At the January 2011 Joint Venture Science subcommittee meeting, USGS scientist Isa Woo reported on her important work on San Francisco Bay shoal ecology with a specific focus on the dynamics of aquatic invertebrate communities. She also highlighted the fairly recently recognized importance of ‘biofilm’ as food source for shorebirds around the Bay, and the integration of her work with her colleague Dr. Susan Wainwrigth De la Cruz’s diving duck carrying capacity modeling.

The San Francisco Bay is the most important diving duck wintering area, harboring nearly 50% of several diving duck species annually counted along the Pacific Flyway. Greater and Lesser Scaup and Surf Scoters are in decline due to unknown causes, and food is hypothesized as a main limiting factor in wintering areas.  At the last SFBJV science subcommittee meeting, USGS researcher Dr. Susan De La Cruz gave a status report on an ongoing project in collaboration with Dr. Jim Lovvorn of Southern Illinois University and the non-profit organization, Oikonos, on carrying capacity modeling of benthivore diving ducks in San Pablo Bay.