Interagency Ecological Program Zooplankton Study

The Zooplankton Study was implemented in 1972 to assess food resources available to fish in the upper San Francisco Estuary (SFE). Mandated by the State Water Resources Control Board's Water Right Decision D-1641, the study is conducted jointly by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Department of Water Resources under the guidance and management of the Interagency Ecological Program. For over five decades, this study has monitored the zooplankton community in the region, tracking abundance trends and distributional patterns, detecting and monitoring introduced species, and documenting changes in community composition. The Zooplankton Study uses three gear types to sample macro-, meso-, and micro-zooplankton across the upper SFE on a monthly basis.