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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USGS leads STAC report on Land Management Effects on Water-Quality Status and Trends
The Chesapeake Bay is a degraded eutrophic ecosystem with periodic hypoxia and anoxia, algal blooms, diminished submerged aquatic vegetation, and depleted stocks of finfish, crabs, and oysters (Kemp et al. 2005). Since 1983, the seven jurisdictions within the Chesapeake Bay watershed (Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) have worked...
USGS works with USDA and State Jurisdictions to Enhance Reporting of Agricultural Conservation Practices that Reduce Loss of Nutrients and Sediment in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is working to enhance reporting of agricultural conservation practices being implemented to reduce the loss of nutrients and sediment from the watershed to Chesapeake Bay. Each year, the six State jurisdictions within the Chesapeake Bay watershed are required to report progress in conservation implementation to the CBP partnership at its Annual Progress Review so...
Water-Quality Improvements Resulting from Suburban Stormwater Management Practices in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Overview of Stormwater Practices to Improve Water Quality in Chesapeake Bay As the largest and most productive estuary in North America, Chesapeake Bay is a vital ecological and economic resource. In recent decades, however, the bay and its tributaries have been degraded by excessive inputs of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment from contributing watersheds, and in 1998, the bay was...
Flux of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Suspended Sediment from the Susquehanna River Basin to the Chesapeake Bay During Tropical Storm Lee, September 2011, as in Indicator of the Effects of Reservoir Sedimentation on Water Quality
Concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment are measured at the U.S. Geological Survey streamgage at Conowingo Dam at the downstream end of the Susquehanna River Basin in Maryland, where the river flows into the Chesapeake Bay. During the period September 7–15, 2011, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee, concentrations of these three constituents were among the highest ever...
USGS summarizes information about the Chesapeake Bay and implications for ecosystem management (USGS Circular 1316)
The USGS released the Circular 1316: “Synthesis of U.S. Geological Survey Science for the Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem and Implications for Environmental Management”