Fish, Streams, and Water Quality
Fish, Streams, and Water Quality
Enhanced Understanding of Factors Affecting Stream Condition Can Improve Restoration Outcomes
The Chesapeake Bay watershed supports important recreational and commercial fisheries, but many are declining due to poor water quality, loss of quality habitat and increased invasive species. The USGS science activities are improving the understanding of how restoration and conservation efforts, along with land-use and climate change, are affecting conditions for fish, wildlife, and people.
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Refined Model Provides a Screening Tool to Understand Exposure to Contaminants from Incidental Wastewater Reuse
Refinement of the existing national-scale “de facto reuse incidence in our nation’s consumable supply” (DRINCS) model, complemented by field measurements, provides a screening tool to understand human and wildlife exposure to toxicants and pathogens associated with the incidental reuse of treated wastewater in the Shenandoah River watershed. The model results can be accessed in a companion web...
New Insights on using Green Stormwater Infrastructure to Reduce Suburban Runoff
The Issue with Runoff Across the United States, suburban development is replacing agricultural and forested lands. In urban and suburban areas, large amounts of stormwater runoff are generated from rooftops and roadways during rain events. Runoff is quickly piped to streams and rivers, leading to flash flooding, stream bank erosion, and damages to stream health. Reducing nutrients, sediment, and...
Record Freshwater Flow in Water Year 2019 Affects Conditions in the Chesapeake Bay
The U.S Geological Survey (USGS) reports that freshwater flow into the Chesapeake Bay during water year (WY) 2019 was the highest flow on record (fig. 1). The record freshwater flow washes more pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay and affects dissolved oxygen and habitat conditions for oysters, crabs, and finfish. The 2019 water year is the period from October 1, 2018, through September 30, 2019...
Improving Our Understanding and Helping with Water Quality Improvements
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.
“Who Done it”? Environmental DNA (eDNA) for Determining Fecal Contamination Source
By Kay Briggs and Vivian Nolan
Monitoring and Modeling the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay Program video on Monitoring and Modeling the Chesapeake Bay
Freshwater Flow into Chesapeake Bay
Explore resources here describing estimates of freshwater flow entering Chesapeake Bay. The health of the Chesapeake Bay is greatly affected by freshwater flow from rivers draining its watershed. The amount of freshwater flow (also called streamflow) will: - Change salinity levels in the Bay, which affect oysters, crabs, and finfish. - Influence the amounts of nutrients, sediment, and contaminants...