Publications

Stream ecosystems face continuous pressures from multiple anthropogenic stressors that reshape biological communities and impact ecosystem health and services. Managers can encounter challenges in stewarding ecosystems threatened by multiple stressors, in part because most multiple stressor studies are experimental and, while valuable, offer limited management relevance in targeting...

Objective Many species are intentionally introduced beyond their native range to provide benefits to humans (e.g., food, recreation, or biocontrol). However, introduced species can become invasive and can harm native species, prompting resource managers to explore options to simultaneously conserve native biota and enhance fishing opportunities. Management of Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish...

Reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads have been the focus of watershed restoration in many regions for improving water quality, including the Chesapeake Bay. Watershed models and riverine monitoring data can provide important information on the progress of load reductions but do not always generate consistent interpretations. A new framework for integrated visualization...

Double-crested Cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) have historically exhibited low levels of infection and antibodies to avian influenza virus (AIV). The recent global expansion of clade 2.3.4.4b A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza virus H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) has resulted in large-scale mortalities across diverse waterbird taxa including cormorants. We sampled 32 and...

Over the past few decades, Ictalurus furcatus (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1840; blue catfish) have become a formidable invasive species in tidal tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Delaware. Knowledge of their reproductive behaviors can support managers in the determination of ideal timing and implementation of mitigation strategies. In 2020–22, the U.S...

In 2021, we initiated fieldwork to assess the relative importance of a staging area for Sterna hirundo (Common Tern) at a pier at the confluence of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay, MD. During the post-breeding periods of 2021 through 2023, we resighted 378 banded Common Terns at this staging area, with individuals originating from 6 breeding colonies. Most banded individuals were...

Degraded physical habitat is a common stressor affecting river ecosystems and typically addressed in the United States (US) through a regulatory focus on sediment. However, a narrow regulatory focus on sediment may overlook other aspects of physical habitat and the processes for its creation, maintenance, and degradation. In addition, there exist few “ready-to-use” regional assessments...

The Chesapeake Bay Program’s (CBP) Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) organized and led a workshop on the science and practice of stream restoration in order to summarize the state of knowledge in order to identify ways to improve stream restoration outcomes. The workshop identified a general framework for explaining the main factors leading to stream restoration outcomes...

The Lower Chesapeake Bay (LCB) Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Common Experiment (CE) located in Beltsville, MD, focuses on research of concern to producers of the major regional crops, which are corn (Zea mays L.), soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and various forage species. Livestock production in the region includes broiler and laying chickens...

Elevated conductivity (i.e., specific conductance or SC) causes osmotic stress in freshwater aquatic organisms and may increase the toxicity of some contaminants. Indices of benthic macroinvertebrate integrity have declined in urban areas across the Chesapeake Bay watershed (CBW), and more information is needed about whether these declines may be due to elevated conductivity. A...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have become an environmental issue worldwide. A first step to assessing potential adverse effects on fish populations is to determine if concentrations of concern are present in a region and if so, in which watersheds. Hence, plasma from adult smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu collected at 10 sites within 4 river systems in the mid-Atlantic...

Detrital zircon data from modern barrier island and estuarine environments in the Outer Banks (Atlantic Coast, USA) were statistically compared to sands from nearby rivers to assist in determining source-to-sink pathways. Fluvial samples, collected from near the Fall Line contact between the Appalachian Orogen and sediments of the coastal plain, all have age unique distributions, making...