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Continuous Monitoring in San Francisco Bay
Sediments are an important component of the San Francisco Bay
estuarine system. Bottom sediments provide the habitat for benthic organisms
and are a reservoir of nutrients that contribute to the maintenance of
estuarine productivity (Hammond and others, 1985). Potentially toxic
substances, such as metals and pesticides, adsorb to sediment particles
(Kuwabara and others, 1989; Domagalski and Kuivila, 1993; Flegal and others,
1996). Benthic organisms can ingest these substances and introduce them into
the food web (Luoma and others, 1985; Brown and Luoma, 1995; Luoma, 1996).
The transport and fate of suspended sediments are important factors in
determining the transport and fate of constituents adsorbed on the sediments.
In Suisun Bay, the maximum concentration of suspended sediment usually marks
the position of the turbidity maximum, which is a crucial ecological region in
which suspended sediments, nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton, larvae, and
juvenile fish accumulate (Peterson and others, 1975; Arthur and Ball, 1979;
Kimmerer, 1992; Jassby and Powell, 1994; Schoellhamer and Burau, 1998).
Suspended sediments limit the availability of light in the bay, which, in turn,
limits photosynthesis and primary phytosynthetic carbon production (Cole and
Cloern, 1987; Cloern, 1987, 1996). Suspended sediments also deposit in ports
and shipping channels, which then must be dredged to maintain navigation (U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 1992). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in
cooperation with the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is studying the factors that affect
suspended-solids concentrations in San Francisco Bay. For more information, see
http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/sediment/cont_monitoring/index.html.
Publications
Buchanan, P.A., and Ganju, N.K., various, Summary of suspended-sediment
concentration data, San Francisco Bay, California, water year 2000-2003. U.S.
Geological Survey Open File Report.
2000 PDF File | 2001
PDF File | 2002 PDF
File | 2003 PDF File
Schoellhamer, D.H., Buchanan, P.A., and Ganju, N.K., 2002, Ten years of
continuous suspended-sediment concentration monitoring in San Francisco Bay and
Delta. Proceedings of the Turbidity and Other Sediment Surrogates Workshop,
Reno, Nevada, April 30 - May 2, 2002.
PDF File
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