Aquatic Science Center
Several key management decisions and questions provide the context for the San Francisco Bay nutrient management strategy. The primary anticipated management decisions include:
Nutrient management issues may be influenced by, or can influence to some degree, decisions on other issues, such as the regulation of freshwater flow from the Delta, a regional sediment management strategy, recycling of wastewater, management of nutrient loading to the Delta, and nutrient watershed TMDLs, e.g., Sonoma Creek and Napa River.
These upcoming decisions are the foundation for five key management questions that, in turn, drive the elements of the nutrient strategy, and correspond to the recommendations laid out in a recent literature review and data gap analysis that was conducted as an early step in the NNE process (Table 1; McKee et al., 2011).
Table 1. Summary of management questions developed with input from the Nutrient Workgroup, and corresponding recommendations from the San Francisco Bay NNE literature review (McKee et al. 2011).
Type | Management Question | Recommendation From McKee et al. 2011 Review |
Status and trends | Is there a problem or are there signs of a problem? Are trends spatially the same or different in San Francisco Bay? a. Is eutrophication currently, or trending towards, adversely affecting beneficial uses of the Bay? b. Are beneficial uses in segments of San Francisco Bay impaired by any form of nutrients (e.g. ammonium)? c. Are trends spatially the same or different in San Francisco Bay? |
Implement a monitoring program to support regular assessments of nutrient support for the Bay beneficial uses. Coordinate with Delta nutrient monitoring and management. |
Objectives |
What are appropriate guidelines for identifying a nutrient-related problem?
|
Establish a NNE framework for the Bay |
Sources and Pathways |
Which nutrient sources, pathways, and cycling processes are most important to understand and quantify? (Get the loads right!)
|
Quantify external sources of nutrients to the Bay and develop a spatially-explicit budget of the Bay. |
Fore-casting | What nutrient loads can the Bay assimilate without impairment of beneficial uses? | Develop load-response models |
What is the likelihood that the Bay will be impaired by nutrient overenrichment/eutrophication in the future? |