Long-Term Seasonal Trends in the Prey Community of Delta Smelt (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hypomesus transpacificus</Emphasis>) Within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,California

Abiotic factors and species introductions can alter food web timing, disrupt life cycles, and change life history expressions and the temporal scale of population dynamics in zooplankton communities. We examined physical, trophic, and zooplankton community dynamics in the San Francisco Estuary, California, a highly altered Mediterranean climate waterway, across a 43-year dataset (1972–2014). Before invasion by the suspension-feeding overbite clam (Potamocorbula amurensis) in the mid-1980s, the estuary demonstrated monomictic thermal mixing in which winter turbidity and cool temperatures contributed to seasonally low productivity, followed by a late-spring-summer clearing phase with warm water and peak phytoplankton blooms that continued into early winter. Following the clam invasion, we observed a shift in peak phytoplankton bloom timing, with peak productivity now occurring in May compared to June prior to the invasion. Peak abundance of several zooplankton taxa (Eurytemora affinis, Pseudodiaptomus, other calanoids, and non-copepods) also shifted to earlier in the season. We present the first evidence of a shift in the timing of peak abundance for zooplankton species that are key prey items of delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus), a federally threatened pelagic fish species. These timing shifts may have exacerbated well-documented food limitations of delta smelt due to declines in primary productivity since the invasion of the overbite clam. Future conservation efforts in the estuary should consider measures designed to restore the timing and magnitude of pre-invasion phytoplankton blooms.