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Trends in River Flow Affecting the Northeastern Reach of the San Francisco Bay Estuary over the Past 7000 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michelle Goman  and
Lisa Wells
Michelle Goman
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854
Lisa Wells
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235
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Abstract

A variety of stratigraphic analyses (particle grain size, iron concentration, loss on ignition, and macrofossils) from sediments obtained from two marsh sites are used to reconstruct a middle to late Holocene record of stream flow into San Francisco Bay. Browns Island, a freshwater/brackish site, is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and is dominated by stands of Scirpus americanus. Peyton Hill is a brackish site located near Carquinez Straits and is dominated by stands of Scirpus robustus. Twenty-five AMS 14C dates provide chronostratigraphic control. During the Holocene, discharge from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers was broadly comparable to modern flows; however, an extended period of higher flow began 3800 cal yr B.P. and continued for almost two millennia. At this time Browns Island supported Phragmites communis, a freshwater species, and Peyton Hill supported S. americanus. At least two floods, recognized by discrete increases in sand and silt, occurred at 3600 and 530 cal yr B.P.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , September 2000 , pp. 206 - 217
Copyright
University of Washington

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