Recent changes in organic carbon and food resources in response to environmental change in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, USA

Abstract:

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California (the Delta, hereafter) is one of the most highly perturbed estuaries in the U.S. and is threatened by high rates of land subsidence, extensive land-use change, expansive tectonic activity, and aging infrastructure of levees and dams. Recent management strategies in the Delta rely on habitat restoration and water quality improvement to restore ecosystem function. This presentation will assess ecosystem function in terms of the food resources that support the biotic communities in the Delta by using lipid biomarkers to document changes in sources, quantity and quality of organic carbon associated with benthic and suspended sediments. Data from sites representing dominant sub-habitats in the Delta (i.e., riverine, floodplain, freshwater marsh, open water, and Tule marsh) will describe food resources in these ecosystems prior to human disturbance, food resources at sites adjacent to a large regional waste water treatment plant, and food resources prior to, during, and after habitat restoration at select locations to assess how the Delta ecosystem has responded to anthropogenic and climate change in recent decades.