Field Activity 2020-603-FA

Identifier 2020-603-FA
Also known as ERO20
Purpose Determine temporal variability in bed sediment erodibility and investigate its causes
Location northern San Francisco Bay
Summary Platforms were not recovered until June 2, 2020 due to COVID. Bed sediments were sampled 5 times during deployment and once in June. Data collection was successful.
Info derived Wave properties, currents, suspended-sediment concentration, salinity, water level, bed sediemnt grains size, bulk density, and carbon content.
Comments Entries for this field activity are based on entries from Field Activity 2019-625-FA
Projects
Platform
Parke Snavely
34'
Vehicles
MarFac; Dodge Ram truck G43-1698S
MarFac; Ford F350 pickup/stake truck; 6 pass; G82-0317H
Itinerary
Start Vallejo, CA 2020-01-21
End Vallejo, CA 2020-06-02
Days in the field 16
Bounds
West -122.55523682
East -121.86584473
North 38.17127344
South 37.96368875
Marine operations Yes

Personnel

Organization
2885 Mission Street
Santa Cruz, CA95060
(831) 460-7401
Principal investigators Jessica R Lacy
Crew members
Joanne C. T Ferreira
Scientist, Staff
Andrew Stevens
Scientist, Staff
Jessica R Lacy
Scientist, Staff
Cordell Johnson
Scientist, Staff
Peter Dal Ferro
Scientist, Staff
Daniel C Powers
Scientist, Staff
Rachel M Allen
Scientist, Staff
Information specialist(s)
Joanne C. T Ferreira
Specialist, Information
Affiliate principal Maureen Downing-Kunz, CAWSC Francis Parchaso, WMA

Data types and categories

Data category: Imagery, Location-Elevation, Sampling, Time Series
Data type: Photo, Navigation, Geology, Mooring (physical oceanography)

Equipment used

Equipment Usage description Data types Datasets
camera Photo (no data reported)
GPS Navigation (no data reported)
Gomex Core Geology 1
Moorings - Tripods Mooring (physical oceanography) 4

Datasets

Datasets produced in this activity

Dataset name Equipment Description Dataset contact
Distribution of particle size in suspension at various depths from San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bay, California, 2020 Moorings - Tripods These data present suspended particle size distributions collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center within two embayments of San Francisco Bay. Data were collected at one site in San Pablo Bay and one site in Grizzly Bay from January through February 2020 by deploying a Sequoia Scientific Laser In-situ Scattering and Transmissometry instrument (LISST 200x) from a small vessel near pre-established USGS instrument moorings. At both sites, data were collected on four dates at three depths, generally near the water surface, at mid depth, and near the sediment bed, for 1-3 minutes at each depth. LISST volume concentrations are most accurate when the optical percent transmission is above 30, when this is true, light passing through the sample volume is unlikely to be scattered by more than one particle. These files contain all samples collected, judgment should be applied when using them. Users are advised to check metadata and instrument information carefully for applicable time periods of specific data. Rachel M Allen
Hydrodynamic time-series data from San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bay, California, 2020 Moorings - Tripods Hydrodynamic and sediment transport time-series data, including water depth, velocity, turbidity, conductivity, and temperature, were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center within two embayments of San Francisco Bay. Data were collected in San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bay from January to June 2020 at seven locations. Data files are grouped by area (shallows of San Pablo Bay, channel of San Pablo Bay, and shallows of Grizzly Bay). Each shallow site contained a variety of sensors located on two tripods, while the channel site consisted of one tripod. Users are advised to assess data quality carefully, and to check metadata for instrument information, as platform deployment times and data-processing methods varied. Joanne C. T Ferreira
Meteorological data from Grizzly Bay, California, 2020 Moorings - Tripods Meteorological data, including wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, relative humidity, and air pressure, were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center at a site located in Grizzly Bay, California. A Vaisala WXT530 meteorological station was mounted atop of a dolphin-type mooring structure, from January to June 2020. The data were truncated based on deployment and recovery times of hydrodynamic time-series data, spurious data points from the wind sensor were removed, and the file was written to netCDF. Spurious points were identified based on a recorded wind speed of 0. These points were set to NaN (Not a Number). Users are advised to assess data quality carefully, and to check metadata for additional instrument information. Andrew Stevens
Suspended sediment concentrations from water samples collected in San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bay, California, 2020 Moorings - Tripods Water samples were collected in San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bay on five days from January through June 2020. The water samples were collected from a small vessel near pre-established USGS instrument moorings using a peristaltic pump or a Niskin bottle. Data are provided in a comma-delimited values spreadsheet. Samantha C McGill

Datasets compiled from multiple sources

Dataset name Equipment Description Dataset contact
Grain size, bulk density, and organic carbon of sediment cores from San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bay, California, 2020 Gomex Core Bed sediment samples were collected in San Pablo Bay and Grizzly Bays on eight days from January through September 2020, to analyze for sediment properties including bulk density, particle size distribution, and percent organic carbon. Sediment samples were collected from a small vessel near pre-established USGS instrument moorings using a Gomex box corer that was subsampled with three push cores (37 mm in diameter) per Gomex core. Six subsamples were collected from the top 5 centimeters (cm) of each push core, a few push cores included the top 8 cm. The top two subsamples were each 0.5 cm thick, and all following subsamples were each 1 cm thick. Push core samples from the first, third, and fifth centimeter depth were analyzed for grain size and percent organic carbon, while all 6 sections were analyzed for bulk density. Data are provided in a comma-delimited values spreadsheet. These data were collected as part of a collaborative project with the USGS California Water Science Center and the USGS Water Mission Area on physical and biological controls on sediment erodibility, funded by the USGS Priority Ecosystems Program for San Francisco Bay and Delta and the USGS Coastal Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Samantha C McGill

Publications

Samples collected during this field activity