Giacomini Wetland Restoration Project: Restoration: What's the Long-Term Future of the Restored Wetlands?: Coastal Fog

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Page 6. Coastal Upwelling -->

Cooler temperatures along the coast would seemingly favor continuation of the fog "belt" that typically cloaks the coast during the summer and days when temperatures soar in inland areas. Fog in northern California is strongly related to the phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), as well as interannual variability in coastal sea surface temperature and sea level pressure over the interior western United States (J. Johnstone, UC Berkeley, unpub. data). The frequency of fog closely approximates the temperature differential between coastal and inland weather stations (J. Johnstone, UC Berkeley, unpub. data). Interestingly, while predicted changes discussed above would suggest a potential increase in fog, monitoring shows that the frequency of fog has varied substantially over the last 100 years, but, in general, fog frequency has declined 33 percent from 1900 (Johnstone and Dawson 2009). Fog frequency dropped from 44 percent between 1951 and 1975 to 27 percent in 1997, but rebounded somewhat in subsequent years to 42 percent (Johnstone and Dawson 2009). Over this time period, the temperature  differential between inland and coastal areas has been dropping at a rate as high as 3.8 degrees Centigrade per century, which would result in generation of less fog (Johnstone and Dawson 2009).

This historical observation, of course, is somewhat at odds with the near-future predictions of Snyder and colleagues, who, as noted earlier, have postulated that the gradient between inland and coastal temperatures will increase as temperatures along the coast become cooler (Snyder et al. 2003, Snyder 2008). As a result, fog development and onshore flow during summer months could intensify (Snyder et al. 2003). Given the seeming contradiction between recent historical trends and future modeling predictions, it would potentially seem that the cooling of temperatures associated with increases in upwelling could cancel out the increase in warming associated with the greenhouse effect, and the historical trend documented by Johnstone and Dawson (2009) may reverse (M. Snyder, T. O'Brien, University of California Santa Cruz, pers. comm.).

<-- Page 4. Coastal Winds and Temperature

Page 6. Coastal Upwelling -->

Top of Page

 

What's the Long-Term Future of the Restored Wetlands?
Page 1. Introduction
Page 2. Sea Level Rise
Page 3. Precipitation, Run-Off, and Sedimentation
Page 4. Coastal Winds and Temperature
Page 5. Coastal Fog
Page 6. Coastal Upwelling
Page 7. Acidification of Coastal Waters
Page 8. Changes in Estuarine Salinity with Sea Level Rise
Page 9. Nitrogen Deposition
Page 10. Carbon Sequestration and Interactions of Carbon with Marsh Vegetation Communities
Page 11. Conclusions and References

 

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restoration includes:

Restoration Water, Water, and More Water How Long Will It Take For Tidal Wetlands To Develop? Two Years Later: Already Dramatic Improvements in Water Quality Giacomini Wetlands: A Haven for Ducks

Spring is in the Air--and in the Water Untangling the Food Web: Changes in Prey Base Following Restoration What's the Long-Term Future of the Restored Wetlands? How Can We Learn About the Restoration? How Can We Be A Part of the Restoration Process? Kids in Wetlands - Learning Through Experience Where Can We View the Restored Wetlands?

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