Berkley assistant professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Iryna Dronova, is part of a research team that was awarded a major grant from California's Delta Stewardship. Under the Delta Science Program - an initiative that funds scientific research relevant to managing the Bay-Delta region of California - the 2019 Delta Science Competitive Research Awards provided $9.6 million in funding for 15 research projects in total.

The team also includes Dr. Patty Oikawa of CSU East Bay and Sara Knox from the University of British Colombia. Their proposal, entitled "Tidal Wetland Restoration in the Bay-Delta Region: Developing Tools to Measure Carbon Sequestration, Subsidence Reversal, and Climate Resilience 2021," considers the importance of tidal marshes in the Bay Area.

According to the research team, tidal marshes not only remove carbon from the atmosphere, but they also build up soils that buffer communities from sea level rise, balance out excessive nutrients, and provide a habitat to many different species. However, it is difficult to predict how tidal marshes change naturally over time versus in response to climate change, restoration and water quality.

Their project will provide a multi-year dataset of the complete carbon budget of a tidal marsh. The model will examine the sustainability of existing and potential restored tidal wetland benefits using remote sensing data. The dataset is intended to be an open-source tool designed for use by wetland managers in the Bay-Delta region.

To read the project proposal, click HERE.