Realm: Freshwater
Climate: Temperate
Biome: Small river ecosystems
Central latitude: 38.132470
Central longitude: -121.780460
Duration: 3 years, from 2016 to 2018

2240 records

18 distinct species

Across the time series Cirripedia is the most frequently occurring species

Methods

Curators note: The original IEP zooplankton dataset has been split by the different survey programmes due to methodological differences. The Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) is a consortium of State and federal agencies that has been conducting cooperative ecological investigations since the 1970s. The IEP runs over twenty long-term monitoring surveys on biological components of the Upper San Francisco Estuary. Surveys monitor phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrates, water quality, and many types of fish. Several fish surveys sample zooplankton concurrently, and information on zooplankton species composition and abundance can be coupled with fish diet studies. The IEP long-term surveys that monitor zooplankton are the Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP; also known as the IEP zooplankton study), 20-mm Survey (20mm), Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT), Summer Townet Survey (STN), the Yolo Bypass Fisheries Monitoring Survey (not included in this integrated dataset), and the Fish Restoration Program (FRP). An overview of these programs is provided in study_metadata.csv. Locations of fixed sampling locations for surveys with fixed sampling designs are provided in stations.csv, and coordinates for every sample are provided in environment.csv. Zooplankton surveys sample 3 different size classes of zooplankton, by towing nets with different sized mesh (or in one case a pump that pumps water into a microzooplankton net). Every IEP survey that collects zooplankton samples with a mesozooplankton net, which targets adult copepods and cladocerans, because these taxa are believed to comprise the majority of zooplankton in juvenile and adult planktivorous fish diets. Some surveys also sample with micro- or macro-zooplankton nets. Three size classes of zooplankton are targeted by these sampling programs with different net mesh sizes: micro zooplankton (copepods and rotifers) are targeted with a 43 µm mesh net, meso zooplankton (copepods and cladocerans) are targeted with 150 - 160 µm mesh nets, and macro zooplankton (mysids and amphipods) are targeted with 500-505 µm mesh nets. FRP The Fish Restoration Program (FRP) is devoted to restoring 8,000 acres of tidal habitat in the Delta and Suisun Marsh to provide Delta Smelt habitat and 800 acres of low salinity habitat to benefit Longfin Smelt. These restoration projects are pursuant to requirements in the 2019 Biological Opinions for state and federal water project operations (USFWS 2019). The FRP Monitoring Team monitors fish and their food resources (including zooplankton) within these restored wetlands in order to better understand the benefits of the restored habitats to native fish species. The FRP Monitoring Team surveys zooplankton in shallow waters, generally near tidal marshes or sites that will soon be converted to tidal marsh. The FRP has worked closely with some other IEP surveys to compare zooplankton communities in shallow water to the open-water channel samples collected by the long-term surveys (Contreras et al. 2018). Zooplankton are sampled annually to monthly between March and December beginning in 2015. Samples are taken from haphazardly selected locations within fixed sites at restored and existing wetlands and adjacent open-water areas across the Delta and Suisun Marsh. Macrozooplankton are collected with 10-minute horizontal surface tows using a 0.4 m x 0.4 m mouth net (500 µm mesh size). Mesozooplankton are collected with 5-minute surface tows using a 14.6 cm diameter net (150 µm mesh size). A flowmeter is attached to the net for both zooplankton size collections. Samples are preserved in 70% ethanol with rose bengal. Lengths are recorded for macrozooplankton but not mesozooplankton, biomass is estimated by literature values for both. Recorded environmental variables include time, tidal stage, surface conductivity, surface temperature, Secchi depth, turbidity, Microcystis, pH, chlorophyll, and dissolved oxygen. More information on FRP and its methods can be found on the FRP data publication (California Department of Fish and Wildlife et al. 2019).

Citation(s)

@Dataset{BioTIME_cit332, Study_id = {564}, Citation_id = {332}, Author = {Bashevkin, S.M. and Hartman, R. and Thomas, M. and Barros, A. and Burdi, C.E. and Hennessy, A. and Tempel, T. and Kayfetz, K. and Alstad, K. and Pien, C.}, Publisher = {Environmental Data Initiative}, Title = {Interagency Ecological Program: Zooplankton abundance in the Upper San Francisco Estuary from 1972-2021, an integration of 7 long-term monitoring programs ver 4}, Year = {2023}, Doi = {10.6073/pasta/8b646dfbeb625e308212a39f1e46f69b}, Url = {https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/8b646dfbeb625e308212a39f1e46f69b}, Language = {English}, Version = {4} }