizing degradation of habitats is a problem that requires solving, there have been efforts in all continents to restore estuaries by either engineering physico-chemical structures, or engineering biota directly [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Environmental Flows and Water Resources

Montagna

Chaloupka

Rosario

et al. 2018

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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Construction of two dams on the Nueces River reduced environmental flow to the Nueces Marsh causing ecosystem degradation. A pipeline was built to enhance flows and restore hydrological connections between the river and marsh. Sediment and water quality has been monitored in Rincon Bayou since the pipeline was operational in 2009. Hydrologically, Rincon Bayou is still a reverse estuary that occasionally exhibits hypersaline conditions. The salinity can fluctuate from fresh to hypersaline, and hypersaline to fresh in very short time periods. Pumping from the Calallen Pool into Rincon Bayou occurs only when there is also natural inflow because that is the only time when passthrough is required. Nutrients are high when salinity is low. The diversity of macroinfauna and macroepifauna is low. There are very high fluctuations of abundance and biomass related to fluctuations in inflow. The low diversity and population fluctuations indicate the ecosystem is still disturbed. To improve the marsh, salinity should be maintained between 6 and 18 psu, minimum water depth should be between 0.2 m to 0.3 m, and to improve ecological stability inflows should be a continuous trickle, not a pulsed flood. Therefore, inflows from pumping should be continuous and not haphazard, and not dependent on pass-through requirements.

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“…This marine area hosts important fisheries, for example, shrimp and gulf corvine fisheries [6,7]. Despite some disagreement on how the river discharge contributes to this high productivity [7,8], there are several studies that link Colorado River flow and UGC productivity [7,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Minute 319 is a binational agreement (USA and Mexico), which seeks to study the ecological benefits of river flow [7]. Freshwater flows can bring nutrients, sediments and detritus which sustain fisheries [7], but another key factor in the UGC is sediment resuspension by strong tidal currents [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying SPOT Images to Study the Colorado River Effects on the Upper Gulf of California

Aguilar-Maldonado

Santamaría-del-Ángel

Sebastiá-Frasquet

2017

The 2nd International Electronic Conference on Water Sciences

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Sediment discharges from rivers play a key role in downstream ecosystems, both for ecosystem morphology (e.g., deltas) and productivity. However, the construction of dams and river regulation dramatically alter sediment transport. Currently, the Colorado River delta is one of the most transformed deltas in the world and, most years, no flow reaches the Gulf of California. In this study, we used satellite images for the observation and measurement of coastal water turbidity in the Upper Gulf of California (UGC) and Colorado River Delta (CRD). Specifically, we used the Earth-observing Satellites (in French Satellites Pour l'Observation de la Terre, SPOT) high spatial resolution satellite. We processed images of the wavelength 2 (S2 ) from the period between 2008 and 2013 in the Biosphere Reserve area. Results showed that suspended material and high turbidity predominate in the CRD and intertidal zones of the UGC. High and very high turbidity values were due to two opposite coastal transport components along the Sonora and Baja California coasts. The high spatial resolution of the SPOT sensor effectively allowed the sediment transport gradients and the accumulation zones to be located in a highly variable area. This information provided by SPOT images can be very valuable for management decisions such as the amount of ecological flow that needs to be released. This area is the habitat of endangered species, such as totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) and vaquita (Phocoena sinus), that are seriously affected by the loss of estuarine conditions. High resolution satellite images can help to quantify the true extent of corrective measures.

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The influence of Colorado River flows on the upper Gulf of California fisheries economy

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

Evaluating Gravity-Flow Irrigation with Lessons from Yuma, Arizona, USA

Evaluating Gravity-Flow Irrigation with Lessons from Yuma, Arizona, USA

Managing Environmental Flows and Water Resources

Applying SPOT Images to Study the Colorado River Effects on the Upper Gulf of California

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