Freshwater Inflows: Determining Flow Regimes in the Face of Land Use Change, Climate Change, and Other Unknowns

Abstract

A team led by the Mission Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) received a grant to conduct research that will inform freshwater inflow recommendations for the Guadalupe-San Antonio and Mission-Aransas Estuaries and address the needs of estuaries and the growing communities that depend on them. The team used collaborative methods to bring stakeholders together to identify and fill gaps in knowledge related to freshwater inflows. Specifically, the project addressed the effects of land use and climate change on freshwater inflows, the circulation of freshwater within and between estuaries, and the effects of freshwater inflow and salinity on commercially and biologically important estuarine dependent organisms. The overall goal of this project was to improve the quality of environmental flow recommendations for the Guadalupe-San Antonio and Mission-Aransas Estuaries by collaborating with local stakeholders and scientists to prioritize research needs in the BBASC adaptive management plan and address research questions to provide additional information and data for the Senate Bill 3 adaptive management process. The collaborative process identified four objectives, the results of which are summarized in this report.