Studies conducted in Texas estuaries over the past twenty years have led to an approach to study freshwater inflows and creating inflow standards. This DST uses the Domino Theory (Palmer et al. 2011, Montagna et al. 2013b), which asserts that freshwater inflows indirectly affect estuarine resources. This is illustrated below:
The Domino Theory approach first identifies estuarine indicator species of interest. It then links those species of interest to estuarine conditions, and then that estuarine condition to the corresponding range of freshwater inflows. Highlighted case studies conducted on Texas’ coast have used the Domino Theory technique.