This report updates estimates on the drought\textquoterights effects on Central Valley farm production, presents new data on the state\textquoterights coastal and southern farm areas, and forecasts the drought\textquoterights economic fallout through 2016.The study found that the drought — the third most severe on record — is responsible for the gr...
Published in PLoS ONE
Understanding factors influencing survival of Pacific salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) is essential to species conservation, because drivers of mortality can vary over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although recent studies have evaluated the effects of climate, habitat quality, or resource management (e.g., hatchery operations) on salmonid recr...
Published in Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Water systems in snowmelt-dominated hydro-regions such as California\textquoterights Sierra Nevada mountains are sensitive to regional climate change, hydropower systems in particular. In this study, a water resources management model was developed for the upper west slope Sierra Nevada to understand the potential effects of regional climate warmin...
Californias drought will deal a severe blow to Central Valley irrigated agriculture and farm communities this year, costing the industry 1.7 billion and causing more than 14,500 workers to lose jobs, according to preliminary results of a new study by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Researchers estimated that Central Valley irrigators wi...
Published in River Research and Applications
Elevated stream temperature is a primary factor limiting the coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) population in California\textquoterights Shasta River Basin. Understanding the mechanisms driving spatial and temporal trends in water temperature throughout the Shasta River is critical to prioritizing river restoration efforts aimed at protecting this ...
Published in E3 Journal of Environmental Research and Management
Dams provide water supply, flood protection, and hydropower generation benefits, but also harm native species by altering the natural flow regime and degrading aquatic and riparian habitat. Restoring some rivers reaches to free-flowing conditions may restore substantial environmental benefits, but at some economic cost. This study uses a systems an...
Published in River Research and Applications
Alterations to flow regimes from regulation and climatic change both affect the biophysical functioning of rivers over long time periods and large spatial areas. Historically, however, the effects of these flow alteration drivers have been studied separately. In this study, results from unregulated and regulated river management models were assesse...
Published in Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Practical plans for agricultural water use within multiobjective frameworks require feasible solutions that meet the objectives of competing interests and this is the root of common decision problems that plague water resources systems. To find the best solutions among the set of feasible solutions, decision-makers can analyze their worth functions...
This supplemental paper provides a brief review of the potential for groundwater pollution from animal feeding operations (AFOs). Management activities that address surface water quality may reduce nutrient loads, but they may also lead to a deterioration of groundwater quality as well as additional methane emissions. Groundwater pollutants may eve...
Published in San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science
Sea level rise, large-scale flooding, and new conveyance arrangements for water exports may increase future water salinity for local agricultural production in California\textquoterights Sacramento\textendashSan Joaquin Delta. Increasing salinity in crop root zones often decreases crop yields and crop revenues. Salinity effects are nonlinear, and v...
