Time-varying flow-ecology relationships for an endangered fish population: Longfin Smelt in the San Francisco Estuary.

ABSTRACT: Major estuaries globally are experiencing fast-paced changes in hydrology and ecosystem dynamics. However, connecting alteration of river flow regimes to estuarine fish population dynamics remains a challenge, partly due to the untested assumption that flow regimes, fish dynamics, and the resulting flow-ecology relationships are stationary (i.e., have no systematic changes in mean or variance over time). Here, we studied the endangered population segment of Longfin Smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) in the San Francisco Estuary, which depends on seasonal river flows to reproduce. We used extensive biomonitoring data (1980-2020) and two time-series modeling techniques, namely multivariate autoregressive state-space (MARSS) models and dynamic linear models (DLMs), to understand how population d

SUBMITTER: Saffarinia P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12813966 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature