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Relationships Between Dissolved Oxygen, Mouth Closures, and Tidal Mixing in the Los Penasquitos Lagoon

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Southern California lagoons are complex environments that require informed management practices. In their natural states, many of these lagoons periodically open and close to the sea. However, watershed alterations and lagoon inlet modifications have reduced their capacity to open and close as they usually do. In response, coastal managers have begun to manage these lagoons to remain open for water quality purposes. However, scientists and managers have recently been reconsidering this one-size-fits-all approach to lagoon management, since managing a lagoon mouth to be continually open can be expensive and may compromise the lagoon's unique biodiversity and ecosystem services. A 2015 Science Transfer project led by the Tijuana River Reserve analyzed existing lagoon mouth literature and long-term monitoring data to provide managers with the information needed to improve the health of Southern California's coastal lagoons.

This technical report is one of two technical pieces that the project team developed and presented to the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project Science Advisory Panel. It summarizes the relationships between dissolved oxygen, mouth closures, and tidal mixing at the Los Penasquitos Lagoon and contains dissolved oxygen heat maps, closure case studies, and time series of water quality parameters by year.