How Climate Change Will Affect the Bay-Delta System

A group of investigators from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and a number of universities has recently completed a new study of how global warming and climate change will affect the interconnected San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Bay-Delta system).

The research was meant to model what traits of the system will change between 2010 and 2099, and to what extent the change will affect the 20 million people depending on the natural resources it provides.

Changing biological communities, rising sea levels, and modified water supplies are all factors that could affect water and food security in the area, and the USGS team wanted to be prepared for any scenario.

“The protection of California's Bay-Delta system will continue to be a top priority for maintaining the state's agricultural economy, water security to tens of millions of users, and essential habitat to a valuable ecosystem,” USGS Director Marcia McNutt explains.