Is the San Francisco Bay a bay or estuary?
The San Francisco Bay is both a bay and an estuary. The former term refers to any inlet or cove providing a physical refuge from the open ocean. An estuary is any physiographic feature where freshwater meets an ocean or sea.
What ecosystems are in a bay?
Bay Ecosystems Bays have wildly diverse ecosystem s. Large bays open to the ocean have marine habitat s. Walker Bay, South Africa, is one of the most popular sites to view (and even dive with) great white sharks. Marine mammal s such as els and southern right whales are also frequent visitors to Walker Bay.
What is the natural habitat of San Francisco?
Formerly the most common habitat in San Francisco, remnants of grasslands support a wide array of wildlife. Twin Peaks, Bernal Hill, Billy Goat Hill, Bayview Hill, Mount Davidson, Corona Heights. McLaren Park, and Glen Canyon Park all have thriving grasslands. Coastal Scrub is one of the predominant remaining natural communities in San Francisco.
How has the geography of San Francisco Bay changed over time?
The geography of the San Francisco Bay has changed dramatically due to human activity in the 19th and 20th centuries, for instance. During the California Gold Rush of the 1850s and 1860s, miner s in Northern California dumped tons of material into the rivers that empty into the San Francisco Bay.
What kind of ecosystem is the Bay Area?
Savanna-like oak woodlands are among the most characteristic of Bay Area plant communities, and the only wooded areas of San Francisco prior to European settlement. Dominated by oak trees, these complex and diverse habitats harbor more wildlife than any other terrestrial plant community in the Bay Area.
What type of estuary is the San Francisco Bay?
brackish estuaryAn estuary is any physiographic feature where freshwater meets an ocean or sea. The northern portion of the bay is a brackish estuary, consisting of a number of physical embayments which are dominated by both marine and fresh water fluxes.
What type of ecosystem is California?
The ecoregions of California can be grouped into four major groups: desert ecoregions (such as the Mojave Desert), Mediterranean ecoregions (such as the Central Valley), forested mountains (such as the Sierra Nevada), and coastal forests.
Why is the SF bay an estuary?
The saltiest basins are the Central Bay, which connects with the ocean through the Golden Gate, and the South Bay, a large shallow lobe extending off the Central Bay. Scientists define an estuary as a partially enclosed body of water where fresh river water meets and mixes with the salty ocean.
Is the bay saltwater or freshwater?
Most bays have brackish water. Brackish water has a greater salt content than freshwater, but not nearly as much as the ocean. Many species are uniquely adapted to brackish water.
What sea life is in San Francisco Bay?
Although it is a highly urbanized estuary, it is home to over 500 species of fish and wildlife including salmon along their migratory route to inland spawning grounds, herring, anchovies, sharks and other marine fishes; crabs, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp and other shellfish; and marine mammals including seals, sea ...
How many ecosystems are in California?
There are 13 level III ecoregions and 177 level IV ecoregions in California and most continue into ecologically similar parts of adjacent States of the United States or Mexico (Bryce and others, 2003; Thorson and others, 2003; Griffith and others, 2014).
What biome is California located in?
The Chaparral, also know as California woodland and grasslands, is found on the coast of California in western North America. You could find this biome in a section of the Sierra Nevada.
What are the ecosystems?
An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts. Biotic factors include plants, animals, and other organisms.
Is the San Francisco Bay an ocean?
San Francisco Bay, large, nearly landlocked bay indenting western California, U.S. It is a drowned river valley paralleling the coastline and is connected with the Pacific Ocean by a strait called the Golden Gate, which is spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge.
Are there sharks in San Francisco Bay?
Sharks of San Franscisco Bay Area Around 11 species of Sharks are found in the Bay itself - including Leopard Shark, Pacific Angel Shark, Brown Smoothhound, Broadnose Sevengill, Soupfin Shark. The Leopard Shark is the most common in the Bay. Small Spiny Dogfish are found swimming on the bottom of the Bay.
Where is the largest estuaries?
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and is one of the most productive bodies of water in the world. The Chesapeake watershed spans 165,759 square kilometers, covering parts of six states — Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
What type of estuary is Puget Sound?
fjord estuariesEstuaries carved by glaciers, such as Puget Sound, are known as fjord estuaries. They are prominent in areas where the glaciers once loomed, including Alaska and Scandanavia in the Northern Hemisphere and Chile and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.
Why is San Francisco Bay estuary important to humans?
SFBE is widely recognized as one of North America's most ecologically important estuaries, accounting for 77% of California's remaining perennial estuarine wetlands and providing key habitat for a broad suite of flora and fauna and a range of ecological services such as flood protection, water quality maintenance, ...
How many estuaries are in California?
(1990) found that all 32 estuaries had the potential to provide nursery function for the fish and invertebrate species included in our review (Table 10).
What is the largest freshwater estuary in the world?
Green BayDescription. Green Bay has sometimes been referred to as the largest freshwater “estuary” in the world. Its watershed, much of it in intensive agriculture, comprises one-third of the Lake Michigan basin and delivers one-third of the lake's total phosphorus load.
What is the San Francisco Bay?
It is an essential resting place, feeding area and wintering ground for millions of birds. Nearly two-thirds of the state's salmon pass through the Bay during their migration. Oak Woodlands.
Where are wetland ecosystems located in San Francisco?
In San Francisco, they can be found in Glen Canyon Park, Pine Lake Park, McLaren Park, the Presidio and Lake Merced. Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems worldwide. They produce high levels of oxygen, filter chemicals, reduce flooding and erosion, recharge groundwater, and provide critical habitat.
What are the habitats of San Francisco?
Coastal Scrub. Coastal scrub habitat is found throughout much of the city. Small remnants of these ecosystems support a unique array of plants and animals. Sand Dunes. Much of San Francisco was once covered in sand dunes. Today the largest sand dunes can be found at Fort Funston.
How much of San Francisco is water?
80% of San Francisco's 232 square miles consists of water, with most of that west of the Golden Gate. A tremendous array of life can be found in this expanse of water, which includes the Farallon Islands, a national wildlife refuge supporting the largest seabird colony in the continental United States. San Francisco Bay.
What are ecosystem services?
Ecosystem services are fundamental life support services upon which human civilization depends. Ecosystems provide our sustenance, including our food, water and medicine; supply us with wood, paper and minerals; regulate our climate; and provide cultural services, such as recreation. Coastal Scrub.
Which dune community takes the frontal blast and is most subject to salt spray?
The coastal strand is the dune community that takes the frontal blast and is most subject to salt spray. Some dune plants, such as the rare Lessingia germanorum, benefit from the movement of the sand. Behind the coastal strand are the foredunes, usually more stabilized and supporting some perennial vegetation.
Where are oak woodlands in San Francisco?
Oak Woodlands. Oak woodlands are among the most characteristic of Bay Area plant communities, and made up the only wooded areas of San Francisco prior to human habitation. Harboring many insects, birds and mammals, they can be found on Yerba Buena Island, in Buena Vista Park, and in Golden Gate Park. Riparian.
What are the ecosystems of San Francisco?
Despite intense urban development, San Francisco still has significant areas of extraordinary natural ecosystems, including grasslands, wetlands, coastal scrub, dunes, woodlands, and, of course, the Bay and the Ocean. Ecosystems. Coined in 1930, the word ecosystem means all the physical and biological components of an environment.
What is the meaning of ecosystem?
Ecosystems. Coined in 1930, the word ecosystem means all the physical and biological components of an environment. Animals. Among our impressive diversity of native animal species, many are interesting stories about nature in the city. Plants.
What is the San Francisco Bay ecosystem?
San Francisco Bay is linked to the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate. Its distinctive sub-embayments create a diversity of interconnected estuary types within a single large estuarine ecosystem. The three major sub-embayments of the lower estuary, San Pablo Bay, Central Bay and South Bay, and their connection through Suisun Bay, to the Delta create the rich habitat diversity that supports numerous marine and coastal organisms that depend on San Francisco Bay for feeding, resting and reproducing. Intertidal mudflats and subtidal shoals harbor abundant populations of marine invertebrates that nourish demersal fishes, sharks, rays and numerous wetland-dependent bird species. San Francisco Bay also has the largest eelgrass population in California.
Why is San Francisco Bay important?
It is a critically important stopover along the Pacific Flyway for migratory shorebirds and waterfowl. As the most invaded aquatic ecosystem on the planet, San Francisco Bay is also renowned for its high diversity of non-native species.
What is the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve?
The San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, also based at the EOS Center, maintains water quality instruments at the mouth of Richardson Bay for continuous monitoring of important estuarine water properties including salinity, oxygen, pH and temperature.
What are the marine invertebrates that live in San Francisco Bay?
Intertidal mudflats and subtidal shoals harbor abundant populations of marine invertebrates that nourish demersal fishes, sharks, rays and numerous wetland-dependent bird species. San Francisco Bay also has the largest eelgrass population in California. Although it is a highly urbanized estuary, it is home to over 500 species ...
Where is the San Francisco Bay Marinegeo located?
San Francisco Bay, California. TIburon, California, USA. The San Francisco Bay MarineGEO site was established in 2016 in partnership with San Francisco State University’s Estuary & Ocean Science Center (EOS Center). The EOS Center is located on SF Bay, the lower reach of the largest estuary on the west coast of the United States and one ...
What are the animals that live in the estuary?
Although it is a highly urbanized estuary, it is home to over 500 species of fish and wildlife including salmon along their migratory route to inland spawning grounds, herring, anchovies, sharks and other marine fishes; crabs, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp and other shellfish; and marine mammals including seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises and whales. It is a critically important stopover along the Pacific Flyway for migratory shorebirds and waterfowl. As the most invaded aquatic ecosystem on the planet, San Francisco Bay is also renowned for its high diversity of non-native species.
What are the changes in the San Francisco Estuary?
These needs have wrought direct changes in the movement of water and the nature of the landscape, and indirect changes from the introduction of non-native species. New species have altered the architecture of the food web as surely as levees have altered the landscape of islands and channels that form the complex system known as the Delta.
How does the San Francisco Estuary food web work?
The LSZ food web of the San Francisco Estuary operates in two parallel and asymmetrical directions. The bulk of carbon is assimilated into the benthic and microbial loops, which represent energetic dead ends. A smaller fraction is delivered to higher pelagic trophic levels which may support copepods, fish, birds and fisheries. This redirection of the food web into these two narrow loops may be responsible for the decline in macroinvertebrates and fishes in the estuary, which operate outside of these chains. Restoration of the estuary to a higher degree of function relies upon the probability of delivering increased benefits to the pelagic web without subsidizing the benthic.
What is the food web in San Francisco?
Prior to the 1980s the LSZ was dominated by a phytoplankton-driven foodweb, a stable mesoplankton population dominated by the copepod Eurytemora affinis, and large macrozooplankton typified by San Francisco bay shrimp and mysid shrimps. These provided nutrition and energy to native filter feeders such as the northern anchovy ( Engraulis mordax ), and planktivores such as delta smelt and juvenile salmon .
What are the factors that affect the distribution of organisms in the LSZ?
The distribution and abundance of organisms in the LSZ is dependent upon both abiotic and biotic factors. Abiotic factors include the physical geography and hydrology of the estuary, including nutrient inputs, sediment load, turbidity, environmental stochasticity, climate and anthropogenic influences. Abiotic factors tend to drive production in the estuarine environment, and are mediated by biotic factors.
What is the habitat of pelagic organisms?
Pelagic organisms spend all or part of their lives in the open water, where habitat is defined not by edges but by physiological tolerance to salinity and temperature. The Low Salinity Zone (LSZ) of the San Francisco Estuary constitutes a habitat for a suite of organisms that are specialized to survive in this unique confluence of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine influences. While there are many habitats with distinct ecologies that are part of the estuary (including marine, freshwater, intertidal marsh and benthic mudflat systems) each is linked to the LSZ by export and import of freshwater, nutrients, carbon, and organisms.
Why are wetlands being filled?
Between 80 and 95% of these historic wetlands have been filled to facilitate land use and development around the Bay Area. Habitat loss at the edges of the pelagic zone is thought to create a loss of native pelagic fish species, by increasing vulnerability to predation.
Why do phytoplankton accumulate in the Delta?
Phytoplankton accumulation is primarily the result of residence time. The north Delta and Suisun Bay have relatively low residence times due to the high volume of water moving through the region for downstream flow and for export to southern California. Since water moves more rapidly through this part of the system, the rate of accumulation decreases as productivity is advected out of the system. In contrast, parts of the southern Delta have a higher residence time due to the low volume of water moving through the system; in fact the water on occasion runs backwards, due to the lack of inflow from the San Joaquin River, and export pumping. During summer, phytoplankton density may be an order of magnitude higher here than in other parts of the estuary.
Where are the bays located?
Bays can also be found along the shores of lakes. Georgian Bay, for example, is a prominent bay in Lake Huron, one of North America’s Great Lakes. Georgian Bay is located in Ontario, Canada. Freshwater Bay is a bay on the Swan River, near the busy urban area of Perth, Australia.
What is a bay?
bay. Encyclopedic Entry. Vocabulary. A bay is a body of water partially surrounded by land. A bay is usually smaller and less enclosed than a gulf. The mouth of the bay, where meets the ocean or lake, is typically wider than that of a gulf. In naming bays and gulfs, people have not always made these distinctions.
What is Guanabara Bay?
Today, Guanabara Bay, also known as the Harbor of Rio de Janerio, Brazil, is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. A type of bay known as a ria is actually an estuary that has been taken over by the ocean. (An estuary is the mouth of a river.) Rias are often called "drowned rivers.".
Why is the Chesapeake Bay important?
People are trying to restore and protect Chesapeake Bay as well. The Chesapeake's importance as a center of commerce, transportation, and industry predates the Revolutionary War. Native Americans relied on the bay for fishing, trade, and communication long before that.
How are bays formed?
Bays form in many ways. Plate tectonics, the process of continent s drifting together and rifting apart, causes the formation of many large bays. The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world, was formed by plate tectonics.
How long did the San Francisco Bay go undetected?
The enormous San Francisco Bay went practically undetected by explorers for 200 years. Spanish conquistadores began exploring the area in the mid-1500s, but the bay wasnt discovered until 1769. (Native Americans knew all about this rich natural resource. It was only "discovered" by Europeans.) Dozens and perhaps hundreds of ships sailed right past the bay. This happened for three reasons.
What changed the shape of San Francisco Bay?
Industry in the 20th century has also changed the shape of the San Francisco Bay. Parts of the bay have been drained to create more land for housing and industry. Industries included salt evaporation ponds, mostly used to create material used in plastics and pharmaceutical s (drugs and medicines). Toxic chemicals used in the transportation industry were also manufactured on land reclaimed from the bay. San Francisco Bay is a strategic point in national defense, and the military has had naval and air stations there for almost a century.
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem describes a community of plants and animals living in the same area. Ecosystems also include climatic conditions, elevation, the presence or absence of water, and other non-living parts of the environment. While each ecosystem is unique, ecosystems have been categorized to describe and compare environments all over the world.
How are ecosystems classified?
Ecosystems are classified by their abiotic components and biotic components.
What kind of fish are in the San Francisco Bay Area?
Shiner Surfperch are probably the most abundant fish around piers and pilings. Some common fish species of the South Bay include Bay Pipefish, Three-spined Stickleback, Northern Anchovy, Topsmelt Silverside, Pacific Staghorn Sculpin, Starry Flounder, Yellowfin Goby.
What is Fishbase database?
Fishbase is a comprehensive database of all species of fish. ...link
What department is fish and shellfish identification?
Fish and Shellfish Identification, California Dept. of Fish and Game. ...link
Where do anadromous fish come from?
Anadromous fish are born in freshwater, migrate out to the ocean and reach maturity, then return to fresh water as adults to spawn.
