Chesapeake Bay Activities
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The Chesapeake Bay is our Nation’s largest estuary and provides over $100 billion in annual economic value. The USGS works with Federal, State, local, and academic partners to provide research and monitoring and to communicate results to inform management for the Chesapeake and other important landscapes across the Nation. See our Science page to learn about our themes and topics being addressed.
Future Nitrogen Reductions to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
As human population has increased, land-use changes have led to increases in nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment into the Bay.
Find out moreUSGS Conducts Assessment to Inform Black Duck Habitat Decisions
Black ducks are one of 30 species that depends on habitats along Chesapeake Bay for their annual migration.
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Learn more about USGS science activities in the Bay from our Science Strategy. Additional summaries of the USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities are available in the science topics section.
Science Summaries, Features, and Videos
News
Chesapeake Bay Activities Newsletter July-September 2021
The USGS provides research and monitoring to better understand and restore the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Our technical reports and journal articles, which we translate into science summaries, provide the findings used by federal, state, and local decisionmakers to inform restoration and conservation decisions. Here are some recent highlights.
USGS Responding to High Water Caused By Ida Across Multiple States
To learn more about USGS’s role in providing science to decision-makers before, during and after Hurricane Ida, visit www.usgs.gov/ida.
For information on what the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are doing, visit: https://www.fema.gov/hurricane-ida.
For more on what the U.S. Government is Doing, visit: https://www.usa.gov/hurricane-ida or https://gobierno.usa.gov/huracan-ida for Spanish.
Chesapeake Bay Activities Newsletter May-June 2021
The USGS provides research and monitoring to better understand and restore the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Our technical reports and journal articles, which we translate into science summaries, provide the findings used by federal, state, and local decisionmakers to inform restoration and conservation decisions. Here are some recent highlights.
Publications
Nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay watershed—A century of change, 1950–2050
ForewordSustaining the quality of the Nation’s water resources and the health of our diverse ecosystems depends on the availability of sound water-resources data and information to develop effective, science-based policies. Effective management of water resources also brings more certainty and efficiency to important economic sectors. Taken...
Clune, John W.; Capel, Paul D.; Miller, Matthew P.; Burns, Douglas A.; Sekellick, Andrew J.; Claggett, Peter R.; Coupe, Richard H.; Fanelli, Rosemary M.; Garcia, Ana Maria; Raffensperger, Jeff P.; Terziotti, Silvia; Bhatt, Gopal; Blomquist, Joel D.; Hopkins, Kristina G.; Keisman, Jennifer L.; Linker, Lewis C.; Shenk, Gary W.; Smith, Richard A.; Soroka, Alexander M.; Webber, James S.; Wolock, David M.; Zhang, Qian
The Chesapeake Bay program modeling system: Overview and recommendations for future development
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest, most productive, and most biologically diverse estuary in the continental United States providing crucial habitat and natural resources for culturally and economically important species. Pressures from human population growth and associated development and agricultural intensification have led to excessive...
Hood, Raleigh; Shenk, Gary W.; Dixon, Rachel L; Smith, Sean M. C.; Ball, William P.; Bash, Jesse; Batiuk, R.; Boomer, Kathy; Brady, Damian C; Cerco, Carl; Claggett, Peter R.; de Mutsert, Kim; Easton, Zachary M.; Elmore, Andrew J; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M.; Harris, Lora A.; Ihde, Thomas F.; Lacher, Iara; Li, Li; Linker, Lewis C.; Miller, Andrew; Moriarty, Julia; Noe, Gregory B.; Onyullo, George; Rose, Kenneth A; Skalak, Katherine; Tian, Richard; Veith, Tamie L; Wainger, Lisa A.; Weller, Donald E.; Zhang, Yinglong J.
USGS Chesapeake Science Strategy 2021-2025
The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is a national treasure that provides almost $100 billion annually of goods and services. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), is one of the largest federal-state restoration partnerships in the United States and is underpinned by rigorous science. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has a pivotal role as a science provider...
Hyer, Kenneth E.; Phillips, Scott W.