Tales of the estuary: freshwater flow, plankton, and the declining longfin smelt - Livestream

A central theme of our lab’s research in the San Francisco Estuary is the interaction between the movement of water and the lives of planktonic organisms. The Estuary is dynamic, with variable tides and freshwater flow interacting over a complex bathymetry. Like other organisms, planktonic species must reproduce, grow, and survive. They must also maintain position in the salinity gradient and avoid being swept to sea. I illustrate how plankton overcome these challenges with two case studies from our work with collaborators: population dynamics and behavior of the copepod Pseudodiaptomus forbesi, and movements of larvae of the threatened longfin smelt. Interactions between complex hydrodynamics and behavior retains both species in the estuary, and may be the key mechanism underlying the 100-fold variability in the juvenile longfin smelt abundance index with freshwater flow. These results highlight the value of applying models to understand plankton distributions in their moving frame of reference.

Speaker: Wim Kimmerer, Estuary & Ocean Science Center, Emeritus

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