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Tagged: ecology

Environment
5:09 pm
Fri September 14, 2012

New Study Examines How Delta Ecosystem Once Worked

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Credit Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Historical Ecology Study / San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center / California Department of Fish and Game
Top, Consumnes River delta. Bottom, Sycamore Slough (south of Woodbridge Road). Both November 8, 2011. (photos by William G. Miller, Cole~Miller Photography)
Credit Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Historical Ecology Study / San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center / California Department of Fish and Game
Meanders of the San Joaquin are seen in this engraving titled “Night scene on the San Joaquin River – Monte Diablo in the distance” (Hutchings 1862).
Credit Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Historical Ecology Study / San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center / California Department of Fish and Game
The Delta and Central Valley wetlands as mapped in 1887. The broader wetlands of the Sacramento Valley contrast with the narrower corridor along the San Joaquin River south of the Delta. (Hall 1887)
Credit Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Historical Ecology Study / San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center / California Department of Fish and Game
A map depicts the native habitat of the delta as it existed in the early 1800's.
Credit Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Historical Ecology Study / San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center / California Department of Fish and Game
The Delta of the 1800's consisted of the tidal islands landscape of the central Delta (blue), the flood basins landscape of the north Delta (green), and the distributary rivers landscape of the south Delta (orange).
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A new study released this week by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and the California Department of Fish and Game aims to turn back the clock and learn how the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta used to work - over 150 years ago.

It's part of an effort to allow scientists to better understand how to restore the Delta, by examining how the massive freshwater estuary functioned, before the gold rush and agriculture transformed the region with levees, shipping channels and dredging. 

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