Projected evolution of California's San Francisco Bay-Delta-river system in a century of climate change.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Accumulating evidence shows that the planet is warming as a response to human emissions of greenhouse gases. Strategies of adaptation to climate change will require quantitative projections of how altered regional patterns of temperature, precipitation and sea level could cascade to provoke local impacts such as modified water supplies, increasing risks of coastal flooding, and growing challenges to sustainability of native species.

Methodology/principal findings

We linked a series of models to investigate responses of California's San Francisco Estuary-Watershed (SFEW) system to two contrasting scenarios of climate change. Model outputs for scenarios of fast and moderate warming are presented as 2010-2099 projections of nine indicators of changing climate, hydrol

SUBMITTER: Cloern JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3177826 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature