Images

This map displays the average 10-year trends and per acre loads, also known as yields, of total nitrogen across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed from 2014 to 2023. 

This map displays the average 10-year trends and per acre loads, also known as yields, of nitrate + nitrite across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed from 2014 to 2023. 

This map displays the average 10-year trends and per acre loads, also known as yields, of total phosphorus across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed from 2014 to 2023. 

This map displays the average 10-year trends and per acre loads, also known as yields, of orthophosphate across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed from 2014 to 2023. 

View of the Susquehanna River, the longest river on the east coast of the United States.

(a) Predicted median annual specific conductance (SC) for all modeled stream reaches in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW) for the 2014–2016 time period. (b) SC departure classes for the 2014–2016 time period. (c) Percent of the modeled CBW area in each of the departure classes over the four time periods.

The USGS and local partners hosted a meeting at the War Branch monitoring station to share water-quality and conservation work happening in the watershed with farmers, environmental and agricultural agencies, nonprofit groups, and local universities.

USGS scientists Jimmy Webber and Dan Burns explain how water quality equipment is used to take measurements at War Branch and other monitoring stations.

Community partners tour the bioreactor at War Branch. 

The War Branch bioreactor was installed below a natural spring in the War Branch watershed. The USGS had previously measured elevated nitrate concentrations from this spring. 

The War Branch bioreactor was installed below a natural spring in the War Branch watershed. The USGS had previously measured elevated nitrate concentrations from this spring. 

Community partners tour the bioreactor at War Branch. 

The War Branch bioreactor was installed below a natural spring in the War Branch watershed. The USGS had previously measured elevated nitrate concentrations from this spring. 

A Hawaiian Volcano Observatory gas scientist works to install a newly calibrated Multi-Gas instrument at the Sulfur Cone site. At an elevation of 3,430 meters (11,240 feet) above sea level, the air is rare! Working conditions are far more strenuous for HVO field teams at these high elevations due to the much lower levels of oxygen in the air to breathe.

War Branch is an 11 square mile watershed in Rockingham County, Virginia with mostly poultry and beef agricultural activities. 

Sams Creek is an 11 square mile watershed which sits in both Frederick and Carrol counties in Maryland.   This watershed as a mixture of cattle and cropping practices.  

The purple dot on the map represents the location of the future Sams Creek monitoring site.

Locations of the current monitoring sites that are a part of the Chesapeake Bay Small Agricultural Watershed Monitoring Program.

Bucks Branch is a 7 square mile watershed in Sussex County, Delaware with mostly poultry and row-crop agricultural activities. 

The green dot on the map represents the location of the Bucks Branch monitoring site. Stream monitoring data from this iste can be viewed here.

Hammer Creek is a 13 square mile watershed in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. It has a mixture of cropland and animal-raising activities. 

Little Conewago Creek is a 5 square mile watershed in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Like Hammer Creek, it has a mixture of animal and crop agricultural activities. 

Conceptual diagram showing how this study assesses stream health, stressors, and landscapes in Chesapeake Bay watershed streams with varied conservation practices and land use.

Map of sampling locations (left) and a graph plotting stream-health expectations across gradients of conservation practices and land use (top right). The map shows locations of streams measured in agricultural and developed landscapes.

U.S. Geological Survey scientist measuring stream habitat