Discrete water temperature, flow, solar radiation, chlorophyll-a and inundation, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, CA, 1999-2019

The objective of our study is to better understand the factors affecting chlorophyll-a production within a floodplain and its transport downstream to determine how lateral connectivity influences longitudinal connectivity. The Yolo Bypass is an engineered floodplain of the Sacramento River that inundates during periods of high outflow via overtopping weirs. Water traveling through the Yolo Bypass flows parallel to the Sacramento River and re-connects to the mainstem at the southern extent of the floodplain. Several monitoring programs in the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta and Yolo Bypass collect discrete and continuous water quality data, including chlorophyll measurements. For this study, we synthesized available flow, water temperature, chlorophyll and inundation data between March 1999 to December 2019 and modeled the effects of environmental variables and inundation on chlorophyll-a production in the floodplain, the mainstem, and downstream of the floodplain/mainstem.