Session Coordinators: Monty Schmitt and Nick Murphy, The Nature Conservancy; and David Dralle, PhD, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station

 

California’s salmonid-bearing coastal watersheds span enormous climatic, geologic, and ecological gradients, yet they share a defining challenge: a long, dry Mediterranean summer. Once the rains stop, the persistence and quality of salmonid habitat depend on how watersheds store, move, and release water—and how human activities and ecological processes alter those pathways.

 

This session will explore the hydrology of salmon and steelhead streams along California’s 840-mile coastline, with a focus on what northern, central, and southern watersheds can teach one another. We welcome work on groundwater–surface water interactions, geology and subsurface storage, flow permanence, water use, wildfire, restoration, and other factors that shape dry-season habitat. We are especially interested in studies that reveal common mechanisms across regions, explain important differences, and offer insights for maintaining and restoring salmonid habitat as climate change intensifies drought, heat, and other dry-season extremes.