Food For Fish: Reintegrating floodplain food web productivity into the River Aquatic Ecosystem to Benefit Juvenile Salmon

The primary objectives of the Study are to:

1.Examine the direct effects of the pilot action for landscape-scale reconnection of floodplain food webs to the Sacramento River ecosystems through the reoperation of existing drainage infrastructure. During the winter non-growing season 5,000 acres of floodplain rice fields will be managed as surrogate floodplain wetlands to grow and deliver fish food to the Lower Sacramento River where salmon will benefit from these prolific floodplain-derived food web resources. Data will be collected on water quality, zooplankton density, and juvenile Chinook salmon growth rate.

2.Empirically determine the effects of water residence time on aquatic ecosystem productivity through controlled and replicated experimentation.

3.Continue to gather long-term data sets on Sacramento River aquatic ecosystem food webs with emphasis on the major confluences of floodplain drainage with the Lower Sacramento River and monitoring the delivery of floodplain zooplankton to the Sacramento River under varied water conditions.