New study looks at stressors that impact presence or absence of Delta smelt
At the April meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Lead Scientist Dr. Laurel Larsen spotlighted a study funded by the Delta Stewardship Council, State Water Contractors, and the Department of Water Resources that leveraged decades of monitoring data to test competing hypotheses about how combinations of stressors impact the presence or absence of Delta smelt in locations throughout the Delta. Native fish in the Delta have been dealing with many challenges, including loss of habitat, loss of flows, competition and predation by invasive species, diminished food supply, loss of turbidity that helps them evade predators, and entrainment in Delta pumps.