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.
USGS Scientists Receive EPA Gold Medal for Chesapeake Science Efforts
Several U.S. Geological Survey scientists have been chosen to receive a 2018 National U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Gold Medal for their outstanding efforts as members of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load Midpoint Assessment team.
Find out moreUSGS data is foundation for new dissolved oxygen forecast
Large summer ‘dead zone’ forecast for Chesapeake Bay after wet winter and spring. Managing estuarine responses to changing conditions on the landscape continues to be one of the nation’s environmental challenges.
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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.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Science Fact Sheet
Chesapeake Bay Activities Bibliography
Estimated River Flow Entering Chesapeake Bay
Science Features and Summaries
News
USGS data is foundation for new dissolved oxygen forecast
USGS data is the foundation for the new dissolved oxygen forecast. A large summer ‘dead zone’ is forecast for the Chesapeake Bay after a wet winter and spring.
USGS Scientists Receive EPA Gold Medal for Chesapeake Science Efforts
Several U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists have been chosen to receive a 2018 National U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Gold Medal for their outstanding efforts as members of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Midpoint Assessment team.
Hampton Roads wastewater-to-aquifer recharge project showing results
Bay Journal — by Sarah Vogelsong — May 8, 2019
Publications
Toward explaining nitrogen and phosphorus trends in Chesapeake Bay tributaries, 1992-2012
Understanding trends in stream chemistry is critical to watershed management, and often complicated by multiple contaminant sources and landscape conditions changing over varying time scales. We adapted spatially-referenced regression (SPARROW) to infer causes of recent nutrient trends in Chesapeake Bay tributaries by relating observed fluxes...
Ator, Scott; Garcia, Ana; Schwarz, Gregory; Blomquist, Joel; Sekellick, Andrew
Drinking water health standards comparison and chemical analysis of groundwater for 72 domestic wells in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 2016
Pennsylvania has the second highest number of residential wells of any state in the Nation with approximately 2.4 million residents that depend on groundwater for their domestic water supply. Despite the widespread reliance on groundwater in rural areas of the state, publicly available data to characterize the quality of private well water are...
Clune, John W.; Cravotta, Charles A.
Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Best Management Practice Implementation in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, 1985–2014
Efforts to restore water quality in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries often include extensive Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation on agricultural and developed lands. These BMPs include a variety of methods to reduce nutrient and sediment loads, such as cover crops, conservation tillage, urban filtering systems, and other practices....
Sekellick, Andrew J.; Devereux, Olivia H.; Keisman, Jennifer L.D.; Sweeney, Jeffrey S.; Blomquist, Joel D.