EDI Staging Environment
The Interagency Ecological Program’s (IEP) Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP) was initiated in compliance with the Water Right Decision D-1379 (now mandated by Water Right Decision D-1641) and has monitored benthic invertebrate macrofauna in the upper San Francisco Estuary (SFE) since 1975. The objectives of the EMP are to obtain consistent and accurate monthly data at established monitoring stations and to report this information for the purpose of management and conservation of the upper San Francisco Estuary. While the EMP also collects discrete and continuous water quality data, along with phytoplankton and zooplankton data, this dataset only includes the benthic invertebrate data collected by the EMP from 1975-2022.
EMP monitors invertebrate communities in the benthos of the SFE by collecting dredge samples with a Ponar sampler. Sediment and particles smaller than 0.5mm are removed from the sample using a sieve table. The invertebrates present are preserved in formalin, identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level, and enumerated.
Currently, samples are collected monthly at 10 sites across the range of salinities found in the SFE. Four replicate dredge samples are collected at each site. The frequency of sampling, number and identity of sampling sites, and number of replicate samples has changed through the 45+ years of monitoring effort, in response to changes in perceived need for data.
Links to other EMP datasets can be found on the EMP website: https://emp-des.github.io/emp-reports/data-links.html.
EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:
