Nutrient, Sediment, and Flow

Issue: The amount of nutrients and suspended sediment entering the Chesapeake Bay affect water-quality conditions in tidal waters. Excess nutrients contribute to algal blooms that lower the oxygen levels in tidal waters that are important for fish and shellfish. The algal blooms, along with suspended sediment, also decrease visibility in shallow waters for submerged aquatic grasses. The grasses...

Issue: Atmospheric deposition is one of the principal sources of nitrogen to the Chesapeake watershed with implications for patterns of nutrient loading, anoxia, and eutrophication in the Bay.

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is pursuing restoration efforts to improve habitats and associated water quality for fisheries, both in the watershed and estuary. Excess sediment decreases light in tidal waters for submerged aquatic vegetation, harms oysters, carries contaminants, and impairs stream health throughout the watershed. The CBP is implementing management actions and policies...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has developed the nontidal network mapper to share the short-term (2009-2018) water-year nutrient and suspended-sediment load and trend results for the Chesapeake Bay Program’s (CBP) non-tidal network (NTN). The network is a cooperative effort by USGS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and agencies in the states of the Chesapeake watershed and the...

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) nontidal network (NTN) consists of more than 100 stations throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Monitoring of nutrients, sediment, and flow is conducted to provide estimates of loads and trends in the watershed. The CBP uses the results to focus restoration strategies and track progress towards meeting nutrients and suspended-sediment reduction goals.

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...

Chesapeake Bay Program video on Sediment

Chesapeake Bay Program video on Monitoring and Modeling the 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...

Estuarine processes, hazards, and ecosystems describes several interdisciplinary projects that aim to quantify and understand estuarine processes through observations and numerical modeling. Both the spatial and temporal scales of these mechanisms are important, and therefore require modern instrumentation and state-of-the-art hydrodynamic models. These projects are led from the U.S. Geological...

Issue: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides cost-share funding and technical assistance to support the implementation of agricultural conservation practices on farms throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Farmer participation in USDA conservation programs is voluntary and the implementation data are privacy protected.

Prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and Chesapeake Bay Program, Updated September 17, 2018.