Chesapeake Bay Activities Newsletter October-December 2021

Time marches on, but do factors driving instream habitat and biology remain consistent?

Issue: Stream ecosystems are affected by a complex set of interacting terrestrial and aquatic stressors. With many streams experiencing degraded conditions that often correspond with increased anthropogenic activities, an important outcome of the Chesapeake Bay Program is to improve stream health. The USGS is conducting research to better understand the complex factors affecting stream health, including efforts to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of the various landscape, climate, and in-stream predictors on biological condition through time.

Greatest Opportunities for Future Nitrogen Reductions to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed are in Developed and Agricultural Areas

Issue: As human population has increased, land-use changes have led to increases in nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment into the Bay. The excess nutrients cause algal blooms which contribute to water-quality impairments such as low oxygen or hypoxia (dead zones), and poor water clarity in the Chesapeake Bay. Management efforts to improve water quality focus on dissolved oxygen needed for fisheries, and water clarity needed for submerged aquatic grasses, which add oxygen into the Bay, provide habitat for fish, and food for waterfowl. Recreational and commercial fisheries in the Bay and its watershed are valued at more than $20 billion annually.

USGS Conducts Assessment to Inform Black Duck Habitat Decisions

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay is along the Atlantic Flyway and has over 1 million migratory birds winter each year. Black ducks are one of 30 species that depends on habitats along Chesapeake Bay for their annual migration. Managing the black duck population at time when land use and sea-level rise pose a recognized peril to this species and their habitats require a strategic approach.

The Chesapeake Bay Program recognized Black Duck could be used as an indicator species for migratory watershed included this outcome in the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement “By 2025, restore, enhance, and preserve wetland habitats that support a wintering population of 100,000 black ducks, a species representative of the health of tidal marshes across the watershed.”

Summarizing Scientific Findings for Common Stakeholder Questions to Inform Nutrient and Sediment Management Activities in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership is striving to improve water-quality conditions in the Bay by using a variety of management strategies to reduce nutrient and sediment loads. The partnership uses monitoring results and modeling tools to implement management strategies, relying on the scientific community to synthesize existing information and direct new research to address priority questions about water-quality loads and trends.