Featured Research

New research reveals how lake ecosystem size affects community assembly via environmental stability, hydrology, and life-history filtering

Hot off the press! Check out the latest UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences Open-Access publication by Andrew Rypel, revealing how ecosystem size affects community assembly via environmental stability, hydrology, and life-history filtering. A must-read for conservationists and ecologists! 

Rypel, A.L. 2023. Ecosystem size filters life‐history strategies to shape community assembly in lakes. Journal of Animal Ecology. doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13925

Survival of a threatened salmon is linked to spatial variability in river conditions

Salmonid numbers are in decline across the western USA. Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon's evolutionary significant unit (ESU) is extirpated from the San Joaquin River, and reintroduction efforts have resulted in poor survival of juveniles as they swim toward the ocean. Understanding the factors impacting outmigration survival is critical for population reestablishment. However, the effects of habitat variability have largely been overlooked in survival models that try to estimate where this occurs.

New funding to quantify relative risk of collapse for Delta fish populations

The Center for Watershed Sciences is excited to share that a new research project to quantify the relative risk of collapse for fish populations using the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has been funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Congratulations to PIs Jonathan Walter, Danny O’Donnell, Levi Lewis, and Andrew Rypel! 

Prop 1 and more: Reconciling impounded managed wetlands and estuarine conservation goals in Suisun Marsh

UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences has received Prop 1 and other state grants to study the contribution of historic managed wetlands to ecosystem functioning in Suisun Marsh. The study will focus on plankton production and fish responses within managed ponds and adjacent sloughs under different management schemes, in an effort to 1) demonstrate the importance of historic working landscapes to marsh habitat; and 2) provide clear management guidance to optimize aquatic food production for both fishes and waterfowl. Read more about the proposed project!

Scientists turn Climate Anxiety into Action

"Confronting Climate Anxiety" is series in the works for ~one year. The series features Peter Moyle, Levi Lewis, and 6 other environmental scientists across campus to discuss how their work links to climate change and turns climate anxiety into climate action.