(888) 224-1221
LocationsPresident, Principal Scientist, Adjunct Professor (UCSC)
B.S. Environmental and Systematic Biology; M.S. Biological Conservation; Ph.D. Conservation Ecology
Phone: (916) 250-2344
West Sacramento, California
GENIDAQS
WHO WE ARE
Joseph E. Merz, Ph.D.
Joe has more than 26 years of experience working for state, city, university, and public entities as a fisheries ecologist and performing studies and monitoring fish populations to protect and enhance their habitat. He has completed numerous assessments of habitat manipulation on aquatic resources, including habitat enhancement, flow manipulation, invasive species removal, and regulation implementation, particularly for Chinook salmon and steelhead. Joe has extensive experience with habitat typing and delineation with the use of GIS and aerial maps, has designed multi-million dollar projects to restore river channels and floodplains, and has trained numerous professionals in these techniques.
Selected Publications
Sturrock, A. M., S. M. Carlson, J. D. Wikert, T. Heyne, S. Nusslé, J. Merz, H. Sturrock, R. C. Johnson. 2019. Un-natural selection of salmon life histories in a modified riverscape. Global Change Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14896
Harrison, L. R., E. Bray, B. Overstreet, C. J. Legleiter, R. A. Brown, J. E. Merz, R. M. Bond, C. L. Nicol, and T. Dunne. 2019. Physical controls on salmon redd site selection in restored reaches of a regulated, gravel-bed river. Water Resources Research 55. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024428.
Anderson, J. T., G. Schumer, P. J. Anders, K. Horvath, and J. E. Merz. 2018. Confirmed observation: a North American green sturgeon Acipenser medirostris recorded in the Stanislaus River, California. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 9(2):624-630.
Merz, J. E., L. Caldwell, M. Beakes, C. Hammersmark, and K. Sellheim. 2018. Balancing competing life stage requirements in salmon habitat rehabilitation: between a rock and a hard place. Restoration Ecology. Early View only. DOI: 10.1111/rec.12900.
Gundersen, D. T., S. C. Zeug, R. B. Bringolf, J. E. Merz, Z. Jackson, and M. A. H. Webb. 2017. Tissue contaminant burdens in San Francisco estuary white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus): implication for population recovery. Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 73(2):334-347.
Sellheim, K., M. Willmes, J. A. Hobbs, J. J. G. Glessner, Z. J. Jackson, and J. E. Merz. 2017. Validating fin ray microchemistry as a tool to reconstruct the migratory history of white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 146(5):844–857.
Merz, J. E., D. G. Delaney, J. D. Setka, and M. L. Workman. 2016. Seasonal rearing habitat in a large Mediterranean-climate river: management implications at the southern extent of pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). River Research and Applications 32(6):1220-1231.
Merz, J. E., P. S. Bergman, J. L. Simonis, D. Delaney, J. Pierson, and P. Anders. 2016. Long-term seasonal trends in the prey community of delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California. Estuaries and Coasts 39(5):1526-1536.
Sabal, M., S. Hayes, J. Merz, and J Setka. 2016. Habitat alterations and a nonnative predator, the striped bass, increase native Chinook salmon mortality in the Central Valley, California. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 36(2):309-320.
Sellheim, K. L., M. Vaghti, and J. E. Merz. 2016. Vegetation recruitment in an enhanced floodplain: Ancillary benefits of salmonid habitat enhancement. Limnologica 58:94-102.
Sellheim, K., C. Watry, B. Rook, S. Zeug, J. Hannon, J. Zimmerman, K. Dove, and J. Merz. 2015. Juvenile salmonid utilization of floodplain rearing habitat after gravel augmentation in a regulated river. River Research and Applications 32(4):610-621.
Anderson, I. J., M. K. Saiki, K. Sellheim, and J. E. Merz. 2014. Effect of Didymoshenia geminata blooms on benthic macroinvertebrates in the Lower American River California. Southwestern Association of Naturalists 59(3):389-395.
Merz, J., T. M. Garrison, P. S. Bergman, S. Blankenship, and J. C. Garza. 2014. Morphological discrimination of genetically distinct Chinook salmon populations: an example from California’s Central Valley. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 34(6):1259-1269.
Merz, J. E., P. S. Bergman, J. F. Melgo, and S. Hamilton. 2013. Longfin smelt: spatial dynamics and ontogeny in the San Francisco Estuary, California. California Fish and Game 99(3):122-148.