SESSION TOPICS

This year’s theme calls on communities, knowledge holders, scientists, practitioners, leaders, and others invested in the Bay-Delta to recognize this moment of change and work together to shape the future. As you prepare an abstract, we invite you to consider how your proposed session or presentation aligns with the following themes. Across all themes, we especially encourage presentations that use creative approaches to deepen understanding and connection, such as featuring collaborations between art and science, storytelling for policy and public engagement, and effective communication of uncertainty, risk, and change.  
 

This list is not exhaustive, and we encourage traditional and non-traditional science, as well as creativity and diversity. We also encourage talks about science that extends beyond the Bay-Delta, including those that compare Bay-Delta systems and processes to those in other areas of the globe or that include research or knowledge about the Bay-Delta ecosystem’s upper watershed.  

 

Interdisciplinary Science and Cross-Knowledge Integration – Moving beyond silos and disciplinary boundaries toward truly integrated science with a focus on cross-sector collaboration and multiple ways of knowing. Research that values Traditional Ecological Knowledge and community-based monitoring to promote co-production of knowledge and collaborative learning networks.   

  

Nature-Based Solutions and Landscape Resilience – Designing with nature to achieve multi-benefit outcomes. Work that highlights floodplain and wetland restoration, innovative climate adaptation infrastructure, and resulting ecosystem and human co-benefits. 

 

Systems Thinking for the Whole Ecosystem – Understanding and designing for system-wide outcomes that benefit natural ecosystems and human communities. Exploring sustainable coexistence under climate change, while realizing tradeoffs across ecological, social, and economic goals and prioritizing environmental justice and access to ecosystem benefits.   

 

Invasive Species and Novel Ecosystems – Addressing the realities of irreversible ecological change, including ecosystem function and impacts on human communities in invaded systems. Focus on prevention, the tradeoffs of control, and adaptation strategies for management.   

 

Ecology, Food Webs, and Changing Ecosystems – Advancing understanding of key species and ecosystem dynamics under stress. Research focused on key focal species, environmental condition shifts, food web restructuring, and monitoring and interpreting ecological change. 

 

Decision Science and Adaptive Mindsets in a Dynamic System –

Exploring decision-making frameworks, scenario analysis,

learning-oriented management, and tradeoff evaluation.

Models and examples of managing uncertainty and transformation.   

 

Managing Competing Demands for Water – Linking science and

management to balance water supply and ecosystem needs. Collaboration, forecasting, and modeling that improves understanding of physical processes such as hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and geomorphology.   

 

Water Quality, Contaminants, and Aquatic Health – Finding ways to manage effects of water quality on aquatic species and human communities. Studies on nutrients, contaminants, HABs, biogeochemical processes, and public health and ecosystem impacts.  

 

Finding Collaborative Solutions – Recognizing that restoration and management outcomes depend on mutual collaboration, not just analysis. Examples of conflict resolution and consensus-building, multi-party negotiations, and science in support of management.