Factors Affecting Water Quality
Factors Affecting Water Quality
As the States implement practices to reduce nutrient and sediment to improve water quality, they want to understand the success of their efforts. The USGS conducts studies on the relation among land change, management practices, and changes in nutrients and sediment. The findings are used to help assess progress toward the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) water-quality goal and make needed adjustments
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Phosphorus in the Susquehanna River may be tied to legacy sediment and changing pH
The Susquehanna River is the predominant source of freshwater and nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay.
Geospatial Analyses and Applications Core Technology Team
About the Research The Geospatial Analyses and Applications Core Technology Team (CTT) as part of the Environmental Health Program collaborates with teams across USGS to develop and apply geospatial analytical methods to answer broad-scale questions about source-sink and cause-effect relationships between contaminants and vulnerable communities.
USGS Publications Summarize Water-Quality Trends and Drivers in Urban Streams After 10 Years of Monitoring in Fairfax County, Virginia
Issue : Degraded water quality and ecology in urban streams has been widely documented, but explanations of changing conditions over time are often unavailable. A 15-year collaborative urban stream monitoring effort between the Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is ongoing and has begun to shed light on this complex issue. In a new USGS report by...
Floodplains provide millions of dollars in benefits every year to people in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Issue: Floodplains provide important services to people by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters, thereby improving water quality and reducing flooding impacts. Having information on how the monetary benefit that floodplains provide varies across the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds helps resource managers describe the benefits that floodplains provide in their current state...
Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
USGS provides monitoring, analysis, modeling and research on streams and water quality to better understand the fate and transport of nutrients and sediment to the Susquehanna and other rivers, and their tributaries, and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. Additional research focuses on emerging contaminants and other stressors that effect human and aquatic life in the watershed and estuary.
New study evaluates effects of agricultural conservation practices on nitrogen in streams of the Chesapeake Bay
Issue: Adaptive management in support of Chesapeake Bay restoration is complicated by uncertainty about the effects of agricultural management practices on water quality. Despite increasing investment, effects of agricultural conservation practices on regional water quality remain difficult to quantify due to factors such as groundwater travel times, varying modes-of-action, and the general lack...
Observed monitoring data and predictive modelling help understand ongoing and future vulnerability of Chesapeake Bay watershed stream fish communities to climate and land-use change
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) is experiencing effects of climate (warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns) and land-use/land-cover (LULC; transition from forest or agriculture to developed lands) change, and these trends are likely to continue under future scenarios of warming and population growth. Stream biodiversity may be vulnerable to ongoing and future climate...
Communicating stream fish vulnerability to climate change
We will develop a vulnerability assessment R Shiny web application and present to stakeholders. The stakeholder feedback will be summarized into a one page ‘lessons learned’ document that will assist researchers in designing effective climate change visualizations and an R markdown ‘quick start’ guide on R Shiny applications.
Improving Understanding and Coordination of Science Activities for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Issue: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries in the United States since the 1940s. PFAS are ubiquitous and persistent in the environment and have the potential to have adverse human and ecological health effects. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnerships has concerns about how PFAS will affect the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The CBP...
Sediment Response of Stream Restoration Practices, Turtle Creek, Union County, Pennsylvania
USGS is providing data and analyses to assess stream restoration effectiveness in Turtle Creek, Union County, Pennsylvania, by measuring differences in sediment erosion and deposition in restored and eroded stream reaches.
Integrated Assessments of Potential Risks to Aquatic Organisms and Public Water Supply from Wastewater-Derived Chemical Mixtures in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Proper management of contaminants of emerging concern in the Chesapeake Bay region requires scientific efforts to understand the risk posed to aquatic resources from the “cocktail” of multiple contaminants that is often present. This research aims to assess the occurrence, sources, environmental impacts, biological effects, and the human health impacts of toxic contaminants in rivers.
Agricultural best management practices can improve water quality and conditions for fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Issue Partners in the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) are implementing best management practices (BMPs) to prevent nutrient and sediment from entering waterways across the Chesapeake watershed and reduce loads to the Bay. In addition to reducing nutrients, CBP partners want to better understand how BMPs can provide additional benefits for addressing toxic contaminants, such as pesticides, hormones...