Fish Food Production. Agricultural Floodplain -- Nigiri Project “Rearing and migration of juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in a large river floodplain” analyzed the relationships between residency time, growth, emigration and survival of wild and hatchery fish in off-channel floodplain habitat. The study indicates that increased flooding of the Yolo Bypass would increase off-channel rearing opportunities that could increase the quantity and diversity of Central Valley Chinook salmon. PLOS ONE published “Floodplain farm fields provide novel rearing habitat for Chinook salmon”. The peer-reviewed scientific paper reports the results of the 2012 pilot study at Xxxxxx Ranch in Yolo Bypass. This scientific paper provides a useful overview of work to integrate floodplain habitats and food web productivity in the management of California river systems. “Zooplankton ecology and trophic resources for rearing native fish on an agricultural floodplain in the Yolo Bypass California, USA” was published earlier this year in the journal Wetlands Ecology and Management and reported results from one of the 2013 Yolo Bypass experiments. Notably, the paper reports zooplankton densities 300,000% greater on the Yolo Bypass floodplain than in the adjacent Sacramento River channel. December 8, 2017 Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields Re-integrating Floodplain Food Resources into the River Ecosystem In the Central Valley, more than two thousand miles of state and federal levees, along with local flood protection projects, have cut off approximately 95% of historical floodplain wetlands from their river channels. In the 2017 pilot year, the Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields Project surveyed existing wetland habitat types over a broad swath of the Sacramento Valley, both inside and outside of the levees. By comparing and contrasting hydrologic conditions and aquatic food web dynamics across the spectrum of existing wetland habitat types (i.e., river channel, managed wetlands, farm fields and bypasses), the project will 1) improve understanding of aquatic food web productivity in the Sacramento Valley and 2) assess the potential for these diverse aquatic habitats, including the hundreds of thousands of acres of floodplain farmland and managed wetlands, to contribute food resources to the river ecosystem, bolster in-river and Delta food webs, and help support recovery of endangered fish populations. Cultivating Ecological Solutions on Agricultural Lands Floodplains are the “solar panels...
