@article{1b7f25d500d947d6be9d20ad0aa136ce,
title = "Restoration flows for the Colorado River estuary, M{\'e}xico: Estimates from oxygen isotopes in the bivalve mollusk Mulinia coloradoensis (Mactridae: Bivalvia)",
abstract = "Because of competing demands for freshwater, restoration of estuaries requires estimates of inflows to sustain key species. In this study we estimated the pre-dam salinities of the Colorado River estuary by using oxygen isotopes in subfossil shells of the bivalve mollusk Mulinia coloradoensis. Since the construction of upstream dams and water diversions, average salinity in the estuary has increased to 38 practical salinity units (psu) and the population of M. coloradoensis has decreased by ~90%. In the pre-dam estuary, specimens grew when salinity ranged from 22 to 33 psu at the mouth of the river while populations 40 km distant grew at salinities from 30 to 38 psu. The river flow needed to reduce salinities at the mouth of the river to those recorded in the most distant localities (40 km from river's mouth) ranges from 120 to 290 m 3 s -1. If these flows were sustained for a year, they would total 7-16 % of the river's annual average historical flow (~1.8 × 10 10 m 3).",
keywords = "Bivalves, Colorado River, Gulf of California, Mollusks, Restoration, Stable isotopes",
author = "Cintra-Buenrostro, {Carlos E.} and Flessa, {Karl W.} and Dettman, {David L.}",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgments We thank Environmental Defense, NSF, and CONACyT for financial support. We also thank J. Campoy-Favela director of the Reserva de la Bi{\'o}sfera Alto Golfo de California y Delta del R{\'i}o Colorado for assistance in our research, R. Soberanes for transportation to the study sites, G. E. Avila-Serrano, P. Liebig, K. Rowell, T. A. Taylor, M. A. T{\'e}llez-Duarte, and former students from Centro de Estudios de Almejas Muertas (CEAM) and Universidad Aut{\'o}noma de Baja California, Ensenada for field assistance, D. Winter (UC Davis) and N. English for laboratory assistance. We also thank M. Ducea for lending us laboratory equipment. Data from samples analyzed by C. Rodriguez, L. F. Barra-Pantoja, K. Rowell and T. A. Taylor were used as part of this study. The present manuscript benefited from the comments of two anonymous reviewers, R. Brusca, A. Cohen and M. A. T{\'e}llez-Duarte. CCB dedicates this paper to the memory of his beloved friend A. Mestre Marechan (1974–2002). This is CEAM publication # 75 (http://www/geo.arizona.edu/ceam). Copyright: Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2012",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1007/s11273-012-9255-5",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "20",
pages = "313--327",
journal = "Wetlands Ecology and Management",
issn = "0923-4861",
publisher = "Springer Netherlands",
number = "4",
}