Published in BioScience
Significant efforts are underway to translate improved understanding of how climate change is altering ecosystems into practical actions for sustaining ecosystem functions and benefits. We explore this transition in California, where adaptation and mitigation are advancing relatively rapidly, through four case studies that span large spatial domain...
Published in FISHMED Fishes in Mediterranean Environments
Fishes in Mediterranean climates are adapted to thrive in streams with dynamic environmental conditions such as strong seasonality in flows. However, anthropogenic threats to species viability, in combination with climate change, can alter habitats beyond native species environmental tolerances and may result in extirpation. Although the effects of...
Published in Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment
Agricultural irrigation leachate is often the largest source for aquifer recharge in semi-arid groundwater basins, but contamination from fertilizers and other agro-chemicals may degrade the quality of groundwater. Affected communities are frequently economically disadvantaged, and water supply alternatives may be too costly. This study aimed to de...
California can effectively use no more than a 15 percent increase - 6 million acre-feet - in surface water storage capacity. Exceeding this expansion runs into limits of available precipitation and the ability to transport water. The study determined the maximum additional storage space that could be used, both with and without coordination with ot...
The current drought has focused and renewed discussion about how California curtails water rights when water availability is insufficient. Prior to the 2013-14 water year, the most recent curtailment effort dates back almost 40 years to 1976-77. Since then, many changes and advances have occurred in water use, policies, and technology. New complica...
Scientists have identified 181 California dams that may need to increase water flows to protect native fish downstream. The screening tool, developed by the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis, to select \textquotedbllefthigh-priority\textquotedblright dams may be particularly useful during drought years amid compet...
Published in BioScience
Environmental flow protections are crucial to the conservation of freshwater biodiversity in dam-regulated river systems. Nevertheless, the implementation of environmental flows has lagged far behind the pace of river ecosystem alteration. The vast number of dams now in operation and the substantial resources required to modify their operations sug...
Table of California water rights allocation volumes and percentages relative to supplies for about 100 river basins.
Published in San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science
Climate change is expected to progressively shift the freshwater environments of the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) to states that favor alien fishes over native species. Native species likely will have more limited distributions and some may be extirpated. Stream-dependent species may decline as portions of streams dry or become warmer due to lower...
Published in Environmental Research Letters
For 100 years, Californias State Water Resources Control Board and its predecessors have been responsible for allocating available water supplies to beneficial uses, but inaccurate and incomplete accounting of water rights has made the state ill-equipped to satisfy growing societal demands for water supply reliability and healthy ecosystems. Here, ...
