published a volume entitled San Francisco Bay: The Urbanized 
Estuary (Conomos, 1979). This excellent work brings together 
much of the recent work done by the U.S. Geological Survey 
personnel on estuarine circulation, chemistry, and biology. It 
also provides summaries of general geomorphology of the estuary, 
wetland geology and biology, and fisheries resources. A less 
successful volume followed in 1982 as an outgrowth of another 
Pacific Section-sponsored symposium at the University of Califor¬ 
nia at Davis (Conomos et al. 1982). Entitled San Francisco 
Bay: Use and Protection , this book discusses impacts of shore¬ 
line development, sewage treatment, water diversion, and dredg¬ 
ing on the estuary. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in its 
community profile series, sponsored the completion of a profile 
of tidal marshes in San Francisco in 1983 (Josselyn, 1983) and 
has now contracted for profiles on freshwater tidal marshes and 
the soft-bottom benthos. 
The most recent addition to this list of scientific litera¬ 
ture is the book edited by Cloern and Nichols (1985). The pur¬ 
pose of the volume is "to examine the temporal dynamics of [estu¬ 
arine] properties and processes in the San Francisco Bay es¬ 
tuary", in which "temporal" is defined as time scales from tidal 
to interannual. It provides updated information from the U.S. 
Geological Survey work as well as research sponsored by the U.S. 
Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Fish and Game, 
and California Water Resources Center. In the volume, both the 
individual authors and the editors comment on the areas needing 
further research. 
Areas of Recommended Research Effort 
As I prepared for this presentation, I contacted a number of 
individuals who have or are currently involved in research on 
San Francisco Bay. Most agreed that the work mentioned above 
has provided a sound framework for more detailed scientific 
efforts. It is apparent from the efforts of the U.S. Geological 
Survey and the Four Agencies Ecological Study Program (a group 
comprised of the Department of Fish and Game, Department of 
Water Resources, State Water Quality Control Board and the 
Bureau of Reclamation) that large scale coordinated programs 
have yielded significant data linking physical, chemical, and 
biological processes. At the same time, individual research on 
specific groups or hydrologic cycles has also yielded important 
new information on the estuary. Both levels of effort are 
needed. Table 3 indicates some of the major research needs as 
summarized by Cloern and Nichols (1985) with some additions as 
suggested by my colleagues. 
Research of itself has led to major breakthroughs in our 
understanding of estuarine processes. At the same time, the 
urbanized nature of San Francisco Bay estuary requires that we 
use this research to solve immediate management needs. The next 
17 
