Mariska Obedzinski

California Sea Grant Extension Specialist

Phone: (415) 497-3694
Email: mobedzinski@ucsd.edu

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Affiliation

University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Mariska Obedzinski and her team conduct monitoring and research to support salmon and steelhead recovery in coastal California. Her work aims to identify bottlenecks to salmonid survival and help evaluate recovery actions, with a focus on understanding the effects of shifting flow regimes on multiple life stages of fish.

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Based in Sonoma County, Mariska Obedzinski (pronounced Marishka Obuhzinski) is a California Sea Grant Extension Specialist focused on recovering imperiled, keystone salmonids in coastal California. For over 15 years, Obedzinski has coordinated the Russian River Salmon and Steelhead Monitoring Program, a long-term monitoring program designed to support species recovery efforts by collecting biological and environmental data and providing synthesized outcomes and recommendations to stakeholders working to restore threatened and endangered salmonid populations. Her team develops innovative ways of collecting and sharing data while engaging in robust collaborative partnerships to translate science into effective actions, while also providing training to the next generation of conservation scientists.

 

Expertise
  • Salmonid ecology
  • Conservation biology
  • PIT tag technology
  • Fish/flow relationships
 
Research

Obedzinski and her team's research and monitoring is focused on identifying bottlenecks to salmonid survival and evaluating recovery actions, including conservation hatchery releases, flow augmentations, and habitat enhancement efforts. Recently, much of their work has focused on understanding the effects of changing flow regimes on the survival, life history, and spatial distribution of imperiled salmon populations. Her group links academia with salmon recovery efforts through partnerships with graduate students, resource management agencies, and non-profit organizations. This research is made possible through the support of thousands of private landowners throughout the watershed.

 

Extension and Outreach

Obedzinski and her team provide science-based information to those involved with salmonid recovery in coastal California and beyond, as well as to the general public. By serving on technical committees, developing interactive web-based mapping tools, providing presentations, and hosting social media sites, Obedzinski and her team provide up-to-date data to streamside residents, graduate students, resource management agencies, non-profit organizations, and others throughout the watershed community.

 

Featured Outreach Products

 

Publications

Kastyl, B., M. Obedzinski, S.M. Carlson, W.T. Boucher, and T.E. Grantham. 2022. Migration in drought: Receding streams contract the seaward migration window of endangered salmon. Ecosphere. In press

Moidu, H., M. Obedzinski, S. M. Carlson, and T. E. Grantham. 2021. Spatial Patterns and Sensitivity of Intermittent Stream Drying to Climate Variability. Water Resources Research 57(11).

Vander Vorste, R., M. Obedzinski, S. Nossaman Pierce, S.M. Carlson, and T.E. Grantham. 2020. Refuges and ecological traps: Extreme drought threatens persistence of an endangered fish in intermittent streams. Global Change Biology 26:3834-3845.

Obedzinski, M., S.N. Pierce, G.E. Horton, and M.J. Deitch. 2018. Effects of flow-related variables on oversummer survival of juvenile coho salmon in intermittent streams. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 147:588-605.

Deitch, M.J., M.V. Docto, M. Obedzinski, S. Nossaman, and A. Bartshire. 2018. Impact of multi-annual drought on streamflow and habitat in coastal California salmonid streams, Hydrological Sciences Journal 63 (8): 1219-1235.

 

Videos

Focus Area
Healthy Coastal Ecosystems, Resilient Coastal Communities and Economies